Great poem...

Comment is about Ghandi's Racism (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

I like sections three and four.

(The albatross has echoes of Coleridge)

Comment is about Bearings (blog)

Original item by Noetic-fret!

very much enjoyed Thom.xx

Comment is about Fascinator Moon (blog)

Original item by Tom

very topical old bean, chin chin.

Comment is about UK GIN DEPENDENCE PARTY (blog)

Original item by Attila the Stockbroker

Ian,
The picture and the poem together powerful.

The poem would also stand on its own with a suitable sub-title.

(Often I feel that a picture `overpowers` the poem
but this would `work` with any apt picture)

Comment is about Azrael (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Marianne,
This one is a sly lie.

Comment is about The Blahs (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

I like this, Gus. From a 'poetry view', I would carve out some adjectives that don't add much and detract a lot from the movement of words and rhythm, burdening the ideas that could surge freely forward into our minds. The repetition is skillful and effective.

Comment is about Dark Night (blog)

Original item by Gus Jonsson

Do you drink some kind of magic 'poetry potion'? Perhaps you have tiny, writhing glass flasks lined up in a dark cupboard, red, yellow, blue, green, and purple liquids, gleaming into your eyes when your creak open the door, scanning the rainbow bottles, frowning, to take your choice.

I really like that fantasy. Your breadth of ideas amazes me.

Comment is about The Blahs (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

great piece Ian.x

Comment is about Azrael (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

Thanks for your comments Cynthia!

David

Comment is about AMERICANO (blog)

Original item by David Subacchi

Hello there just wanna say, thanks for that comment I appreciate when someone truly understands what I write

Comment is about Noetic-fret! (poet profile)

Original item by Noetic-fret!

Thanks folks for the comments.

Cynthia,...fixed it, thanks. :)

Comment is about Posthumous (blog)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

That's wonderful news Mark. Being able to express your feelings in poetry is what it's all about for me. To then have those feelings go directly to the people who inspired your words, is the most rewarding of all.

Comment is about One Of Us - A Stephen Lawrence Tribute (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

Late on the uptake..oh god I remember nights like those..couldn't take them now! Super sound clip Ian!

Comment is about Drunk (Spinning Wheel Blues) (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

really well done Mark - a fitting tribute

Comment is about One Of Us - A Stephen Lawrence Tribute (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

I've just been told that the piece has been shown to Doreen Lawrence and that the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust will feature it on their website. Some opinions are more important than Mr Newberry to me! Thanks again to all who made positive and supportive comments.

Comment is about One Of Us - A Stephen Lawrence Tribute (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

Absolutely well done to you Frances. What a prize to win, too! now, who's going to review YOUR work?

Comment is about Write Out Loud's reviews editor wins poetry award (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thank you sir, that's very kind of you, I'm glad you're enjoying them - the 'macabre' is right up my street, so there will be plenty more :)
Thanks again
Simon

Comment is about Danse Macabre (The Dance of Death) (blog)

Original item by Simon Austin

Fantastic again! This sort of poetry is right up my street :-) Your use and choice of words is precise and totally appropriate, giving a real beauty to the horrors it portrays. Keep up the good (and prolific) work mate
Ian

Comment is about Danse Macabre (The Dance of Death) (blog)

Original item by Simon Austin

Fantastic poem full of rich imagery Simon. Really enjoying reading your stuff.
Ian

Comment is about Unto the Somme (blog)

Original item by Simon Austin

Fascism lurks in the brightest corners; perhaps the 'person' who threw the bomb hides behind a facade of respectability. Well thank all the gods they can't bomb ideas! It's good to know that Freedom still exists [in every sense of the word]. We are entering dark times, very dark times indeed and a single candle is all it takes to shine a light for the righteous. Property isn't the only theft: stealing our right to free and fair knowledge is perhaps even more invidious. Rage on!

Comment is about Write Out Loud regulars in collection supporting fire-hit bookshop (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

thanks for your insightful comments on 'drunk' John. The music was an attempt at a carousel (spinning) and a music box playing a lullaby (sleep) so you were pretty much spot on.

Also loving 'I have a bream' - reminded me of what i used to shout when i got home from school - "Mam, Im here"

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

good one Ray

try Quince tarts on the 17th day - yummy :-)

Comment is about Ordering Food (blog)

Hahaaa Ray - nice one :D Puts my symmetry obsession to shame ;D Liked the rhythm to this, and the idea behind it.

Comment is about Ordering Food (blog)

Made me smile too. When does the CD collection come out John?

Comment is about I Had A Bream (Fishermen's Tales) (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Powerful poem, Mark, and spot on in what it is saying. To the extent that people "doubt those wearing blue" a society is in trouble. A civilised society depends on trust that the police will fulfil their very special role properly. That in turn depends on accountability over failures, and credible responses to them. Recent history has demonstrated that it can sometimes take many many voices to make this happen. All the more reason to keep raising your voice. Done the right way, it strengthens those within the police force who are trying to change it in positive ways and they need all the help they can get.

Comment is about One Of Us - A Stephen Lawrence Tribute (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

Hi- re ''How do women escape?'' the blood spilt was a reference to the violence already suffered by the woman. If I could have gone back in time I would have drew a question mark- to act as an interrogative- in the blood. Then I may have been up for an Arts Council grant. Tommy

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Isobel I can absolutely see those parallels to the campaign for justice for the victims of Hillsborough.

I can see why as a mother the Duffy piece would resonate. It is extremely powerful.

For me, Stephen is a peer, less than six months my junior, his life would have been parallel to mine and my friends, all of whom grew up around the corner from him, any of whom could have been in that place at that time. That was the 'one of us'

Comment is about One Of Us - A Stephen Lawrence Tribute (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

Although born out of racial disharmony, in the end, for me, the Stephen Lawrence case became much more than that. It was about gross failures in our justice system and an illustration of just what a mother's love can achieve.

I see great parallels between Stephen Lawrence's mother and Ann Williams, who would not rest until the truth about Hillsborough was acknowledged. Both were strong, dignified women - human beings you could look up to.

I hope I'm not prolonging any discord by chiming in here. Clearly, there are some people who will just never be on the same wavelength as yourself so it's wasted breath trying.

I don't know if you've ever read the Carole Ann Duffy poem on the subject Mark - but it was a very moving one. I'm the mother of a soon to be 20 year old, so perhaps it resonates with me more for that.

Comment is about One Of Us - A Stephen Lawrence Tribute (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

Your first post is ridiculous in its ignorance,as evidenced by the factual inaccuracy, provocatively emotive language and offensive parallels which you choose to draw. The idea that the number of blows involved is how we compare crimes is so childish it as to make you look like a the bigoted troll you really are. You have consistently ignored the criminal and possibly fatal actions of the officers involved. These are what sets this murder in a different category.

Hypocrisy "The poet has the opportunity to remark on what goes unremarked - and can perform a valuable function in addressing perceived wrongs for those who OTHERWISE would be ignored, forgotten or abandoned" from the man who wrote a poem about the biggest media funeral in over a decade!

Do the victims of institutionalised racism have your sympathy and respect? What about those that have to fight to get the justice that they need? Those that know that it is because of racism they have lost a family member AND been denied justice.

Please do feel free to avoid coming down my one-way street, unless you have something intelligent to say!(all though if you did, I would assume your account had been hacked)

Comment is about One Of Us - A Stephen Lawrence Tribute (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

Funny! It's always a pleasure to read your poetry. It made me smile.

Shirley

Comment is about I Had A Bream (Fishermen's Tales) (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Hello MC,
Glad you liked "Michael Seen Flora". A true story as my mother told it. She had no doubts.

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

Original item by M.C. Newberry

hello Cynthia,
Thanks for your thoughts on "Michael Seen Flora".
Of course, it isn't really a poem at all. It's a piece of prose I wrote and chopped up into little lines.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Many thanks for your thoughts on "Michael Seen Flora". Your recollection of the howling dog reminded me of a seance me and some mates did when we were teenagers when our dog who had slept in his basket through most of it suddenly leapt up and ran out howling into the kitchen at the very moment that the Christams Fairy fell off the tree behind us. Scary, or what?

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

So sad that they all grow up and flee the nest and now she will make her own,and a meat eater she as become no more quorn.

Comment is about Invite To Tea (blog)

Yeah, I've been without Ruth ever since I took up poetry. Ruth was beauty, beauty was Ruth...

Comment is about Vive la difference: Tennyson's heirs and Thatcher's children (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

"Ignorance"..."hypocrisy"?
You stay in your one-way street if you want to.
Family of all murder victims have their own desperately painful reasons for remembrance and regret and the need for justice.
THEY have my respect and sympathy.
End of story.

Comment is about One Of Us - A Stephen Lawrence Tribute (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

Although I am fortunate not to have to identify with the aspect of death in this context, it does manage to evoke some distant memory of elderly relations and their homes...like entering a mysterious museum full of silence and times past, with coloured baubles and little ornaments that spoke of other lives lived and other experiences long since the stuff of memory. Children have their own pass into that world - as if nature is preparing them for what lies ahead. I can certainly recall feeling and understanding beyond my actual years when I look back now.

Comment is about The Candy Train (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

'and-somewhere another night died'

!!!!!!!!!!!

great poem.x

Comment is about Drunk (Spinning Wheel Blues) (blog)

Original item by Ian Whiteley

very nice Larisa!x

Comment is about Water & Fire (blog)

Original item by Larisa Rzhepishevska

great poem Harry.x

Comment is about Posthumous (blog)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Congratulations Frances!

Comment is about Write Out Loud's reviews editor wins poetry award (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

There is a lot in this, Michael, a lot to consider, and it's well worth reading. But it is long, and in some places repetitive, which may be on purpose for effect. If you could harness your strong ideas and powerful words a bit more, the poem would be very impactive. It's a difficult subject that needs an audience.

Comment is about The Worst We All Feared (blog)

Original item by Noetic-fret!

Cheers folks!

Haha Isobel - ooo I very much doubt it ;D

Must read that book actually Darren...

Comment is about Write Out Loud regulars in collection supporting fire-hit bookshop (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Why the photo anyway, I did wonder? Murder implied? If so, not really fair.

Comment is about How do women escape? (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

I'm glad you enjoyed it, I'll probably take your advice and put it back on tomorrow.

Comment is about Crab Fisherman (blog)

Original item by connor.may.cm@gmail.com

Harry, check 'Hopelessly' - just a typo.

Comment is about Posthumous (blog)

Original item by Harry O`N eill

Really good, plain and effective, a great marriage of fine diction and intrinsic poetical skills.

Consider reposting tomorrow, because this blog will disappear overnight as May takes over. It will be in the April slot. but I'm not sure how many readers go back. And this should be upfront for a few days.

Comment is about Crab Fisherman (blog)

Original item by connor.may.cm@gmail.com

Fantastic.

Comment is about Write Out Loud's reviews editor wins poetry award (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks Greg.

Comment is about Write Out Loud's reviews editor wins poetry award (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman