Well thanky kindly for your comment on 'The Writing Class', Isobel. Oddly enough it didn't take as long to write as it did to polish up. Shaving off the rough burrs and embellishing it took much longer! I lament the fact that not much rhymed poetry gets written these day: I get the impression that, for many free verse is the default option, to the detriment of good poetic style and construction. I'd be interested in your opinion on this: all I see around me is prose poetry (of which I'm not averse - I write quite a bit myself) which ought to be but one weapon in a poet's arsenal, not the be all and end all. Perhaps I'm an anachronism, but I believe that a budding poet oughtn't to write free until they've mastered structure. Is that contentious do you think?
Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)
Original item by Isobel
Brilliant news Frances
Comment is about Write Out Loud's reviews editor wins poetry award (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Great to see so many familiar names of Wolers in here :-) Well done all!
Comment is about Write Out Loud poets line up with famous names in Heart Shoots charity anthology (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Thanks Alex/Francine - the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Let's see whether it takes off as a theme. I hope it does as I'd like to see what people make of it. There's sometimes no accounting for what people want to write about though. x
Comment is about 52 Hertz (blog)
Original item by Isobel
I like this Harry - it's a well observed piece. It's funny how such moments can live with you for a lifetime - you capture it well.
Comment is about SIN AGAINST THE SPIRIT? (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
One more (revised) re-post from my accidently wiped profile.
Comment is about SIN AGAINST THE SPIRIT? (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
Mon 13th May 2013 19:49
dear Yvonne
That's amazingly generous of you. I'll study yours hard and see what comes out. Must study use of reflexive.
I'm hoping that trying to write in French will help the compression process leaving me with "impressions" I believe Sam Beckett wrote in French for this reason - amongst others.
Meanwhile I'm having an additional bathroom installed next week and hope poets will drop in - all WOLs welcome.
Graham
Comment is about TRANSPOECY (blog)
Original item by Graham Chadwick
Dream on! I would have volunteered for the job but J. C.'s already offered me the position of chief groupie. Oh, decisions, decisions!
However I still enjoy reading your poems and this has lots of lovely images.
XX
Comment is about A poet at prayer (blog)
Original item by Harry O`N eill
In the firebird how's about:-
Au tombé du jour au bord du Salagou
J’ai vu l’oiseau du feu.
Dans les plissements entre les ruffes rougeâtres
Il se nourrit des grains de météore.
Tout à coup il s’est envolé,
Sa voix, "Clic, clic, clic!"
Un compteur Geiger.
Sur les collines le vent ebbouriffe
les feuilles d'olivier
Les transformant aux ailes des anges.
dans le bleu une plume argentée
cherche à devenir nuage.
mais elle se réduit, se réduit, se réduit à néant,
mais, peut-être, une intimation d'un orage,
la crise terminale de la canicule/
Le bruit blanc des cigales s'arrete, marque une pause,
et recommence.
Je n'entends que leur silence.
Des gouses d'acanthe s'explosent et jettent
leurs balles, PING, sur le toit du fer
de notre terrasse
Des cloches de chèvre tintent, quelque part, quelque part?
Parmi les arbres crie une tronçonneuse, crie, et s'arrête.
Et en haut, le bourdonnement parasseux d'un avion.
French makes frequent use of the reflexive form of the verb when there is no direct object.
It was easier to cut, paste then alter the originals rather than discuss individual words - but these are only suggestions anyway.
I enjoyed both poems graham and I envy you living in Grance!
Comment is about TRANSPOECY (blog)
Original item by Graham Chadwick
Hi Yvonne - I enjoyed your "like for like"
response on my last post (oops...sounds like I'm tempting providence...musically speaking!!)
Comment is about Yvonne Brunton (poet profile)
Original item by Yvonne Brunton
Quality stuff, this, John - unlike your first shed.
Ps can I have your old shed?
Comment is about Your First Hut Is The Cheapest (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
be glad that your heart will soon have regular thumps
The time to worry is if your farts have lumps!!
Enjoyed the poem. xx
Comment is about THE MAGICAL MEDICAL MERRY-GO-ROUND (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Excellent. Great analogy Maintianed to the end even to the name of the street. I really enjoyed this, Ian.
Comment is about Eyrie Avenue (blog)
Original item by Ian Whiteley
ok will have a think...
Comment is about Violet. (Short story) (blog)
Original item by Danny Metcalfe
Thanks for your kind words
Richard
Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
<Deleted User> (11111)
Mon 13th May 2013 15:54
Oh, please do. I want some feedback. :)
Comment is about Violet. (Short story) (blog)
Original item by Danny Metcalfe
In Axilfah on Thundersday we heard a sonic boom.
The rain came down but words held sway within a tight packed room.
They came from Leeds and Lancashire, from Cleckheaton and Hudd.
They raised their arms and voices too and spoke of death and blood.
And local wordsmiths said their piece. What rants and hymns we heard
when Genevieve her coven called to utter Weird Words.
Review is about Spoken Weird on 9 May 2013 (event)
Stef, we do indeed. Hope you and Patricia are well.
Jonnie, yes, you have a point there!
Thank you very much all for your kind comments. xx
Comment is about perspective (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
Thanks for the comments Solar.
Regards
Graham
Comment is about Moor Music (blog)
Original item by Graham Ramsden
Bi-lingual English French, I often write the same poem in both languages - not the same thing as translating it! I'd like to join in, but the Out Loud part is difficult as I only know two other (British) poets in my area of NW France.
I shall forward this to Joseph Harker, (http://namingconstellations.wordpress.com/category/reveries/)as he is a poet/translator of lots of languages, including Japanese.
Comment is about Mad experiment on Write Out Loud – translating poems online! (article)
interesting.
i could offer a lot of criticism about this and ask some questions of it...but after my last attack of your veggie subject i think ill just say that.
Comment is about Violet. (Short story) (blog)
Original item by Danny Metcalfe
<Deleted User> (9882)
Sun 12th May 2013 23:38
'she clutched him in a tangled,dry embrace'...... ........and? oh! we don't have to wait for the next episode do we Ian? that's not fair,keeping me in suspenders!....and black fishnet stockings!
seriously,a very good poem.x
Comment is about Eyrie Avenue (blog)
Original item by Ian Whiteley
Upsetting,touching,dark,compelling. Possibly one of your best for me mate! 'I struggled for rainbows,wrestled with sunny days'
Comment is about Padlock (blog)
Original item by Richard Alfred
'By the hand of my past I am drowning'
Nice piece Richard,that I think,celebrates the individual.
Comment is about Seahorse (blog)
Original item by Richard Alfred
I like this. There was such a woman up the road from me when i ass a kid. She smelt of cloves and was always poised to pounce. Loved the cracking and popping carcass... inspired. I was trying to think of another word for 'horny' given its alternative connotations... but I couldn't!
Comment is about Eyrie Avenue (blog)
Original item by Ian Whiteley
<Deleted User> (6895)
Sun 12th May 2013 20:59
killer last line.
Comment is about Fast, effective action (blog)
<Deleted User> (6895)
Sun 12th May 2013 20:57
That's why you shouldn't always listen to the experts! I enjoyed your poem.
Comment is about perspective (blog)
Original item by Lynn Dye
We've all been there. I liked that very much.
Comment is about Fast, effective action (blog)
<Deleted User> (6895)
Sun 12th May 2013 20:26
AVB and the lads John. Dare to believe!!
Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)
Original item by John Coopey
Which reminds me...I found online info. that tied the Texan LBJ of pre-White House days to an unsavoury character with a rep. for violence even unto murder, and there was a strong inference that LBJ used this guy for bad things which could be denied - and that just happened to point towards a certain murder in Dallas! The sheer number of "witnesses" who subsequently died in circumstances so weird that the odds have been given as many millions to one also supports suspicions of very big stakes and something far more worrying than mere "coincidence".
Comment is about in my head, scribbled down (blog)
Original item by Marnanel Thurman
Only just found this and am very struck. For me, it's had the biggest difference between a straight read-through and the audio track of anything I've ever encountered on WOL. For those who skip the audio, make an exception for this one.
Comment is about breathing (blog)
Original item by Ann Foxglove
Fascinating stuff. It has to be remembered that the Pacific Ocean was far less documented than now but just as vast. Perhaps a fatal crash may have been the preferred ending for those brave adventurers and one can only hope they had each other's company for comfort if they were fated to endure an isolated and painful departure from this life.
Comment is about MIRACLE (blog)
Original item by NICK ARMBRISTER
Yes,retail...know the subject well and its pitfalls. Good representation mate!
Comment is about The Customer is Always Wrong (blog)
I feel this way when going into our local Asda! I duck and dive,generally trying to keep my head down and not catch anyone's eye.Made me laugh this! 'It' just painful to be reminded that everyone you know is getting older,because it means that you are too'.
Thought the length was fine,too.
Comment is about Friend List (blog)
Hi Joe,
Haha! 'Another lost afternoon squares up to defeat me'. Great liitle piece mate!
Comment is about Fast, effective action (blog)
Whoa! Masterful, Ian.
Brilliant on so many levels, but "my bleach for life's permanent stain" is the pick.
You don't post often enough for my liking, but it's worth the wait.
Comment is about RAUCOUS (blog)
Original item by Ian Gant
Another goodie, John. I enjoyed this!
Comment is about Your First Hut Is The Cheapest (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
see here. they look for her and have found much circumstantial evidance. bits of plane in the sea, raised up july 2014.
http://tighar.org/
Comment is about MIRACLE (blog)
Original item by NICK ARMBRISTER
Not only a pleasure to read but a lesson to learn.
Comment is about RAUCOUS (blog)
Original item by Ian Gant
One of the great mysteries of the air and a
timely reminder of the dangers of daring as we
follow the solo flight of that intrepid North
American teenager around the world at this time. Courage lives!
Comment is about MIRACLE (blog)
Original item by NICK ARMBRISTER
<Deleted User> (5011)
Sun 12th May 2013 14:37
Kate, where are you exactly - Gers? Les Landes, La Gironde? I have several contacts in le sud-ouest, having once lived in Les Landes Girondine for almost five years and regularly revisiting friends there. Can you get in touch please? julian@writeoutloud.net.
Thank you all for your comments. There is much to be done to make it work, get people using it, so forth. We have the classic difficulty of many of the groups I worked with in Rochdale and Oldham being what are described as 'hard-to-reach', most not being internet savvy. The upshot of that is that they were delighted to work with other groups producing handwritten translations, but find it too daunting, for now, to venture onto the computer, something that I should have realised. And the Urdu, Panjabi, Arabic and Bangla translations are in a script that I cannot understand enough to type in myself, in spite of the existence of online virtual keyboards. I think we might be able to solve that element for now for the work on my desk awaiting uploading, but it is getting people using the wiki for themselves - along the lines of hat happens with the blogs - that is the medium-term aim.
Comment is about Mad experiment on Write Out Loud – translating poems online! (article)
Thanks for your comment. All is good. I suppose it 's a good thing it caused such a reaction. I hope you shall read more of my writing and I shall read yours also.
Hope all is well.
Comment is about Rachel Bond (poet profile)
Original item by Rachel Bond
<Deleted User> (11064)
Sun 12th May 2013 13:49
fantastic every line i really enjoyed reading
Comment is about RAUCOUS (blog)
Original item by Ian Gant
Kate Britten
Sun 12th May 2013 12:57
I am living and working in South West France- have set up 'Verteuil Verse' with a friend in a French/Anglo Bar in a pretty town and getting about 20 + people come and read their poems or other people's. Hoping to build on the richness of our different mother tongue/languages and the richness of different cultures creating together.
Comment is about Mad experiment on Write Out Loud – translating poems online! (article)
Martin Peacock
Mon 13th May 2013 21:43
Hmm. An evocative and thought-provoking poem Isobel. Poems do have the unsettling habit of reminding us of our former selves don't they? Might it be better ended by changing 'after pain' to 'aftershock'?
Comment is about A day in the life of... an old coat (blog)
Original item by Isobel