M.C,
Ah!..if only?

Comment is about "HARSH WORDS FOR DIRE POETS" (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Clear...and wise

Comment is about The Ring (blog)

Original item by Amy

It`s all exactly (and poetically) good. But I
particularly like the sound of `drizzle wraiths`

Comment is about DARK AND WET ONE WINTER MORNING. (blog)

thanks for letting us know you are still in the land of the living Dave.Whatever happened to your pink wig,we'd like to know?xx

Comment is about Dave Dunn (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Dunn

As a highly educated `language savvy` user Jeremy
Paxman chairing the Forward judges, - despite feeling better- says that poets have connived with their own irrelevance, must engage more with the people as a whole. And should submit to an explanatory `inquisition` by those people....I could not agree with him more. (preceded by an inquisition by the poets themselves into their own poetry) If poetry has become irrelevant to the increasingly educated ordinary person then something is seriously wrong and the poets should do something about it.

George Sirtzes answer in the Guardian that poetry is felt rather than understood simply will not do. How can we persuade the ordinary person to feel something after we tell him that he cannot understand it? Words, as Sirtzes says, carry a
baggage of music, context, allusion, history, and attachment. Indeed. and it is precisely these allusions which can be explained and understood as leading up to that `eureka` of poetic realization. Comprehension is an exactly inclusive word for the process but you arrive by elucidating the verbal path.

Comment is about Poets should engage with ordinary people much more, says Forward prize chairman Paxman (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Dave,please keep them coming.Thank you.x

Comment is about Winebar in Worktown (blog)

Original item by Dave Morgan

"The man on the Clapham omnibus" was more
related to the courtroom and the legal eagles'
remarks to a jury about the application of the common sense that was widely expected/respected in
the mind of the down to earth British working man.
The connection between common sense and
comprehension still has relevance.

Comment is about Poets should engage with ordinary people much more, says Forward prize chairman Paxman (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Write out Loud is ahead of the game then on the Smokestack front. Watch this space for a forthcoming review of "Survivors: Hungarian Jewish Poets of the Holocaust" edited by Thomas Orszag-Land

Comment is about Never mind the Forward: Smokestack publisher's breath of fresh air (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Nice one Dave! full to bursting,stretching the skin of words.
Steve Smith

Comment is about First Date (blog)

Original item by David R Mellor

Hello Mallory

Welcome to Write Out Loud.

I hope you enjoy the site. We're really looking forward to reading some of your work and I know that you will be warmly welcomed by other WOL-ers too.

Thanks for uploading a picture, it’s good to see what our fellow poets look like.

Have a good browse around, there’s lots going on and if you have the time to make some comments about the work of other poets please feel free. It’s the best way to get some constructive feedback about your own work too.
There’s always someone who’ll help you out with a problem, so just ask and someone will get back to you. It’s a friendly place, so welcome once again.

Graham Sherwood

Comment is about Outside of Comfort (poet profile)

Original item by Outside of Comfort

Hello MC.
I've just seen your "Harsh Words..." post, encouraged by your post on my Profile page.
I too find a lot of what passes for poetry uninteresting. In fact, it reminds me of a Fred Wedlock piece in which he goes to a folk club and watches a performer introduce his act with, " I write my songs quite free from bourgeois restrictions like rhythm and rhyme....and interest".
I have no problems at all with you passing on "Ode to Roy"; in fact, I am quite flattered.

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

Original item by M.C. Newberry

I think I went looking for those who would treat me like my father did. Pity really. I could have reached the stars had I traveled a different road.

Comment is about FATHERHOOD GONE AWRY! (blog)

Original item by Tricia Hague-Barrett

I keep being drawn to this poem Christopher. The words seem to pull you to the photograph. 'Scribbled lines, a gift of comfort..'
How much pleasure a letter or thought from home could give these men within their world of fear, anquish and real squalor.
The last four lines compelled me to look at the photograph and read again.
Great gratitude indeed. To Ted, people like him and the spirit of the 'Unknown Warrior.'

Comment is about 1914-2014 (blog)

Original item by Christopher Dawson

Thank you guys...I have to say I'm still not convinced of the answer!

Comment is about Can you see my flies? (blog)

Original item by Christopher Dawson

Thanks very much for this review, Judy. The Other Room sounds like a fascinating night out!

Comment is about Knife wielding, protective gloves: dipping a toe into the world of experimental poetry (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

JC - in his article I've highlighted in my most
recent post, resident Sunday Express poet
Martin Newell asks:
"Where are the poets to write humorous or nonsense
verse to amuse us in the manner that Hilaire Belloc, Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll or Spike
Milligan once did? Their modern counterparts
possibly exist but are highly unlikely to surface
in our colourless world, where any levity would
automatically disqualify them from winning funding."
Your situation seems worthy of inclusion in that category and worth promoting. My own
pension-funded efforts have just produced a
CD of verse which I've called "Poetry To Please" (sneaky, eh?). The fun from hereon is
to get copies out there, and at the very least
have something to pass on when I pop my clogs.
I am a believer in "you have to speculate to
accumulate" - in whatever endeavour and that
sometimes means self-financing and self-
promotion, no matter what the expectations.
Life can surprise us once in a while.
My emailed reply to Mr Newell's article cites
your wickedly funny "Ode To Roy" as an example
of what is being written...hope you don't mind.

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Those of us with sufficient memory megabyte will
recall they said the Western was doomed decades
ago. Then along came "Lonesome Dove", "Wyatt
Earp" and "Tombstone" to prove that the genre
still had its boots on. The truth, like good poetry, is that if it is treated with love and
proper respect, there is no reason why it won't
continue to thrive and please - IN THE RIGHT
HANDS.

Comment is about Poetry as a shooting script: Paul Muldoon on movies, rhyme, rock and roll (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

A devastating story my friend - I cannot conceive of how any mother can cope with that scenario.

Perhaps the story continues in another poem, as you hinted at?

Best wishes, Dave

Comment is about A MOTHERS GRIEF (blog)

Original item by Tricia Hague-Barrett

Hard hitting lines Tricia - I feel this is another story that would justify some people being banned from parenthood and it is well worth sharing.

There is definitely a link between child abuse and the child growing into a vulnerable adult that suffers similar maltreatment...

It is a different world now in many ways to that we knew as children, with more if not perfect protection for children at risk - personally I think we should ensure all victims of violence are given the support they need to be self assured so they are not picked out by bullies.

Best wishes, Dave

Comment is about FATHERHOOD GONE AWRY! (blog)

Original item by Tricia Hague-Barrett

Bring forth
write down
collective knowledge.

Each mind
brings forth
personal preference.

Which when
wisely mixed
brings forth - - -

this Collage Poem.

Comment is about Willpower - June Collage Poem (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Hey Cynth - why thank you. Mmmm dynamic is what I was going for, with interconnectedness. I've realised this is a major theme in a lot of my writing - how everything ties in. And I don't seem to be able to rein in assonance or alliteration at ALL, so I'll just give them free rein. I'm sure at one point they'll get fed up themselves ;)

Comment is about Cascade (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Is this 'ordinary man' related in any way to the 'man on the Clapham omnibus' used by politicians to pretend they're making policy for everyone while really only making policy for themselves and their friends?

I write for the extraordinary people. And there's a lot of you out there.

I notice the 'ordinary man' is usually male, probably white, middle-class, able-bodied, cis-gendered and heterosexual. Just like me; 'cept for the middle class bit. 'Cept I like weird avant garde stuff, modern classical and weird jazz. No accounting for taste I suppose; but JP is not speaking to me.

Comment is about Poets should engage with ordinary people much more, says Forward prize chairman Paxman (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hello Katie

Welcome to Write Out Loud.

I hope you enjoy the site. We're really looking forward to reading some of your work and I know that you will be warmly welcomed by other WOL-ers too.

Thanks for uploading your photograph. It’s good to see what our fellow poets look like.

Have a good browse around, there’s lots going on and if you have the time to make some comments about the work of other poets please feel free. It’s the best way to get some constructive feedback about your own work too.
There’s always someone who’ll help you out with a problem, so just ask and someone will get back to you. It’s a friendly place, so welcome once again.

Graham Sherwood

Comment is about Pity-Poetry (poet profile)

Original item by Pity-Poetry

It's me again
Tripe
What would you think to me lowering the line 'The fabric of her town had perished' onto the following three lines. I think I'm going to do that anyway. The fabric of the town perishing is perhaps more accurately lined with the description of the state of the arcades and mansions
My tongue-in-cheek attempt? The town that I grew up in (a vibrant wool town) is truly dying - the arcades, either empty or full of tat, and the 'mansions' left, in many cases to crumble away, but a lady that I was passing 5 minutes with at Hosp. ultrasound dept could only comment on the fact that the tripe stall had shut. It perhaps highlights how we each see the changes that have come about in the time that we have spent on this planet.
I wish I could write, and therefore explain what was in my head at any one specific time

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Cynthia
Forgotten
As ever I truly appreciate your looking and commenting on the poem
I agree with you about stanza 5. The idea that I wanted to write something like this, came from a couple of sources
Firstly - the results of the MEP elections, where many people (definitely not me) in the North of England voted UKIP because they see themselves as those described in St.5.
Second - hearing our Southern countrified cousins complaining about the impact on the environment of airport extensions; fracking etc, (both, I accept, perhaps objectionable examples) without them really understanding that the areas north of The Wash have been the dirty engine room of the country for centuries, and the impact that this had on generation after generation
Probably not quite the explanation of what was in my mind when I wrote Forgotten, but I was really trying to write the second half of the poem to describe what I know to be in the mind of many people (perhaps a generation or two younger than me) in my little patch of the world - Forgotten and displaced
Wish I had an answer

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

It is frightening to see that the lessons of history are yet again being ignored - fascism is on the rise across Europe and will use the same old deceptions to gain support before they turn on their full blown hatred of all who do not boow down to them.

Sad to think there could come a time when you may feel all you can do is flee from the violence - head this way if you need shelter my friend, we do have a spare room now my daughter has moved out. Hugs xxx

Comment is about An Ordinary Fascism (blog)

Original item by Larisa Rzhepishevska

Quite a magical poem Larisa - I do hope you are managing to keep safe amidst the troubles... Hugs for you dear friend, Dave

Comment is about Spring Meets Summer (blog)

Original item by Larisa Rzhepishevska

Hello Tricia, glad to see you decided to join WOL. :)

I look forward to continuing our conversations here and on Shtyle and will take a look at your poems next.

best wishes, Dave

Comment is about Tricia Hague-Barrett (poet profile)

Original item by Tricia Hague-Barrett

Hmm - I think perhapsmr Paxman doesn't bother much with social networks and blogging sites where I see a lot of interaction with the reading public. I would think I chat with a dozen or more readers most days - I am sure most poets I now are not aloof as he seems to suggest, but hey, some guys can say something and expect it to be believed rather than anyone query it.

I beg to query it - and I wonder if we can expect an answer from the presenter - i would certainly wish him to 'present' the actuality rather more accurately than his suppositions, which will have done little good for the poets ninths country for sure.

Anyone here feel they are in need of 'raising their game a bit'? Chance would be a fine thing Mr Paxman - would you care to invite some of us onto your show to ensure a rounded discussion of the topic and bring the public's attention back to the live scene and the real people in their modest who are chatting to them between writing their latest lines...

So, what about it Mr Paxman, are we about to receive a 'fair hearing'?

Comment is about Poets should engage with ordinary people much more, says Forward prize chairman Paxman (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

JC's right.
The best that I can hope for is to leave enough money in my will to request a self published selection of my work for posterity and family use. None of them currently know I write, so it will be a shock.

Comment is about Poets should engage with ordinary people much more, says Forward prize chairman Paxman (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hello Joanne

Welcome to Write Out Loud.

I hope you enjoy the site. We're really looking forward to reading some of your work and I know that you will be warmly welcomed by other WOL-ers too.

Thanks for already uploading a picture of yourself. It’s good to see what our fellow poets look like.

Have a good browse around, there’s lots going on and if you have the time to make some comments about the work of other poets please feel free. It’s the best way to get some constructive feedback about your own work too.

There’s always someone who’ll help you out with a problem, so just ask and someone will get back to you. It’s a friendly place, so welcome once again.

Graham Sherwood

Comment is about Joanne Rimmer (poet profile)

Original item by Joanne Rimmer

Hello Tricia

Welcome to Write Out Loud.

I hope you enjoy the site. We're really looking forward to reading some of your work and I know that you will be warmly welcomed by other WOL-ers too.

Thanks for uploading a picture of yourself. It’s good to see what our fellow poets look like.

Have a good browse around, there’s lots going on and if you have the time to make some comments about the work of other poets please feel free. It’s the best way to get some constructive feedback about your own work too.

There’s always someone who’ll help you out with a problem, so just ask and someone will get back to you. It’s a friendly place, so welcome once again.

Graham Sherwood

Comment is about Tricia Hague-Barrett (poet profile)

Original item by Tricia Hague-Barrett

Have responded to your kind comment about Touchstone on my wall. Thanks again. P.x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Ian

Nice one, You should follow it up with a musical entitled
"Savilles Scandals"

I can imagine the first scene, Enter Jim stage left holding a young girls or boys hand, smirking, here's one I did earlier, oo'er missus

Comment is about Children Of The Glamned (Resurrection Shuffle) (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Sorry Marianne

This one to me is like the times crossword, it leaves the reader too much to do. Well written but
to my failing faculties, nigh incomprehensible. xx

Harry's shot at analysis left me equally puzzled.

Comment is about Death (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

Really well-considered, well-written and very thought-provoking. From mediocrity to profundity and back again to what exactly? Satire?

Comment is about Winebar in Worktown (blog)

Original item by Dave Morgan

Thank you for your time.

I think you have understood my poem very well Harry, thank you for the considered time reading.

I am sorry and not sorry for leaving the reader with so much hard work to understand me, its a daily struggle I have with myself!

am working on a collection now based on the love affair between Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen which is proving quite interesting because I am writing about figures that are probably a bit too personal to the people involved! nevertheless it is an inspirational little venture.

Comment is about Death (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

Well - a masterpiece of original thought, dynamic imagery and the flying words to give them life in an Orgy of Musicality as you stream all the skills of word sounds throughout, in one continuous dance.

Nuff said. You'll think I'm barmy.

Comment is about Cascade (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Writing is an excellent means to sort out emotions. It's even better therapy as you begin to critique your own ideas in their relativity to other people's similar feelings. The world begins to take shape beyond self-made horizons. I think it's the start of real self-wisdom, especially essential to poets.

Comment is about Yenimls (poet profile)

Original item by Yenimls

Yes, brief but poignant, striking a compelling truth that is universal, both to women and men. Well done. I look forward to more.

Check: turmoil

Comment is about Mirror (blog)

Original item by Yenimls

Beguiling.

Comment is about Sleep talk (blog)

Original item by Twilbury Wist

Sunshine on a cloudy day. For me, your innate humour is infectious across the lines. I wonder if family and friends know just what to do with you.

Comment is about The Fairy's Tale (blog)

Original item by Twilbury Wist

I like this very much, great pace for an impossible job, in a hurry! Very good.
Dom.

Comment is about First Date (blog)

Original item by David R Mellor

Of course, this analogy doesn't work with people who write poetry. But that's the point, isn't it?

Comment is about Poets should engage with ordinary people much more, says Forward prize chairman Paxman (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

People ask me "Why don't you get your poems published?" I ask them how many cars they've ever bought. Usually over a lifetime its a dozen or so. Then I ask them how many poetry books they've bought.

Comment is about Poets should engage with ordinary people much more, says Forward prize chairman Paxman (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

There is a famouus exchange between de Gaulle and Dean Rusk where de Gaulle, as part of France's withdrawal from NATO, said that all American troops should withdraw from France. Rusk replied "Does that include those in the cemeteries?"

Comment is about ARROMANCHES - a Re-post of Remembrance for 2014 (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Eh up - thank you very much Steve :)

Tis a shame the photo only came out small - but I've put a link on to show it bigger anyway.

Comment is about Cascade (blog)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Enjoyed this, Yenimls. Very tight.
I thought the rhythm hiccupped a bit with the word turmoil.

Comment is about Mirror (blog)

Original item by Yenimls

we would have used the last three lines only CB.A clever piece nevertheless.xx

Comment is about Fading Imperial Standards (blog)

Original item by cbyrne

Brilliant Trace tells the story perfectly.
Well done you.

Comment is about One day soldier (blog)

Original item by Tracey Bucknell