Poets are always drawing parallels (like - what is imagery?) but I think we are also, as a group, very sensitive to parallels of any genre, especially history.

I like the change to 'news/report prose' in the second stanza. Not worthy of poetical effort. And yes, that last line is poetically splendid.

Comment is about Murder mile (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Pithy and powerful.

Comment is about To serve and neglect (blog)

This has some good lines, and many points well made.

Try the fourth from last line without 'Party', and I think you will be delighted.

Comment is about THE SOCIALIST SHIRKERS PARTY (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

I really like 'Gossip' also, Chloe. Well done. The comparisons, one after the other, make a strong statement about this familiar subject.

Comment is about Chloe (poet profile)

Original item by Chloe

I take it mother looked on drink as a sort of Jekyll and Hyde juice, that makes Scoutmasters view their charges from a different prospective, and funnily enough, as a result of our evolvement to a more tolerant society is now un-shockingly taken for granted as part of their remit.

Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Chloe (my grandmother's name, and I love it), this piece is interesting - but it sure has a lot of varied metaphors. Would you consider one or two only? Sometimes brevity to express a strong idea is very effective.

Or was this effusion of comparison deliberate?

Comment is about Untitled (blog)

Original item by Chloe

Hi Harry

Thanks for your comment. I forgot to explain that the soldiers original distress from being badly wounded, was cruelly compounded with three hours of Victor Sylvester and his strict tempo dance recordings. And I might add the sweaty bodies jumping about to them on a candle-waxed dance floor, in times of great shortage, deodorants
being one, didn't help.

Comment is about Harry O`N eill (poet profile)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Very humorous - even if the subject is serious - sort of -. Is the format deliberately - scattered?

Comment is about GO TO CASKET (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Ha ha - very funny.

Comment is about TITLE. (blog)

Thank you, Mr Pool. It is always very special to have a poem acknowledged. I will try to follow up with a look at your work as well.

David Moore is very good, isn't he? A bit like a storm- battered ship trying to get fresh bearings, with much to say and a true talent to express it.

Comment is about ray pool (poet profile)

Original item by ray pool

Aided & abetted by feminism and a lack of understanding
of human nature, there is now a concept that domestic
disputes, the old term for marital fall-outs, are somehow
the responsibility of the police and not the participants
and the courts to whom neither party will to go for help
despite proper advice and offers of assistance with the process. It is the most dispiriting experience to spend
much time playing the peacemaker between husband and
wife (partners?) only to be left in little doubt it's a just a
misunderstanding and things will be better (usually the woman's view) and will the police just leave. Grown-up
does not necessarily equate with adult when common
sense so often seems absent in such relationships and
absenting oneself from potential harm seems to equate
to be an admission of personal failure...hardly a way of preventing a further deterioration in a relationship,
with the chance of worse to come. Tragedy is
arguably the result of a lack of self-care and foresight in those who want NOT to believe in what COULD happen.
Sad but often true...with the police picking up the
pieces and undeserved brickbats for perceived "failure".

Comment is about To serve and neglect (blog)

Gregg,

As a socialist, catholic right winger in the innocuous minor Liverpool political scene in the fifties this fascinated me.
It makes a good read on Wiki.

It is a telling comment on the evil that humans do to each other over the course of history.

(that last line is a fine, dry poetic commentary)

Comment is about Murder mile (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I feel far too young to comment! In any event, I was
excused unwanted participation in the Scouts (before
later years in another uniform) when my mother heard the
scoutmaster liked a drink!
:-)

Comment is about As a baby I never felt embarrassed having my nappy changed...But I do now. (blog)

Very vivid and lucid I love it!

Comment is about Intense (blog)

Original item by UInk

Ken,
Just to cheer you up.

Last Saturday in the Legion we heaved our octogenarian limbs on to the deserted dance floor to do a jazzy little kind of a two step, Only for Cyril (90) and Betty (circa 90) to get up an execute a nifty jive (talk about being bested!)

We staggered back to our wheely-zimmer friends trying to look like a pair of sports,but got something from the evening when another couple of circa 90 year olds told us where we could get some reasonable geriatric travel insurance.

No wonder the Pope said that Europe was now `elderly` and haggard`.(mind, he`s no chicken himself!)

Enjoyed your lead soldier, happy Christmas, vicar spying boys brigade boyhood...That must have been a lousy dance if those soldiers would rather go back and fight.

A wartime destroyer-sailor told me that once -when they were bravely leaving the Mersey to face the u boats - the captain broadcast that they would have to return because of engine trouble...He said that they all gave the captain a loud, hearty cheer.

Comment is about As a baby I never felt embarrassed having my nappy changed...But I do now. (blog)

Hi Cynthia. I just read Hurricane and was bowled over by the sheer impact and word wizardry - almost Dhaliesque if I may say! It reminds me of a poem by Ted Hughes about wind - different style but yours makes a great treat of imagery. Ray

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Thanks John. Words of wisdom indeed. Keep looking on the bright side, while we're still top side of the geraniums

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for looking at 'Murder mile', John. Yes, these two nearby events were the first things I came across when we pitched up at our apartment.

Comment is about Murder mile (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Ken - you should delete your 'history' as you go. It will save the embarrassment when you shake a six. "Every six fucking weeks" - too right, soldier. Too right.
I look at the blossom in Spring and the dead leaves in Autumn and think, "how many of these fuckers have I got left to see". It's scarcely worth planting the geraniums!

Comment is about As a baby I never felt embarrassed having my nappy changed...But I do now. (blog)

Cheers Colin. I changed his name, but otherwise it's true. There but for the grace of god, and all that..

Comment is about ILL REPUTE. (blog)

Beautifully written poem, Jane. People such as Alan deserve to be remembered and I found it deeply moving.

xx

Comment is about Alan (Henning) (blog)

Original item by jane wilcock

Let it pour, indeed, Shirley.

Comment is about Memorial Day (blog)

Original item by Shirley Smothers

Portsmouth certainly seems to be a very vibrant place for poetry, Helen. I don't think I'm lined up as a guest poet at Guildford, but Maggie did enlist me to perform at a gig at the Rifle Club in Portsmouth in March. And I certainly hope to look in at Tongues & Grooves at some time in the future.

Comment is about Helen (poet profile)

Original item by Helen

Striking parallel, Greg.

Comment is about Murder mile (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

"Hill" - such a little word for such a big ego.
(He is on the right lines about "accessibility", though; personally, I have always thought it should be banned except in connection with wheelchair ramps and crotchless panties).

Comment is about 'Self-schooled poet' Simon Armitage bids to become Oxford professor of poetry (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

'Boots?'...tee hee.xx

Comment is about Arse over pip (blog)

Thank you for the kind words. Colin, it literally was an early morning wake up poem, wrote it straight onto my phone at 4.30am pretty much how it's presented here. The dream was exactly how it happened in the poem. Lucky, really, like catching a vivid silver fish from the murky depths of sleep

Comment is about A Second Chance (For Terri) (blog)

Original item by Russ Litten

Cynthia 50 shades of water :)

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

CBT indeed - 50 shades of water :)

Comment is about On stolen sheets (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

If breasts are naturally bare, there is no shame about them. What creates 'shame' is the deliberate and provocative peep-show. As for the nipple business - pure idiocy! I have always thought the real allure of sensationalised female breasts is the male's desire to suckle - like a baby - with little thought to the erotic arousal of the female sex urge.

Comment is about something i must hide (blog)

Original item by muse

I, too, really like this. It requires more than one whip-through - with vocabulary and images that are challenging but very well-chosen both for meaning and music.

Comment is about that secret (blog)

Original item by Paul Sands

I shall try to catch up on some more of your work. I was not very active on-line in April.

Comment is about Russ Litten (poet profile)

Original item by Russ Litten

Totally engaging from start to finish. And it leaves the reader to fill in any scenario desired - very good 'poet-ing'.

Comment is about A Second Chance (For Terri) (blog)

Original item by Russ Litten

Dark times = dark water?

Comment is about On stolen sheets (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Welcome to WOL. I'm sure you will enjoy this site. The management staff is excellent, and ready to help you.

Comment is about tshepang laka (poet profile)

Original item by tshepang laka

This is a very strong poem, and by no means simple.

I see it is the same one on your profile, but appearing there in a more poetic form of broken lines. Did you have difficulty posting this here, in this format?

Comment is about deceit is my custom (blog)

Original item by tshepang laka

nice one Travis. Shifty, yes.
x

Comment is about ILL REPUTE. (blog)

Who is that ugly devil scribbling on the left?

Oh, its me...

Comment is about Stockport Write Out Loud 2, May 2015.jpg (photo)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Luke is ACE. Check him out.

Comment is about 'Poetry should have bite and snarl, but it's better for joy and sadness than anger': Luke Wright (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks Tommy. That's spot on! Bloody technology.

Comment is about Tommy Carroll (poet profile)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

You can read one of the best, certainly one of the longest, and possibly the most enjoyable article I've seen about Simon Armitage in the Guardian here http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/26/simon-armitage-making-poetry-pay. You'll note that the interview was done in and around Marsden, Julian - poetry centre of the universe!

Comment is about 'Self-schooled poet' Simon Armitage bids to become Oxford professor of poetry (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I beg to differ, M.C. There is humour aplenty among open-mic/open-floor poets, in most of the many events I have attended in the past few years. I would agree that there is a tendency amongst some modern poets to eschew humour but the best deliver their serious messages in a deceptively humorous package. I love this from Billy Collins:

Introduction to poetry

I ask them to take a poem
and hold it up to the light
like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem
and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem's room
and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski
across the surface of a poem
waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do
is tie the poem to a chair with rope
and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose
to find out what it really means.

As I mention in my review of Armitage's gig in Washington, we would all have been proud of his dry humour interspersing the serious messages within some of his poetry.

Comment is about 'Self-schooled poet' Simon Armitage bids to become Oxford professor of poetry (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I'm a thief who steals the truth from your words


Well crafted Chloe!

Graham

Comment is about Chloe (poet profile)

Original item by Chloe

Correct Graham, this is a re-edit. :)

Comment is about On stolen sheets (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

This is hard to read for me Lynn.
I think there are some good words swallowed up in here.

The laugh he threw back Hit my face.

Graham

Comment is about RePlaCeMeNT bUs (blog)

Tommy I think I must have missed this first time around (that's if you posted before).
There are some good words here.

We snatched the time

to make our marks

with sweat

and firm commitments.

and the last two lines are brilliant.

Comment is about On stolen sheets (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Wow I really like your poem! It is well thought out and always on point of the subject. I look forward to seeing more from you.

Comment is about Chloe (poet profile)

Original item by Chloe

Hey, I like this one, has the feel of an early-morning-waking-up-dream. x

Comment is about A Second Chance (For Terri) (blog)

Original item by Russ Litten

Preeti,

I'm not qualified to say what works but I really enjoy reading your written words.

Please stick with your instincts. Xx

Comment is about I can (blog)

In reply to your comment on 'My God' Mr TC, no need to think too hard. The soul destroying experience of internet dating, the isolation of technology and being subjected, as a child, to a host of spaghetti westerns where 'hey blondie' was god.

Comment is about Tommy Carroll (poet profile)

Original item by Tommy Carroll