Well, I have a unique angle perhaps as a lepidopterist and past train spotter. What a great idea to try and combine the two! Stoney places? Win x

Comment is about Statto of the Railway Lines (blog)

Original item by jane wilcock

Hi Greg, Re John battering songs, I have strong boyhood memories of the Selby friers. There was this one chip shop right (On Gowthorpe in the middle of the town). We called it "Fatty Bowls'" The two elderly brothers serving were always decked out in matching white 'overalls' had slicked back pure white hair. Must get more accurate details from my mum. lol

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

John, another fine rendition to keep us amused. Thankyou.

Greg, I have strong boyhood memories of the Selby friers. There was this one chip shop (On Gowthorpe in the middle of the town). We called it "Fatty Bowls'" The two elderly brothers serving were always decked out in matching white 'overalls'. Must get more accurate details from my mum. lol

Comment is about You Won't Batter Anymore (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Conjures up images of a fraught fryer in a Selby chippie on a Friday night, with plenty of salty language! Another gem. You must have enough songs for a CD by now, John. Please put me down for one.

Comment is about You Won't Batter Anymore (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

purrfect!xx

Comment is about Whisker (blog)

Original item by Yvonne Brunton

Yes, like it. As a railway enthusiast myself this captures some of the atmosphere and magic for me. Line 19; do you mean Stoke, no R ?

Comment is about Statto of the Railway Lines (blog)

Original item by jane wilcock

My sea is deep my soul is clean. Mmm, loved this one (not just this line).

Comment is about UNCTION (blog)

Original item by Ian Gant

Cats don't do it for me, I'm afraid.
(But the poem does).

Comment is about Whisker (blog)

Original item by Yvonne Brunton

"sets those very stones to sing". That does it for me, Ian.
Every bit as magical as the first man (surely a son of the gods) who took rock and fired it until an altogeher new substance, metal, bled from it.

Comment is about UNCTION (blog)

Original item by Ian Gant

I couldn't resist this one, Jane. You're right, trainspotters are not just into trains, but stations, sidings, cuttings and stony spaces as well. And it's wonderful how plants like buddleia - and butterflies, of course - colonise such places. I particularly liked "And butterflies in liveried red / burst myriad" - livery being the term for the colours of engines and carriages, as any trainspotter kno.

Comment is about Statto of the Railway Lines (blog)

Original item by jane wilcock

The winning poems should eventually go up on the Greenheart website http://www.visitgreenheart.com
Greg

Comment is about That poetry podium feeling: Greenheart prize-winner Laura on a grand night out (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Seem to have missed this, my loss. Full of strong imagery and nostalgic lines. Nice ending too. 'Lido' is an interesting word for me, origin - [C20: after the Lido, island bathing beach near Venice, from Latin litus shore] just sounds Yorkshire to me as does 'Gazebo' :-) Like the poem a lot Greg, keep up the good work.

Comment is about The cruet set (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Congratulations Laura...and the report (you`ll
have to take up Journalism)

Comment is about That poetry podium feeling: Greenheart prize-winner Laura on a grand night out (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Ian, a lovely poem for a sunday evening, the rain has petered out and the sky lightened, reminds me of Blake.

Comment is about UNCTION (blog)

Original item by Ian Gant

Hi Laura, congratulations and a well written article but help: I cant find your poem/profile??!Thanks jane

Comment is about That poetry podium feeling: Greenheart prize-winner Laura on a grand night out (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thank you, Greg. And special thanks to Ray for his recent post using different 'voices'. This poem was written many years ago, and was just sitting in a notebook. I couldn't bring myself to pitch it.

Comment is about Scanner Soap (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi MC, Echoes. Much appreciate the comments. Ta v much.

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

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Hi Greg, Echoes. Many thanks for your kind comments which are always very much appreciated.

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Enjoyed your poem and found myself chuckling. Thank you for brightening my day! Also, thank you for your comments on my poetry. Much appreciated. xxx

Comment is about LIVE AND LET DYE - A cyclist's riposte to dear Lynn Dye (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Neat simple and sad . . . Shouldnt love be a celebration rather than an addiction though . . . Jus a thought for ya ?

Comment is about What is love? (blog)

Original item by Katy Megan

Thanks , Yvonne. Reminds me of mt cats though my puppy susses they're arrival a mile off! Thank you too for your lovely comment on my poem. xx

Comment is about Whisker (blog)

Original item by Yvonne Brunton

Come On Thomas .... If the lady wants a dead mouse ...kill it yourself!!!!

Nice verse. well done!


Gus

Comment is about On not being a cat (blog)

Original item by Marnanel Thurman

Lovely, nostalgic merry go round a memories ride, your reference to never going back belongs to taking the who you are now, by virtue of your status and reputation, to the past... and starting again... it seldom ever works.

Memories should be liken, in my opinion to a shoe box of yellowing and faded family snaps...letters and the lingering scent of a pressed flower held safe between the pages of time until reopened again, which enables the minds eye to open wide and see the past clearly once more.

Great piece of writing Chris

Hope to see you soon.

Gus

Comment is about Our day out (blog)

Original item by Chris Co

*****

Comment is about SAILING DAYS (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Hi John, Re Easington, glad you liked. And an added insight of someone who has 1) been down mines and 2) someone who must have confronted the desperation of these mining towns in their decline.

I would love to go down a working mine. Or should I say love to make myself go down a working mine.

Win

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

There's a wealth of stories within this, Cynthia; overheard snippets that make you want to know more. And there is a rhythm and pizzazz about it all that I like very much. Wrong era, I suppose, but it makes me think of Damon Runyon, Guys and Dolls.

Comment is about Scanner Soap (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Thanks for the comments.I borrowed no.36 from another thread on the same site. It was as if he felt he didn't exist unless remembered.

Comment is about A Local History Facebook Group (blog)

thanks for your comment on 'Whisker', Lynn. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was a whisker from my little black furball of mischief which inspired it. XX

Comment is about Lynn Dye (poet profile)

Original item by Lynn Dye

hi SS,
this is fuller than previous. a grand piece of work. Your 'drugs as blades of a knife' is inspired. Their 'souls drain' is gently played drama that sends the reader's mind racing! And if that's not enough in a short poem, you've given us two questions to ponder. Yes a nice piece to chew on. Ta muchly, Nick.

Comment is about Kids With Drugs-2 (blog)

Original item by Shirley Smothers

Nice one, Yvonne. Cunning little critters, aren't they? Enjoyed. x

Comment is about Whisker (blog)

Original item by Yvonne Brunton

Thank you so much everyone for reading and commenting ... and all those who contacted me via facebook, mobile, and many other and varied modes of communication.

Does anyone know how to re post a pigeon ?

Gus x

Comment is about REVIEW - WOL 'Ring of Bells' Middleton (blog)

Original item by Gus Jonsson

stunning imagery.

Comment is about The Sea (blog)

Original item by Shirley Smothers

stunning poem Shirley and sadly so very true.

Comment is about Kids With Drugs-2 (blog)

Original item by Shirley Smothers

lol thanx Yvonne, based on a guy in about 1997 or so who did this. in england somewhere, was on the news. no way to get him out, he had power, food, water. not even a nuclear bomb would get him out lol. bet hes still down there:)

Comment is about NOT PAYING (blog)

Original item by NICK ARMBRISTER

Ann thank you for commenting on Chaff. It's good to see you back. Have you been doing anything nice, or just having time out?

My best,

Graham

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Charlotte, heard you at BSTG thursday jus gone . . . Enjoyed very much, all the more so as you dont compromise and follow the fashion for such contrived verse . . . Kind regards dominic . . .

Comment is about Charlotte Henson (poet profile)

Original item by Charlotte Henson

Hi Charlotte, heard you at BSTG thursday jus gone . . . Enjoyed very much, all the more so as you dont compromise and follow the fashion for such contrived verse . . . Kind regards dominic . . .

Comment is about Charlotte Henson (poet profile)

Original item by Charlotte Henson

Lovely! "All across the town

People are setting aside books

And model sailing ships."

Very moving and subtle.

Comment is about Sunday Evening (blog)

Original item by Tom Harding

I like "a weekday torn from routine" personally. Good poem - I do like what you write - and the drawings too.

Comment is about Funeral (blog)

Original item by Tom Harding

I think I've been down this one, Win. It had one of the shortest MATs(Machine Available Time)in the country because they mined so far out under the sea.
I also had cause to visit on a number of occasions after it had closed as I ran the Jobshops for redundant mineworkers nationally.
Powerful imagery, Win.

Comment is about Easington Colliery (blog)

Original item by Winston Plowes

Great!! Just looking in on WOL as I've been away and I'm delighted with the news Laura - well deserved I'm sure. xx

Comment is about That poetry podium feeling: Greenheart prize-winner Laura on a grand night out (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Rafal - welcome to WOL. Hope you put some of your poems on the blog section of the site -more people will get to read them then.

Comment is about Rafał Nowakowski (poet profile)

Original item by Rafał Nowakowski

Hi Katy - welcome to WOL. Hope to see some of your poems in the blog section soon - I really liked the Hatton Locks one especially.

Comment is about Katy Megan (poet profile)

Original item by Katy Megan

Thanks Yvonne, yes indeed!

Comment is about Worms and Cheese (blog)

Original item by Christopher Dawson

J.C. Re. "Their Finest Hour".
I seem to recall that the WW2 Italian fleet suffered a similar fate (at Taranto?) but then
they were with Hitler then...before they saw
sense and went back to being the delightful,
pragmatic people we know and love.
As always...

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Great Idea!

Comment is about NOT PAYING (blog)

Original item by NICK ARMBRISTER

Forget eros & agape :) It's all about 'amor': http://chivalrytoday.com/joseph-campbell-chivalry/

Comment is about Agape ( A-gap-ay) (blog)

Original item by Rachel Bond

Ray, I really enjoyed this. Well caught in voice/s and tone. I have a poem in similar format (about 20 years old) and have dithered about sharing it. I am encouraged to post. Thanks much.

Comment is about A Local History Facebook Group (blog)

Perhaps more 'pagan' than not, in the generally accepted sense. But, for me, 'pagan' is a non-word, like 'heathen'. I no longer recognise 'sacred' and 'secular' except as deliberately divisive propaganda. Many years ago, I seriously thought of being a minister in the Protestant Christian genre, and did indeed work within the 'church' for a very long time. I found that most ministers with in-depth scriptural knowledge, and vital enthusiasm, were virtually strangled at the pulpit by their congregations' limited 'acceptance' of Biblical scholarship. My heart literally wept for their necessity to temper, or even deny, their spiritual insights. I now go my own way entirely. I think I have made more friends than enemies; but, who knows.

Comment is about J F Keane (poet profile)

Original item by J F Keane

Dad always insisted on a male dog. (Not kidding.) He actually fathered five girls, but one died. My parents had to give up on the 'boy' thing. We did grow up with no sexual division of labour - the idea of boys' work and girls' work is anathema to me even now: WORK WAS WORK and that was the end of it. Such upbringing still affects me wholly.

Comment is about J F Keane (poet profile)

Original item by J F Keane