Hi David - many thanks for taking the time to read and comment on Jacob's Ladder - do appreciate the kind words

Comment is about David Cooke (poet profile)

Original item by David Cooke

A touching poem Ann. Reminds me I haven't seen our garden fox for quite a while.

Comment is about foxheart (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Yes, Cynthia, You did pretty well with the words you were given. Personally, I hate writing workshops. Just can't write to order - maybe wish I could have a go, but I can't!

Comment is about zone (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Very perky, Cynthia! LIke the playful use of rhyme. Clever, too, of Greg to remind us all of Hardy's great poem!

Comment is about Tiny Talk (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Cyntiha Good to hear from you again and glad you liked The Railway House. I've taken the opportunity to to check out this piece which I find very powerful and moving. David

Comment is about Trilogy of Heroes (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Cynthia - many thanks for commenting on Jacob's Ladder and especially for taking time to unwrap the various layers of allegory x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Cynthia - (When Man Has Gone) I am not sure why I arrived at a ten-toed foot other than to demonstrate an alternative form - I have responded in some depth on this and really appreciate your views. Thanks for commenting in such depth x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Jeff, thanks for your comments on 'No Job For A Man' - something had to come out of watching the entire re-run of 'When The Boat Comes In', hehe.

Best wishes, Dave

Comment is about Jeffarama! (poet profile)

Original item by Jeffarama!

Hi Fatima
Your work is ever-wonderful and you seem to be really going place with it since we first met you at the Wigan slam all that time ago.
Keep on doing what you are doing, and inspiring us all.

Comment is about Fatima AL Matar (poet profile)

Original item by Fatima AL Matar

"Somewhere the Sun" I feel expresses in a different way what I was going on about in JUNK.
I really like it-"the poets leapt like tigers/or wanted to" is great and funny : )
I'm in North Herts and am looking for more open mic opportunities-anything doing in Beds?

Comment is about David Mac (poet profile)

Original item by David Mac

Thanks for your comments on JUNK
Judging by the time of your posting, perhaps it was more than connecting with you! : D

Comment is about David Mac (poet profile)

Original item by David Mac

TV is brain washing but least your aware of it.

Comment is about The End of my Soul on Saturday Nights (blog)

Original item by David Mac

Hey Marianne, i'm glad you liked 'I am Whale'x

Comment is about Marianne Daniels (poet profile)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

OMg! Kealan, enjoyed this, it never rains but what it pours and Bolton prob not much different annual rainfall than Waterford! Wasn't sure about the rain in spring, as Rach says we need some rain for beauty, but whether (or weather ha!) it's the work of god or not, I've no idea!

Understand the rest of what you're saying and for me the jury will probably always be out! Some really well chosen words and lines, thought provoking. I've never been that religious but no worries if people are, just don't get it when belief becomes fanaticism and so on, but if it helps your average worshipper feel better then great.

Having said all that I do love going in churches for the peace and serenity and I'm sure something significant happened all those years ago! Never read the manual and at 49 I can't see me bothering really but did like your reflections on it and I'm sure you've got a good few points there! Oh well, hope you're well lad, catch ya soon, Jeff

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

Original item by Kealan Coady

We don't know we're born these days Dave! Enjoyed reading these reflectiosn of the past, best wishes Jeff

Comment is about No Jobs For A Man (blog)

Original item by Dave Dunn

In a breath
We were born to die
The initial wonder
And the opening cry
Every foundation
A little white lie
Living too pure
To say goodbye

And as we go on
year after year
Haggling a price
That's still too dear
While every fall
Inflates our fear
Praying for the end
To be finally near

Day follows day
In one languid mope
Peddlers peddle peddling
Infinities of false hope
And love barely fetches
The price of old rope
As minds scar deeply
In an effort to cope

I wake on the morning
That I will be wed
Hot in my arms
My head against her head
A vision of beauty
In a sheet stained bed
We could get up
But sleep on instead

Comment is about goodbye (blog)

Original item by Melanie Coady

I am really shocked that your all saying work on it. I really don't know what it is about it that I don't like, I just don't like it. It may be how it switches styles in the middle or something, I just don't think it flows right, or that it relates what I wanted it to. I write 30-40 poems a day and I really don't have time to break down and edit every poem, so I really have to pick and choose which ones merit the time needed to become something I'd let get put in a book. I just don't think this one shows any promise of me ever liking it.

On a side note, Cynthia, wow, I never noticed that this could be an incestuous poem. Thanks for catching that possibility. I've not ever tried writing any poems about messed up family problems like that, I think you've inspired me to try my hand at some new material.

Comment is about Untitled (blog)

wasnt a 'Bedlington' terryuppier was it Ledge?

Comment is about Old Alfie (blog)

TRASH NOT!Terry,its an absolute wow of a poem-excellent use of simple words.a really lovely read.thank you.

Comment is about Untitled (blog)

a very unusual and brill poem(IMHO) Charlene.thank you.x

Comment is about Lockdown (blog)

ta Kool Koadys Kid for comments on 'Late revelations.mucho appreciated.x

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

What about it don't you like, Terry? The way it reads, or what it is about?
The latter we cannot really comment on, only speculate about. The former is only problematic because it is still in draft, it seems to me. Some absolutely stunning lines in here, that make us eager to see the poem completed, edited so that all remains are the stunning lines.
One approach you could try is one we use in workshops: print it off, then cut out all the best lines, throw the rest away, then move the lines you have left around and see what it leaves you. It usually works a treat. Worth a try at least. stick them on a sheet of A4 with Pritt so you can lift them off and move them until you see what you have.

Comment is about Untitled (blog)

I think it's way too good to trash it.
I'd live with it a while longer & see if any trimming's needed (or additions) but it's a great read.

Comment is about Untitled (blog)

It's the 'Sliding doors theme isn't it Dave? The notion that we have choices at every turn, and each choice has its own implications. Like just missing the plane for some seemed a disaster at the time, until they heard the news later..
I agree with Cynthis about the power of those lines with the times in.
However, for me, the power is diluted by all the following lines except the last. if you took out the lines <Delayed by...> to <...you think>, and leave the last line in, I think it would be even more powerful, and more subtle. Just me perhaps.

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

Original item by Dave Bradley

HaHa - it's a poem about you & your damn fox - was the foxglove not a clue enough?
a fox's words stole my heart = coromandel.
summer's almost here ? - you said it first ;)

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Cynthia - many thanks for commenting on Ireland with Betjeman - I did wonder how this might be perceived and who Emily really was especially in the light of some recent revelations that it may have been the late (?) Duchess of Devonshire from highest nobility in the land x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Shades of Pope's essay here:
Know then thyself,
Presume not God to scan
The proper study of mankind
is man.

Excellent company you keep in your writing Kealan.

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

Original item by Kealan Coady

Hi Cynthia

Thanks as ever for your kind comments on Routine is Death. I'm staying in the Rhondda at the moment and the driving on the dangerous hill roads round here contributed to the chain of thought. Curious what starts a poem isn't it.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

I must own up at once to getting it a bit wrong, Ann! I jumped to the conclusion that this poem was about your late cat. Well done for what you did. This poem clearly has a lot of resonance.

Comment is about foxheart (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

That's a very mysterious comment Greg - my poem must be deeper than I thought - but then, maybe it is. Basically, it's just another St Agnes roadkill story. A beautiful fox was killed by a car (very near to where a badger, also a subject for a poem) was killed a few weeks ago. Couldn't bear to see her gradually disintegrate, so went out early this morning and carried her home to bury in my garden. I didn't want anyone to think I'm odd (me? Odd??:) so I went out at dawn - felt like Burke and Hare! But poor beautiful fox, safe in my garden now, under a rosebush. Name of rose is Glorianna. A good name for a fox I'd say! And I buried her with a rosequartz heart, for luck! Thanks for kind comments. xx

Comment is about foxheart (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I'll be back, Joshua.

Comment is about Home (blog)

Original item by Joshua Van-Cook

Many of us on WOL will think we know what this is about, Ann. Simple and strong.

Comment is about foxheart (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I think this is terrific. Very, very clever structure, like cars whizzing past constantly, and then a 'blip' for a crash and a life lost, and a moment of reflection, and then - off again; the feeling for me is: back to the start of the poem.

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

Original item by Dave Bradley

Excellently put with 'pith and vinegah'.

There have been other poems on this idea. It might make a good subject for a shared 'theme'.

Comment is about The End of my Soul on Saturday Nights (blog)

Original item by David Mac

Thanks !
(I have no idea what the offside rule is :D )

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

I know that I know what I know. Yes? This is excellent, Kealan, well-considered, bold, honest and provoking in the best way. The opening two lines are an effective hook to catch the reader's interest, and to begin your theme. The final two lines are apt and forceful. It is interesting that your conclusion of a 'Non-god' rests on the cycle of seasons only, but it does make a strong point, and perhaps, in one poem, that is all you wanted. The lower-case 'god' in the title is very clever.

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

Original item by Kealan Coady

Many lines are simply beautiful. A very well-crafted poem in general. I can't quite decide whether it is a father's incestuous relationship with a daughter, or just first love between teenagers as 'to rob me of an apology due' seems to imply. Whatever, the diction breathes sensuality. Don't trash it.

Comment is about Untitled (blog)

Really like the spare simolicity of this. There's no sense of the wrier straining to make us feel something, just a bunch of simple words: reminds me of H.D. -

I like its simple imagism - the 'direct treatment of the thing' of it.

Comment is about foxheart (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Spare, tight, essential, a hint of something lost.
It's sad yet uplifting, wonderfully unsentimental whilst evoking sentiment.
Quartz is hard, cold; a heart that beats no more, yet the life that burgeons around it, is it willing the heart back to life?
And the whole hints at a poet's heart hovering between stone and life.
Blimey, see what your lovely poem did!

Comment is about foxheart (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Powerful stuff Pete and as each day passes with the situation in Japan your poem gets more and more relevant. I hope I get to see you perform this one.

Excellent

Comment is about I am Mox (blog)

After re-reading this, I don't like it. I'm trashing it.

Comment is about Untitled (blog)

hey laura...its nearly monday! will see you for bunfly recording debriefing sesh. ill bring my violin.
louise coulson mentioned getting heads together to organise the reading tents for imploding festival. havent written anymore of the childrens stuff so maybe we could have a chat about that.
see you then x

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Hi Melanie - glad you enjoyed When Man Has Gone - thanks for taking the time to read it x

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

brilliant huni xx feel like i should hug you?!lol

Comment is about After All The Fucking Shit Has Already Fucking Hit You (blog)

Original item by David Mac

sooo true! xx

Comment is about The End of my Soul on Saturday Nights (blog)

Original item by David Mac

Ha - and what has now happened to Haven - is nothing safe on your profile?

Funnily enough I read it today but was too short on time to comment. I was going to come back and say that it obviously wasn't autobiographical. Anyone with a decent knowledge of Barbara Cartland (as the teenage moi was) would know that her books would never have entertained the union of a male farm-hand with a monied female. Far more likely for an ordinary girl to find a french/italian count or some english nobleman and be swept off her feet - into a four poster bed - not a hay stack.

I enjoyed the poem - though I needed to revisit to comment on style. I did wonder whether such a woman really existed. She seemed too happy and contented in her little bubble - not lonely at all. xx

Comment is about Anthony Emmerson (poet profile)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson