I take the view that poetry should make you...
blink,
think,
drink.
Or all three, if you've a mind to!!

Comment is about If you have tears, prepare to shed them now: the poetry that makes chaps weep (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Jesus wept.

Comment is about If you have tears, prepare to shed them now: the poetry that makes chaps weep (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

You got good writing skills!

Comment is about Only For You (blog)

Original item by alan barlow

Great piece of writing!

Comment is about She loves me not... (blog)

Original item by Christopher Dawson

compelling.

Comment is about Poem: Exit Strategy (blog)

Original item by Joseph J. Breunig 3rd

Good write!

Comment is about Unfinished business (blog)

Original item by Shevaughn Pimenta

There's a lot of stuff on this site that makes me weep.

Comment is about If you have tears, prepare to shed them now: the poetry that makes chaps weep (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I really love the Rhythm and sentiment of this, I'm sure Bob is looking from where ever he is beyond the veil and smiling.

Comment is about For Bob Crow (blog)

Original item by the #week-trending

Absolutely, FH. Once again, many thanks for your kind comments.
Mc - (I love it!)

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

A fitting concept in this centenary year of the
start of that terrible conflict. This site has
numerous references to Owen's work and is well
worth a lengthy visit for its own sake. How tragic that the man himself should die so near
to the war's end. But fame was already assured
by what he had written at such a young age.
Like Rupert Brooke, he became an icon of a lost generation.
I've already entered a poem...have you?!
Plenty of time to get something sorted in the
spirit of the man and his output. Good luck to
all who decide to have a go.

Comment is about End of month deadline for poems 'in the spirit' of Wilfred Owen (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

JC...
I note that having a point of view - even (or should that be "especially"?) couched in humour - elicits personal abuse of the type that seems all too prevalent from a particular mindset in our
political spectrum. Laughter is a serious business, you know!!!
LOL on WOL :-)

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

yes, JC, smarmy insincerity is your stock-in-trade.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Why thankyou, FH. Always a pleasure to discuss the arts with a gentleman.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Yes, JC, precisely the kind of smug mildly patronising crap I've learned to expect from you. Not much of what you say has much bearing on the argument. Scape-goating works - clearly you're as susceptible to it as others. And no, most people don't bother to look behind headlines or the superficial op-ed's and commentaries. It does say a lot about just how much UK politics has degenerated when conviction and integrity become attributes to be mocked.
And I do not believe that you dismiss the influence of the press as much as you suggest.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Love it that you feel the need to label me in a box, MW. If that's how you see me, that's fine by me. But you don't seem terribly comfortable with Diversity.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Now knowing the source and reason for the inspiration, it becomes easy to assess and
praise the content and style of this post.
Clever - and surely appreciated by those for
whom it was written, identified via the "sky-blue" banner.

Comment is about And the sky-blue shall overcome (blog)

Original item by Marnanel Thurman

Successful politics has been described as "the art
of the possible".
Going to extremes (Thatcher was thus accused)
is seen as fatal. She paid the price, exacted by her own party in the end and not the electorate.
It can be said that Benn fell into that trap but
managed to forge a reputation as a high-minded
idealist when power was a memory not an option.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Are you the same little Tory that wept on here when Thatcher died?

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Interesting perpective, FH. But not what I was hearing on the streets and in the exit polls when I was campaigning. (This was in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, not leafy Tonbridge Wells). Clearly those people ought not to be allowed the vote if they got it so wrong. No, wait! It was the capitalist press misleading them. Clearly those people ought not to be alloweed to vote if they were so gullible.
As an afterthought, you are aware that TB was defeated by the Conservative candidate in his own constituency?

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

This seems an extraordinarily unjust and blinkered view of recent UK political history. Unless of course you subscribe to the idea that Blair, Mandelson and Brown and the other closet-tories were actually good for the Labour Party. Rather than a Labour Party that still tried at least to represent the working people of Britain against the predations of neo-liberal capitalism.
But the Mainstream Media of this country saw in TB the perfect bete-noire to scare voters away from supporting anything that could restrain capital from doing exactly what it liked.
You're not the only one from that era. A close relative of mine with strong connections to the City came back home one afternoon after meeting with Blair and a group of City luminaries saying that yes, Blair was OK, was a good man and had been given their imprimatur. I found this deeply disturbing at the time. Was he putting on a cloak of electability, to take it off once in power? Was he hell. Tony Benn and a very few others, ridiculed and marginalised by just about every part of our 'free' press, were left howling in the desert. Now the very idea of Labour having links to organised labour is vilified as revisionist heresy. O tempora, o mores!
Your poem might be a harmless tongue-in-cheek literary conceit, but it's very cruel to accuse TB of destroying something he was actually trying to defend against those who couldn't wait to destroy it for their own selfish reasons.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

So it was like that.
Then I says,
hats off to Ferlinghetti

Comment is about Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, publisher of Howl, prepares new book at the age of 94 (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I think you need to be of a generation younger than us to offer unconditional adulation for the bloke, Harry. He was too destructive to the Labour Paarty for me to be able to do that.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

One of your best John,
In the days when Labour politicians attended Union conferences we had
him twice...What an absolute bore!

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Spitting Image - Yes. Give me satire over ranting any day.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Electronics couldn't have done any better - and I
don't include electrodes you know where! 10/10
for effect. I was watching a TV repeat last night
of a programme about the glory days of "Spitting
Image" - with those terribly cruel - but terribly
funny caricatures of Margaret Thatcher and her team - not to mention the rest. I'm sure T.Benn
was among them somewhere but didn't spot him.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Ha - spooky synchronicity has happened more than once on this site!

Comment is about breathing in the dusk (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

And the really sad thing is that I heard a group of women in work yesterday planning to go to the bingo, purely because of this :(

Comment is about the budget statement, in full. (blog)

Original item by steve pottinger

Yes, another one of yours that I really enjoyed reading.

And it comes hot on the heels of my re-reading V by Tony Harrison yesterday, so I like that synchronicity.

Comment is about Musing in Ilkley Cemetery (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

That iss indeed me, MC. The elaastic band worked a treat but I can't get it off. A little historical juggling at work but who would not pay to see margaret Thatcher, Tony Benn and Michael Jackson appearing together?

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Reply:
If folk keep an open mind
Unknown rewards may they find
When spirits leave this mortal coil
And flesh returns to earthly soil
Religious teaching can seem odd...
Who, pray, has first call on "God"?

Comment is about Poem: Exit Strategy (blog)

Original item by Joseph J. Breunig 3rd

Neatly done. I would have been tempted to add
Emotions
Inspire
Love.
...to come full circle, so to speak.

Comment is about Brevette Poems (blog)

Original item by Shirley Smothers

Is that your voice JC...?? My eyes are watering!
Love the catchy adaptation and that lovely pay-off
("free from Den..."). The inspiration never seems
to flag up there in Coopey-land. I shall now
retire to bed - late as usual from online browsing - but with a grin on my face.
Thanks.

Comment is about Ben (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

K.E-D and JC - your comments are appreciated as
always. The words are mine...the setting and
recitation are courtesy of Pete Dymond - of
Diamond Studios, Bristol. He and Marcie Summers
are busy putting my conception of poetry to music
and effects on a CD compilation for me. It is
fascinating how various poetic themes work in this
way - and both say how much they are enjoying
the challenge - and the fun of something a bit
different.

Comment is about MY LONDON - music setting (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Nice work, Jeremy. Skillful accentual rhythms complement the subject.

Comment is about Musing in Ilkley Cemetery (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

Your words, MC? Your voice?
Lovely rhythm and delicately done.

Comment is about MY LONDON - music setting (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Hello Nichola, and welcome to WOL. I'm really looking forward to reading some of your work. You'll find WOL a friendly place where fellow poets are only to happy to give constructive feedback to your work. It often helps if you give some to others too. Creative flux as it were.
Anyway we're glad you've joined us, and welcome again,

very best regards

Graham

Comment is about Nichola Charalambou (poet profile)

Original item by Nichola Charalambou

Hello Neil,
Thanks for the funny comment you left for my "Two Line Horror(ible)Story", LOL!
I got this idea when my 20 year old son told me the game "Bloody Mary" one he never had the nerve to play.
Thanks
Shirley

Comment is about Neil West (poet profile)

Original item by Neil West

Hi Jeremy

A most appealing poem expertly accomplished, in good old fashioned rhyme.

Comment is about Musing in Ilkley Cemetery (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

Since I have one of the 1,000,000 copies of 'Coney Island of the Mind' in front of me - to show my age, bought when first came out, here is poem #9 from it

The words go like below: but the layout disappears

See
it was like this when
we walk into this place
a couple of Papish cats
is doing an Aztec two-step
And I says
Dad let's cut
but then this dame
comes up behind me see
and says
You and me could really exist
Wow I says
Only the next day
she has bad teeth
and really hates
poetry

Comment is about Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, publisher of Howl, prepares new book at the age of 94 (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I like this M.C.

So much imagery, in so few words.

Comment is about MY LONDON - music setting (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

I like this.

A skillful alternative description of
what's seen every day, Through talented eyes.

Comment is about Switching the light back on (blog)

Original item by fiona sinclair

That's amazing news. What spirit. What an interesting life. Thanks Greg.

Comment is about Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, publisher of Howl, prepares new book at the age of 94 (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Fab! And of course you know where they bury mathematicians? No?

In a symmetry!

I'll get my coat!

Comment is about Two Line Horror(ible) Story (blog)

Original item by Shirley Smothers

I enjoyed your poem, it has a wonderful air of stillness.

Comment is about breathing in the dusk (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

this is fantastic Jeremy - love the images and language very much - I've just posted something about 'dusk' myself and hadn't realised you had posted this until I went to the poetry area to make sure mine had posted - hopefully it steers away from most of your fantastic narrative - great stuff

Comment is about Dusk (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

unreal - I've just seen Jeremy's posting - the one before mine - and it's the same subject matter and includes the same title - I swear I hadn't seen it before I posted - I went straight to the poetry blog section - quite spooky really :-)

Comment is about breathing in the dusk (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Lovely - and the images you evoke tie in beautifully with your profile pic - I'm thinking of the wildness of Kate Bush and Wuthering Heights...

Very enjoyable!

Comment is about Blueberries (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

Thank you Graham.

I wonder how the Urban Dictionary defines hoo-ha? Probably best not to look.

I appreciate your feedback.

Comment is about Dusk (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

Laura's right, the feel good in this is palpable.

Considering the current hoo-ha about rhyme, this shows that done correctly, it works perfectly.

Well done Jeremy,

Comment is about Dusk (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

Marianne Daniels, I do believe you're becoming accessible (at least to me that is).

This is quite lovely.

Graham

Comment is about Blueberries (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels