This performed really well, Mike - ingenious, it worked a treat.

Are you going to post that one about the Golden Vision?

Comment is about Quarry Man (blog)

Original item by Mike Hilton

Thanks Anthony, been enjoying your work too. All the best,
S

Comment is about Solomon Scribble (poet profile)

Original item by Solomon Scribble

Hi Mike, thanks for commenting on 'Call Out', glad you liked it - and Welcome to the site too! :)
Best wishes, Dave

Comment is about Mike Hilton (poet profile)

Original item by Mike Hilton

I like this Dave, especially ...'to offer lines that can reach to many'.

Mike

Comment is about Call Out (blog)

Original item by Dave Dunn

Thanks for commenting John - nice to see you back.

Comment is about John Aikman (poet profile)

Original item by John Aikman

You have a warm and touching style - most welcome when the "technical" side of things can sometimes serve to obscure the quality of the content in poetry.

Comment is about STEVE RUDD (poet profile)

Original item by STEVE RUDD

Woof woof!

Comment is about John Aikman (poet profile)

Original item by John Aikman

Saw your name crop up and just wanted to say - welcome back.

Regards,
A.E.

Comment is about John Aikman (poet profile)

Original item by John Aikman

It does matter what you think and you should tell me about the odd turn of phrase.Personally, I think I do this kind of thing less well than the rhyme and rhythm stuff but it's nice to hear someone say otherwise! Poetry should be a big tent, of course. It's so obvious as to bear no argument.

Comment is about A Multitude of Sins (blog)

I liked most of the poem, Dave.
This bit sticks in my throat.

He means

litter-blitzed head

synapses in smithereens

the unhoovered brain

and cranial dust

I'd mind less if there were no punctuation throughout, but as there is, surely that section needs some too.

A Curmudgeon.

Comment is about This will do (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

I like this :)

Comment is about Wandering expositions (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Nice one Joy.. :) I really like that venue..

Comment is about ThePoetry Spoke Open Mic January- Guests Joy France- Dave Gilbey (blog)

Original item by Chris Co

This has that feel good factor that sometimes shines through the words.. :)

Comment is about This will do (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Fab, all the way up to 'fits like a glove'.

Chairs don't fit like gloves..well, not unless you are fisting them.

Maybe he was?

Jx

(all the rest is bloody brilliant)

Comment is about This will do (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

I enjoyed this, Dave - the rhythm, music, and sentiments.

Comment is about This will do (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

I agree, very interesting. 'You do your thing, I'll do mine - no problem.' The title is a real hook.

Comment is about I spoke to God today. (blog)

Original item by Brian Wood

Emma, I've read this three times. I'm not really sure about some of the lines, the ideas intended, but the overall 'feeling' is electric. There are superb images here like: 'a hug tripped over its shoelaces', with very innovative diction like 'the longing tasted like treacle'. I enjoyed it very much; and I'll get back to it again, just in case I'm a bit distracted right now.

Comment is about Tuesday (blog)

Original item by Emma McCourty

JC - your comments are almost as much fun as your blogs.

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

GP - thank you for the kindness of your comment
about "Be Grateful". As a model railway fan in
the days of my youth, I agree with Ann about your poem. I notice you have contributed to
"Devon Life". As a Paigntonian (Torbay) by birth, I bought that magazine a number of times on return visits. A good read. Well done for your success.
MC

Comment is about Glyn Pope (poet profile)

Original item by Glyn Pope

Our dog is very old and I'm preparing myself to have my heart broken.

Comment is about A Dog's Life (blog)

Original item by STEVE RUDD

It is good to read such a positive poem

Comment is about BE GRATEFUL (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

I suppose it is easy to take certain comments in the interview out of context and assume a certain bias that may not be there.

Re Fiona's belief that children in school should be taught the canon - I don't think she is suggesting that contemporary poetry shouldn't also be looked at. Just that amazing poetry, that has stood the test of time, should be recognised for what it is. Hopefully some of our contemporary poetry will stand that test of time also.

It must be much harder for teachers to teach classical poetry though, because language skills are not what they were. In fact, I think they may be in rapid decline - though some on here would just see that as 'development' ;) The majority of kids have far too many other distractions to sit down reading for pleasure. You need a love of language before you can start to appreciate creative writing or classical poetry - it also helps to have an imagination. The way many children play and develop that imagination is changing. I won't bang on about it any longer - I'm sure it's a pretty obvious fact. I think teachers have to respond to this - by and large they are teaching to the majority, not the elite few, the gifted and talented - who were probably nothing extraordinary in a different generation.

John - I realise that you can't teach people to write poetry - to some degree it is an instinctive thing. You can introduce them to it in though, inspire them to have a go, find new and more exciting ways of presenting it....

Comment is about The Write Out Loud interview: Fiona Sampson (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks for commenting on Mistress Rachel. Not a million miles from the discipline and strictures of form.

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

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Wotcha Foxy. Glad you liked Mistress Rachel. If the "Feet" thing didn't do it for you, am I any closer with this?

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Thanks for commenting on Mistress Rachel. Not quite non-rhyming; the end-line rhymes were consonant rhymes "cage", "liege", "oblige" etc. I did do one some time ago, Attila, which was a structure of mid-line rhyme, end-line non-rhyme.

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Thanks for commenting on Mistress Rachel. Not so much a fertile imagination as writing what I know about!

Comment is about Mistress Rachel (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Great one this Anthony. Very tight. Enjoyed. Win

Comment is about bay 3 (blog)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

Thank you for looking at my Clitoris, Win. We used to pronounce it to rhyme with Doris when men first discovered it - like Van Dieman's Land.

Comment is about Winston Plowes (poet profile)

Original item by Winston Plowes

Thankyou for looking at my Clitoris. I used to think it was a climbing plant.

Comment is about Mike Hilton (poet profile)

Original item by Mike Hilton

(Tap on shoulder, as you two women discuss mucky things). Thankyou for taking a look at my Clitoris.

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Sorry to interrupt you ladies' mucky women's talk, but thankyou for taking a look at my Clitoris.

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Incidentally I don't think Nature is quite so gratuitous as to give humans (women) something which is designed purely for pleasure. I think the contractions a wellworked clematis produces are designed to give the taddies a bit of a chuck on in their journey.
(How revisionist is that? The purpose of the clitoris is to assist the sperm!)

Comment is about Richie Muster (poet profile)

Original item by Richie Muster

Glad you like my Clitoris, MC. My own fetish is doing it with the light on.

Comment is about Richie Muster (poet profile)

Original item by Richie Muster

Great fun this...

Comment is about Sound Translations (blog)

Original item by Kealan Coady

Thankyou for taking a look at my Clitoris. Your comments are right on the button.

Comment is about Lynn Dye (poet profile)

Original item by Lynn Dye

Thanks for commenting on my Clitoris, MC. I have a nice specimen growing up my pergola.

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

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Thanks for commenting on my Clituris, AE.

Comment is about Anthony Emmerson (poet profile)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

Good interview with lots of points to pick up on. I have trouble reconciling this -

"Poems should be experiential. Young people do not have to be educated to the music they love - choosing it is tribal, part of their self-definition. For the few teenagers who do find poetry for themselves, it may be equally part of the self, but this happens much less often."

- with this:

"I do believe that in schools everyone should be taught the canon. It is not elitist to teach that certain writers can be thought of as amazing - to present that as a fact."

My experience of the kind of person who is usually sweepingly dismissive of contemporary poetry is that they're someone who was taught the canon, who was taught the 'fact' that a particular group of writers are amazing. Poetry doesn't seem to form part of their 'self' in the way Sampson talks of teenagers discovering music; instead, they understand it as a system of specific techniques that modern writers have abandoned. Something has gone wrong when the equation in their minds seems to be: "Wordsworth is a great poet + Wordsworth rhymes = great poetry must rhyme."

Surely we can teach poetry not apologetically, not coyly, but still leave children room to discover their real value themselves, rather than prescribing what is 'amazing'?

Comment is about The Write Out Loud interview: Fiona Sampson (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Enjoyed this very much, Anthony.

Comment is about bay 3 (blog)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

MC, thanks for your comment.

Remain in light...

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

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Isobel, yes, I wasn't meaning to be narrow in a conception of poetry. John Burnside's poetry clearly has an introspective side to it, but touches on significant themes that go beyond himself. The same, in very different ways, with Alice Oswald or Mark Ford. Comic poetry, at its best, riffs on important things (just as the best comedy tends to do). I think no poet can escape a moral role though. If you are human, who you are and what you do and say (or don't do or say) has moral implications. Poets are no different, even if they would like to be.

Comment is about The Write Out Loud interview: Fiona Sampson (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Fascinating. And well written. Got me googling and opened up a new world. Thank you.

Comment is about Rooftops (for Bruno Cordati) (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Is Joy going to have a go at Liverpool again, cos if she is.......

Only joking. Planning to be there and looking forward to it

Comment is about ThePoetry Spoke Open Mic January- Guests Joy France- Dave Gilbey (blog)

Original item by Chris Co

What a fascinating thread. I agree with what Izz says about variety and choice, and also most of what Fiona says. I would want to qualify her view that poetry is mostly a matter of sound, music and rhythm and is an 'out loud' form. That is probably true of the great majority of what most people receive as the best poetry. But all sorts of things are put into all sorts of words and have the label 'poetry' attached to them, and if someone else receives it as such and likes it, then who are we to gainsay them? A friend doing a philosophy masters degree insisted we couldn't, at any rate, and was persuasive.

Eliza's article (for which many thanks Rob) is very moving. All Europe should be aware of Lampedusa. I've been a trustee of Asylum Link Merseyside for 9 years and help in an English class every week. The class has had a Libyan and a Tunisian recently. In class, we never ask people how they came to the UK, leaving that to the caseworkers, but I will certainly look at them differently next week.

Comment is about The Write Out Loud interview: Fiona Sampson (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

good to catch up with you too C

thanks for your time x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Laura

many thanks x

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Hi G - thanks for your time and comment

x

Comment is about Gray Nicholls (poet profile)

Original item by Gray Nicholls

That is a very moving article Rob and an interesting angle you've chosen to consider. More reading might lead to a greater connection with humanity, the bigger picture - a move away from introspection - which many poets are accused of.

Personally, I don't think anyone can say what poets should and shouldn't write about or whether they should or shouldn't have a moral role. Variety is the spice of life. I love to be moved by poetry - I like poetry that looks beyond the self - but if every poem I read was of the same ilk, I would tire of it. I also like the light hearted, the comic, and yes the cathartic - if it is written well and not overly self indulgent.

Most people could do with reading more. If you want to write to a particular form, you can't go wrong by studying that form - and the masters of that form - otherwise it's too easy to get it wrong.

Comment is about The Write Out Loud interview: Fiona Sampson (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Interesting interview and comments. I was especially interested in what Fiona says on voice and music. People are often advised to "find their voice" but that can often be very limiting. Once you've think you've found the voice, it's too easy just to stick with it. That might explain why some people seem to write the same kind of poem over and over again.

I agree that music is vital and that it's not just about rhyme or meter, but the phrase "a kind of grammatical logic" doesn't exactly capture it either! I wish she had expanded on what she menat by that. On the other hand, it's maybe impossible to deal with a subject as big as this in a blog interview.

On the question of westernisation, I'm sure that we do have less ability to concentrate and to go deep these days. On the other hand, it does provide an opportunity for poets, something to react to or (sometimes) to react against. I was thinking about this when reading the fantastic article in this month's 'Poetry' magazine by Eliza Griswold - http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/243226. Towards the end, she writes, "I think of what Wallace Stevens says in 'The Necessary Angel'. A poet has no moral role. A poet has to use imagination to press back against the violence of reality. I don’t agree. He also wrote that reality was growing more insistent, more violent. I agree with that." She's talking about more sinister moral and physical violence than generally exists in popular UK culture, of course, but the question of a poet's moral role can no longer be brushed aside by poets.

As for the small amount of readers compared to the large amount of writers, I guess it has been so for a very long time. I do wish people would read more. It's vital to support magazines, poets and publishers as well as to pick up ideas and techniques for one's own work.

Comment is about The Write Out Loud interview: Fiona Sampson (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Anthony - I do love your presence on WOL - you make me laugh. I think you could take Jeremy Paxman on when it comes to grasping the nettle...

I love your question though! Maybe we should politicise the Poetry Society - get it to demonstrate and lobby.

Suggested slogans for the placards:-

'MORE CREATIVE WRITING ON THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM'

'POETRY FOR ALL'

You'd have to swell the ranks of the poetry society to get it to work though. Maybe having no fees to join might help. Or help for those on benefit/tax credits...

Comment is about The Write Out Loud interview: Fiona Sampson (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman