This is just a bit of fun, posted for my cousins down south, who spent last week-end with me in the said hotel. It had to be experienced to be believed. x

Comment is about The Yeung Sing Hotel (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Hi Anna,

Clever title and witty take on the subject! Some good half-rhymes - reminded me a little of Wendy Cope. Enjoyed!

Regards,
A.E.

Comment is about A man after my own heart (blog)

Original item by Anna McCrory

Hi Marianne,

I always feel as if I've strayed into another realm when reading your work. You have not only a unique way of seeing things, but also a very creative way of recording your thoughts. "Through a glass darkly . . . "

Regards,
A.E.

Comment is about Narci (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

Hi Tom,

Can I say that I think that you have an enviable abilities in both your writing and illustrations. Anything which complements the written word, dragging it from the dusty and sometimes inaccessible page is to be admired and welcomed.

Regards,
A.E.

Comment is about The Living & The Dead (blog)

Original item by Tom Harding

When I write, I just hope that in the piece somewhere there can be a killer line/word/expression etc.
"To matter amongst the matter" Genius! Isobel
I also like your observation (easy for a mum) of his father's lips but your eyes. Well done Isobel, another well written piece.

Comment is about The Stuff of Life (blog)

Original item by Isobel

A remarkable and special poem. Almost inspirational in the vision it presents of lifelong enthusiastic love-making with one other. Some may find that unsettling or unconvincing, but I find it heart-warming

Comment is about The Other Side of Kenneth (blog)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

Thanks for your comment Elaine - the poem is based on a true life moment, as you may have guessed. Kids are great for inspiring, aren't they?
Missed you at the Tudor last month. Hope you can make Aprils. x

Comment is about Elaine (poet profile)

Original item by Elaine

You are right - I wouldn't have said 'why, no' - it sounded more poetic than 'no' though - the line needed one more syllable. The way we say things isn't always that pretty and I don't think it hurts to bend things a little in poetry.
I can't see myself on the South Bank Show any time soon - but yes, I am slowly growing in confidence - that's what it's all about really, isn't it? If I could gift anything to my kids, it would be confidence. I should write a poem about that...

I like the chair picture. It tells me that you don't take life/yourself too seriously. I would like to have seen a picture of you climbing up there also - that would have been funny! xx

Comment is about Anthony Emmerson (poet profile)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

I love this Anthony. I'm not sure whether such men exist but life could be perfect if they did. You managed to wrong foot me. I imagined Kenneth had a nasty side that no-one knew about but he was just a good lover at the end of the day.

Your poem reminds me that you can never judge a book by its cover. It is a lovely glimpse into an ideal world, tinged with sadness though.

I'm not going to comment on use of language - I can't be arsed when I just enjoy something. x

Comment is about The Other Side of Kenneth (blog)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

Hi Val,

Congratulations on POTM! A celebratory and uplifting poems of what might be a dark moment in a life - well done! You go for it girl!

Regards,

A.E.

Comment is about Valerie Cook (poet profile)

Original item by Valerie Cook

Andy, this is fantastic - love it. The whole poem is like a sign of those times & also an expression of human nature. There is something of the belittling of the other - the view of the riot: "By all accounts / It was little more than a protest" - not your view but the official view & "Without even / A thank you for attending." The repetition of "all I could..." is really inspired - there is something about the way you are underselling the action here that makes it all the stronger.
Having heard your Moss Side poem I can really hear your voice in this poem. Good stuff - very vivid & powerful.

Comment is about Up on the Roof (Strangeways) (blog)

Original item by Andy N

So sparse & simple. It seems very Japanese with a hint of Zen Buddhism in there. The stanzas echo haiku. This could all be filtered through western eyes of course but I'm convinced!
Some of the detail is almost random but I like this - it paints a picture & helps to tell the tale. Very enjoyable.

Comment is about Plum blossoms in snow (blog)

Original item by Dave Morgan

Fantastic, great wit and such tight writing.

Comment is about The Student (blog)

Ann, you have such a fine touch - another lovely poem. X

Comment is about foxheart (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Interesting, Kealan. It's all still faith at the end of the day - knowledge is possibly just the coincidence of an agreement between some homo sapiens that our perceptions intersect. Or am I just over-thinking it all?!
You seem to me to be saying that holy texts have got nothing on lived experience anyway. Like it.

Comment is about How Can god Be When Spring Rains (blog)

Original item by Kealan Coady

So very touching and made all the more so with the beautiful photo you have used for the illustration. You have written such a finely felt and loving poem, Ann, bless you. xxx

Comment is about The Tooth (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Enjoyed this - the "certainty of youth", great words. I love your son's answer very much - without carbon there'd be no love! Perfect. xxx

Comment is about The Stuff of Life (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Great stuff Greg. A poem to make everyone think - and there aren't too many of those about.

Regards,
A.E.

Comment is about Question 17 (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Isobel,

Sorry for the delay in responding; I haven’t had much time or inclination for the pen of late.

“Haven” is a very old poem – although I still have a soft spot for her. Any fan of Coronation Street – or the shipping forecast for that matter, could probably date it fairly accurately. I freely admit to having no knowledge whatsoever of the musings of the celebrated Ms Cartland - the perils of using one’s imagination! As for the character, she may or may not exist; all I know is that she was somewhere around the misty periphery of my butterfly mind. I guess it was written to illustrate how we are able to isolate ourselves from the larger world, living in our own warm cocoons while life and its wild perils carry on regardless. Sometimes people seem able to do this without feeling the pain of loneliness.

Your own writing/performing seems to be going from strength to strength – deservedly so. (Yes I still read, even when I’m not writing!) Yesterday The Morton Arms – tomorrow The South Bank show! Who knows? You go for it. You know I admire the “directness” of your writing, and I suspect others do too.

“The Stuff of Life” is very clever by what it implies and leaves unsaid. A poem to read “between” the lines of. I think it probably says a lot about you. Just one word that I felt was superfluous – the “why” as in “Why, no.” I admit it’s not exactly the proverbial sore thumb – but I can’t for one second imagine a solid northern lass like yourself ever saying it in preference to the plain “no”! (Sounds a little too “Gone With the Wind” for your neck of the woods! But then you probably don’t give a damn!)

I have tinkered with my profile a little – and yes, that really is me on the big chair. (Or is it that the chair is normal and I’m really tiny?) I may change it all again soon – even back to the guy with his head up his butt – more me sometimes . . .

Take care,

A.E.

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Lovely, poignant. Old people and their world of small things can arouse such strong feelings in us can't they

Comment is about The Tooth (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Love it!

Comment is about The Stuff of Life (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Oi've been invoited to the Time Team Dig
Oi'm gonna have to buy a silly wig
Oi'll have to talk in a gormless voice
they basically said oi ad no choice
Oi'll 'ave to get me bum-crack waxed
or else me invoite might get axed
them ancient viewers don't want fluff
If they did they'd seek out Annie's muff
an so me stupid little ditty
is gonna end 'fore it gets too shitty
Oi'm off to see yon Blackadder chap
'e said me poem's fuckin crap !

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

You can't do that !
...as Jack Nicholson would bellow
"You can't handle the tooth"

Comment is about The Tooth (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Non... Tu m'as très bien cité : )

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Congratulations Val, on Poem of the Month. I love it - it is one I can really identify with - the answer for me was YES,YES, YES!!!!

xx

Comment is about Valerie Cook (poet profile)

Original item by Valerie Cook

I really like this, Isobel... both the question and YOUR answer!

Comment is about The Stuff of Life (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Yeah! But then they all go down the pub! I like to pretend they are all my friends! Don't you? ;)
... with friends like them, I really wouldn't need any enemies, now would I ??

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

HarHar - they have to catch me first !! (shakes fist)

Comment is about Question 17 (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

cheers Mr Freeman for comments on 'Tynonidae'I had left a line out by mistake(listens intensely)pardon late reply-just back from hols-thanks Greg.

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

belated thanks Mel for comments on 'Tynonidae'-just back from hols-to discover I had left a line out(listens intensely)doh! ta lots.xx

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

'I used this as team name in a pub quiz once. ha ha!'...I used the name 'wet wet wet' in a quiz at a summer camp- there were three in the teem and we all got drenched (tents) then 6 months later a Scottish band emerged with the same name!

Comment is about Marianne Daniels (poet profile)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

Photograph by Michael Crowley

Comment is about Rachel Bond Studio Poetry The Studio Liverpool Mar 2011 (photo)

and/or perhaps larkin's This be the Verse?

and they were fucked up in their turn
by fools in old-style hats and coats
who half the time were soppy stern
and half at one another's throats

reminiscent of grey Autumn days which, up here in the Pennines tend to be all year round. the buttoned-up British. Just been talking to a friend near Bordeaux, 25 celsius there, pissing down here.

Comment is about The Living & The Dead (blog)

Original item by Tom Harding

I think you should. Nicely worded observation Ann.

Comment is about The Tooth (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I agree with Cynthia and all - you should never post a poem like this on 11th hour. I only do that with things I don't mind sliding into obscurity.

I found the 'then, and she took herself in, in him' and odd combination of words but I loved everything else. The image of the hands like a dove, the grating of the moon, the jealous sun, the crown of male thorns - all wonderfully refreshing imagery. And - what's more - I could understand it! You'll hate me for saying this but a poem has to do that for it to ring my bell.

Brilliant stuff. x

Comment is about Narci (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

love all your photos keith x

Comment is about Wesley Byrne at Egg Cafe, Liverpool, March 2011 (photo)

i love this marianne...'the sun would be jealous and dip her fingers into herself' could repost the whole thing here for examples of beautiful poetry

narcissus in the lake a favourite myth of mine.

Comment is about Narci (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

Very dark but I agree with the sentiment. Loved this: "free to shop" - that is it - free to consume and be consumed. Really appreciate how you have communicated these ideas in such a powerful and accessible form. Brill, Pete.

Comment is about 'New and invigorating ways to erode' - or 'the brain is impressively hard to control' (blog)

Blown away by this poem. Very, very strong writing. It has that wonderful feeling that what you are talking about is somewhow just under the surface of your words, not hidden exactly but not yet fully revealed, making the reader work.

Comment is about Anish and the Moon (blog)

Original item by Rebecca Audra Smith

Great fun poem, Greg. Really enjoyed it.

Comment is about Question 17 (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Very much enjoyed your poem, Marianne. Love the use of colour. I also really liked: "bit her hands together like a dove" - wonderful contrast.

Comment is about Narci (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

Lovely, effective poem. I love this line: "People turn serious / in coats and hats". Are you referencing Joyce in the title?
The illustration is a nice touch but no leaves?

Comment is about The Living & The Dead (blog)

Original item by Tom Harding

Cynthia, many thanks for your comments on both "Moon" & "Luxury". I really appreciate you taking the time to comment. I also agree with Julian's comments on "Luxury" and will have a go at re-posting. Never done that before so here's hoping I don't delete the lot!
Hope you are well & all our best to Stan too. XX

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

The first 7 lines are brilliant and you do need some more after this. I think Julian has a point but not that these lines should be cut entirely but maybe they could stand tightening up somewhat.
I am fascinated by this theme of seeming chance, the randomness of the universe. I had this experience myself when someone crashed into me on my way to work. I had taken a slightly diffrerent route, something I had never done before and suddenly, bam!, my car was a right off. X

Comment is about Routine is death; Death is routine (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Thank you for your comments on "Luxury". Glad you enjoyed it. XXX

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Hello & many thanks for your comments on "Luxury". Yes, I have read lots of Woolf. The issue with time is as you know one I've been struggling with lately so it all came so naturally - I had to write something about it! XXX

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Lovely poem Marianne and I agree with previous comments x

Comment is about Narci (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

I think you're probably just a much nicer person than me - I get grumpier the older I get :)

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Fabulous. Every word and image is a jewel - breath-taking diction and mood. The final stanza is wonderful.

PLEASE REPOST IT TOMORROW FOR THE WEEKEND. IT WILL JUST DISAPPEAR AT MIDNIGHT! MARCH 31, YES?

Comment is about Narci (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

enjoying Time Team is like having a wank whilst wearing boxing gloves - it promises so much but delivers so F***ing little (spurt !)

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove