Please note we have moved from the 4th Wednesday of each month to the fourth Thursday of each month.

The current Gig Guide listing is out by one day (something that is in the process of being rectified).

Hope to see people Thursday.

My Best

Chris

Comment is about 'ThePoetry Spoke' Open mic! Guest Poet- Wols own Dave Bradley! - £20 prize up for grabs! (blog)

Thank you Philipos, yes that is another idea I'm considering, thanks for the suggestion.
To be honest, we mostly just laughed this episode off - well, what else can you do? lol.x

Comment is about Colin's Memory (blog)

Original item by Lynn Dye

Hi Shirley, thank you for your kind remarks on 'The Tartan Bard' very much appreciated.

Comment is about Shirley Smothers (poet profile)

Original item by Shirley Smothers

T'was my pleasure to get your eyes a-twinkling. I really enjoyed your stuff also, it's very lyrical and really sticks in your head. As an avid music fan it's just right for me. Keep 'em coming :).

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

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Poets Corner at Glassfire -Hoylake Ch47 2AG...
'Where the most notable poem will earn a cash award from the Guest Poet on the Night'...

Comment is about Poet's Corner (group profile)

Original item by Poet's Corner

Thanks for the encouragement John, was a while before I dared go into that pub again after they heard that one!

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for the comments on my work. I posted some here hoping it may kick-start me back into writing again (last few years have let keeping a roof over our heads take over my mind).

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Thanks for comment on my efforts. Enjoyed an hour reading your works and will be back for more.

Comment is about Anthony Emmerson (poet profile)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

Awww... thanks a lot Jeff..haha I went out with a young lady from Billericay many years ago..(back in the string vest days!) ha ha.. Young Love eh mate?

I wrote another one for City talk FM in Liverpool called 'The Pull' about how a man can get back in the stirrups of dating after 'Divorce'..mine was in 2005.

My book is called 'Observations On Life' available from www.countyvise or via www.Amazon or Me! or all you can call 0151 647 3333 (Birkenhead Press) or please ask at your local book shops!!..Thank you for your kind comments..I have just started up 'Poets Corner' at 'Glassfire'in Hoylake and there will be spots available for both 'Guest Poets'each month who will be given a 15 min spot to read their own work..they will also either judge or help to judge the most notable poem on the night! - plus 'FREE' guitarist/singer for a couple of say 10 min spots during the night in the future..so attention all you local Poets or Songsters just let me know if you want to perform as soon as possible ok? (just e-mail me at poets-corner@hotmail.com or FB me ok? Thank you and All the best to you and all at WOL... Graham..(keep it real)...

Comment is about Graham Robinson (poet profile)

Original item by Graham Robinson

I particularly like poems that tell a simple story, simply (hope that doesn't sound offensive), and thsi does it for me

I'm a little bit like John, and I'd have probably left out the 'to' or the 'a', but then I didn't write it, and I'd probably want to chop somebody's doo-dah's off if they messed around with one of my pieces (none of which are perfect either).

Enjoyed this

Comment is about TWO GIGGLING GIRLS (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Hi Lynn - how about 'shamefacedly' this would accurately portray how he might have felt without giving him the cause. This was a difficult subject well expressed.

Comment is about Colin's Memory (blog)

Original item by Lynn Dye

I smiled at this. Schadenfreude eh? That's a name long enough to be a poem in its own right. My brothers are nuts about the game - but somewhere along the line I missed the point of it.

Comment is about Overjoyed with Schadenfreude (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

It is your fault, Foxy!
You've got me all confusical about sighting otters locally (which I've been delighting in for the past year or so) with feeding them with thousands of pounds worth of fish!
The solution is this: when they've eaten the bleedin' lot I'll have to throw into the pond a fillet of haddock each night - that'll be much cheaper.

Comment is about autumn egg (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

J.C. - I read and re-read my line before
printing and even considered <"IN" silent rhyme> but it wasn't quite what I sought to say. As a lyricist I "sang" my line to myself and it sounded OK. I hear what you say but nothing's perfect.

Comment is about TWO GIGGLING GIRLS (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

I agree with MCN (the poet, not Motor Cycle News).
Very evocative and clever how you use words to suggest smells.
Versatile too, as I know you've done a fair amount of excellent rhythmic stuff.

Comment is about Russet Rustlings (blog)

Original item by C Richard Miles

"If my brother-in-law, a "Gooners" man,
Like poetry as much, he'd be a fan!!"
Short - and right on the money.

Comment is about Overjoyed with Schadenfreude (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

At best you'll get moved on!
Nice image of "breath like smoke upon the air".
I thought the line "Up and down to a silent rhyme" was a bit awkward rhythmically - it needed a quaver to work.
(Nothing wrong with Quavers, although I prefer Cheesy Puffs)

Comment is about TWO GIGGLING GIRLS (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

There are reminders here of Laurence Binyon's poem "The Burning of the Leaves" and that is one of my favourites.

Comment is about Russet Rustlings (blog)

Original item by C Richard Miles

You can really smell the arrival of autumn and
see the annual transformation as one season gives way to another. I am a "versifier" but if I wasn't, this would be my style. Affinity
and observation in equal measure. Nice work!

Comment is about Russet Rustlings (blog)

Original item by C Richard Miles

Thank you Stefan & Patricia (I'll regard you in the sungular). This piece has been revised with some grammatical and word changes I've also reformated the layout to make it easier to read, by putting the emphasis in the obvious places. They are always obvious to the author but one has to remember that other people come to your work blind (as it were) and hopefully leave it with a vision. Thanks again for your coments.

Comment is about Wild Cat (blog)

Original item by Peter Asher

hello mc
i could have written
this as a comment
but I've laid
it out like this
so now its
a Poem
also
ive put
the word fuck
in so now
its a
proper poem

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

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Just want to say, along with the previous posters posts, possibly, that these three are all lovely and greatly amusing. Hope to catch you live sometime.
Cheers

Comment is about Louise Fazackerley (poet profile)

Original item by Louise Fazackerley

I agree with most of the comments! Trust Banksy? Yes I'v dissapeared many times, to come back xxx

Comment is about Upon Disappearing (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Did you write 'Beatiful Minds' after reading my poem?? haha I love it

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Excellent, love it!

Comment is about If Lewis Carroll Used Spellcheck (blog)

brilliant!

Comment is about If Lewis Carroll Used Spellcheck (blog)

In some ways, Ann, your point IS political, in that if poetry is about feelings and emotions, it is about how WE feel - what makes us feel good, sad, scared, fulfilled, elated, so forth; which is about how we (all?) want to live. I don't want loadsa money (luckily), I want to be happy as much as I can, I want the sense of fulfilment one gets from sharing with and caring for others, it is about those things we share as human beings that politics should be about. Politicians seem to spend their time worrying about how to keep the rich happy, yet they are never going to be happy because what they want is not money - it's MORE, which, as an aspiration, is unsustainable and ends up costing the earth and taking from, or exploiting, the non-rich. What need are economics as if people matttered, to quote Schumacher in his book, Small is Beautiful.

Comment is about Roy Harper and the politics of poetry (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

This is really interesting. I could/would never be a political poet. I honestly don't know enough about politics and I guess my poems are all about feelings and emotions. It's that combination that precludes me from political comment in my poetry. (Basic ignorance!)

Re Shelley's comment - what if the poets in question had views that were kinda awful? Or awful in our terms? I wonder would the resultant poems be as dead and un-involving as fascist art and statues of dictators?

Art and passion and political comment can work - Picasso's Guernica for example.

As to the (I am sure true) comment about WOL and open mic and performance poetry changing lives. I know that they change lives on one level but could they change political life? They should be able to. And it's all self-expression. And communication. So a good thing.

And I'm not sure how wonderful a compliment you have paid Anwen - just how many cellist/poets ARE there in Manchester Julian? :)

PS I love Roy Harper!

Comment is about Roy Harper and the politics of poetry (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks for listening to Do the Write Thing, I'm really touched! At least that means about 12 people heard it! :) I've never been on the radio before and it was really enjoyable. The studio is smaller than most people's bathrooms, and gets really hot. Last Friday Sue and I were on with a guitarist and a bongo drum player. And all the mics got tangled up! But it was great! Keep writing!! I really like your poems very much. Wish you got more feedback. Maybe if you commented on some other people's poems they would read yours? But perhaps that's not important to you. Anyway, stay well my friend!

Comment is about SPACEGHOST (poet profile)

Original item by SPACEGHOST

Lovely poem Ann. I'd agree with all the comments particularly Rachels.

John Coopey - it serves you right for having a flash pond in your garden. I think I'd rather have an otter. I'd probably buy fish to feed to the otter.

Comment is about autumn egg (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Thanks for that last comment John - I thought you were blaming me for a moment! Sorry about the poor fish:(
(I've offered my condolences already - on FB) x

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for that last comment John - I thought you were blaming me for a moment! Sorry about the poor fish:(

Comment is about autumn egg (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I'm a bit p*ssed off with Nature at the moment. I've got an otter or a mink getting into my garden pond. It's eaten its way through 70 fish, some of them specimen Koi carp. B*st*d, b*st*d otter. I set a rat-trap only to find it next morning half-way down the garden!
Rant over. (Nice poem).

Comment is about autumn egg (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Stef & Tricia, thank you for your comment, and hey, I believe you are right - how about "sheepishly" instead?

Colin's fine thanks, though his memory still isn't great - the doctors couldn't find anything wrong anyway - so I guess that's the main thing.

Thanks again,
Love, Lynn'n'him xx

Comment is about Colin's Memory (blog)

Original item by Lynn Dye

hallo Ann
thanks for your continued support
i enjoyed listening to you on Do The Write Thing
i like the soothing tone of your voice
im addicted to wol too
thank you take care

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

that gixer is just like mine - got 3 bikes in the garage right now - I Have had as many as 7 in the past including 2 ducatis (916 + 996) & 2 RC30s. I was out on the gixer just yesterday. Keep up the good work !!
Brum Brum........

Comment is about The Rhythm of the Ride (blog)

Original item by Valerie Cook

thank You Stella- :o)

Comment is about Five degrees of separation (19th Oct 2011) (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

best thing to do for promo of calls for submissions is to submit to news@writeoutloud.net, preferably with a jpeg image.

Comment is about Little Lark Press (blog)

Original item by Lisa Zaran

Hi Harry, agreed. How do we want to live, might be the question to which we need an answer rather than politicians assuming all the time, especially ones who have not a clue what it is like to be poor, to not have the confidence or financial givens that the silver spoons bestow.

Comment is about Roy Harper and the politics of poetry (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

very moving poem Lynn-but!
(and with great respect)
lose the word 'shamefully'

not poor Colins fault
but I do get the sense of shame
he might mistakenly have felt
at the time.

how is he now?
might I ask.

certainly hope he overcomes the problem.

love

Stef&Trish.xx

Comment is about Colin's Memory (blog)

Original item by Lynn Dye

Many thanks Lynn
for comments on 'dazzled or dulled'

love

Stef&Trish.xx

Comment is about Lynn Dye (poet profile)

Original item by Lynn Dye

You dont look miserable or old? I enjoyed Fantasia! It came across as a spirit was with you?

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I luv your poems! Must take you forever, I smile and wait the next line,I think you put an awful lot into them!

Comment is about Jack Pascoe (poet profile)

Original item by Jack Pascoe

Love the journey..that walk is wonderful..did you then take the ferry?

I hope such smiles attend my departure.
I want no cross...corker..

I think I know that bloke with the parrot..wonder if it was the same one I saw with the bunny on a lead and the parrot on his shoulder?..and the Stone Roses reform as Westlife break up..good news all round..

Comment is about Five degrees of separation (19th Oct 2011) (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

The ending makes me think of rushing clouds? I love the beautiful picture, thankyou

Comment is about It's The Way (blog)

I understand the sentiment, I would be torn too! I enjoyed the rhyming too xx

Comment is about A Walk with Asylum Seekers (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

'Only Fond'! I love it. Thinking Back! especially last verse, funny and enjoyed reading it!xx

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Enjoyed this, Ann. It's fascinating how things that are out of kilter in Nature resonate with us.

Comment is about autumn egg (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Julian, good topic,

Shelly was talking beyond his brief,but you do have a point about political poetry.

It shouldn`t be about rounding up the usual suspects and subjecting them to a Kylie-style rant.

It should be about defending what (for want of a more acceptable term)are spiritual values - points of generally accepted national self-respect...in other words the effect of policies
on people (and not only the financial effect)

This should be more `poetical` to deal with than long rants about `poverty` in these days.

Comment is about Roy Harper and the politics of poetry (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Phew! Quite a schedule. Enjoyed reading this and following links to see some of your videos. As an English teacher, the Troilus and Cressida project interests me a lot. Hope it goes well.

Comment is about The diary of a spoken word bird (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman