Thanks for the comment Steve, yep, pain and pleasure, very Catholic! :) x

Comment is about Steve Regan (poet profile)

Original item by Steve Regan

Enjoyed this. It felt like there could be more to come, but maybe that's just the effect of the poem - that expanding 'more, more, more' feeling one can get with summer

Comment is about Summer of Love (blog)

Original item by Rachel McGladdery

PS Matt Reekie just gets better. He went to my old school in Wigan, tha knows. In a different century to me, obviously.

Comment is about Morton Arms Live- Guest Poet....Isobel! (blog)

I enjoyed meself muchly. Even though I was in red wine-fuelled Cheeky Monkey overdrive, which can be dangerous.

Keep it up. Human warmth!!!

PS Isobel was fantabulous.

Comment is about Morton Arms Live- Guest Poet....Isobel! (blog)

I am unique
... you certainly are mate.

An understanding of human freedom, and maybe the harm it can do too. Lots of irony in this, or at least irony perceived by me.

Can we have too much freedom. Can it, in fact, trap us in tyranny?

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

'thrumming' and 'slapping' are great words to put in the same poem. This poem recalls the sensations of pleasure and mixes them with those of pain and discomfort - and that really is (just about) the secret of life, at least for Roman Catholics. So well done. Genius.

The Protstants will be jealous. They often are.

The atheists will be bitter and twisted. They almost always are - especially on this site!

Comment is about Summer of Love (blog)

Original item by Rachel McGladdery

Another brilliant addition to your repertoire John still laughing

Comment is about Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Hi Marianne - thank you for the kind comments on Sight for Sore Eyes appreciate your taking the time to say so x

Comment is about Marianne Daniels (poet profile)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

I agree Andy this is a well composed poem. Good work.

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

Original item by Andy N

Hi Greg - re: Full Astern - could write a book on some of these experiences and those seen through others eyes in the aftermath (and during) war around Merseyside - appreciate your comments about a true event still lingering in the mind

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Just read 'Ken Dodd's dad's dog's dead' to my mum and she belly laughed all the way through - some people have no empathy for the bereaved...

I must say, I think I performed it very well. xx

Comment is about Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Blooming marvellous! :)

Comment is about Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Brilliant night had by all. I'll chuck up a brief review of the gig in the discussions in the next day or so. Our guest poet Isobel was tremendous!!! Fellow WOLers Steve Regan and Jason Richardson were also brill! If it is half as good next month it will be a great event.

The talent and blend of poets on the night was phenomenally good. And our guest musician Matt Reekie showed why he was on BBC Radio Merseyside last Tuesday for a whole hour...running out of adjectivesLY-great!

Comment is about Morton Arms Live- Guest Poet....Isobel! (blog)

Laura, thank you for the comments. I just want you to know I agree with you about taking time out to work on what I've already written. I need to set aside a lot more time to do that, it's just hard to find that time right now. I will be thinking of you on Sunday's while I am editing my work and I'll try to do more of it.

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

I would agree with earlier comments. Can only agree with the last line but I love the simplicity of the structure and thought.

Good to see you back posting. x

Comment is about one life (blog)

Original item by Beulah

Hilarious John - but can you perform it live? x

Comment is about Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thank you for the many comments and appreciation!

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

lol love it hun xx

Comment is about The Student (blog)

I guess the woman/crazed queen is the person giving the interview. I love the subtle way you link the interviewee to the protesters - not to be put down spiritually, totally aware of the woman's failings.

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

Original item by Andy N

beautiful xx

Comment is about one life (blog)

Original item by Beulah

Thanks Melanie :) x

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

Lol, thanks Isobel, I have a well hidden wild streak! :) x

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

It's mostly because of the places I have time available to write. I can't go through the elements of tearing apart a poem, figuring out what to keep, what needs changed so it flows better, and all that is required when I only have a few minutes here and there.
The majority of my writing is done in the space between a judge sentencing someone and me signing them up on probation. Sometimes there are ten minutes there, sometimes less than one. So it's easy for me to take a small notebook and write in it, but hard for me to pay a lot of attention to what I'm doing. I always have to keep my ears on what's going on.
The second most productive time I have to write is sitting in my car between 3:00 and 3:15 while I am waiting to pick my son up. Just enough time for me to quickly write a few things.
My weekly schedule is pretty hectic. I wake up at 5am, fix breakfast, get my daughter up for a shower, wake up my son, feed him, fix my daughter's plate, start doing dishes, finish them, go over homework from the night before and listen to my son read. By then it's 7am and I have to fix lunches and make sure they are ready. After that it's 7:30 and were off to school. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have classes from 9am until 9pm. On Mon, Wed, and Fri I have to be at court at 8:30. After 3:45 when I drop my kids off with my mom I head to school, and am there until 9, by then time I get home it's close to ten and I check the computer before I pass out.
Saturdays are usually filled with activities for the kids, a soccer game, a football game, a baseball game, a dance, a boyscout event, ect. Sundays are the only days I have to relax and I usually spend the afternoons painting or writing. Most of the poems I write during the week are like this:

I see the Honeysuckle Poison Queen,
she's living all our wasted dreams...
I'm going to fall in love with her
tomorrow night.

Just something I jot down at the time to help me remember an idea or phrase I want to transform into a poem. I'll jot down dozens of these and maybe ten or so longer poems a day. On Sunday's I pull out these little snips and try to make something out of them, or I work on something I really like and would love to see finished.
I think I have given you the wrong idea when I say I trash poems. It's not that I throw them away, just that I don't invest anymore time in them. I hope in my retirement I will be able to take all of these old notebooks and spend years with them. Giving them the devotion they need to be something I can appreciate.
I already have a bad habit of not thinking a poem is finished and could spend weeks or months just working on one, writing it, re-writing it a different way, it would never end. For me it's easier just to write something and let it be for a while. If I am not happy with it, I'll just write a different poem about the same thing instead of taking time to edit. I wont even touch a poem I've signed (after I take a little phrase or something I've written and write it out into a full poem I sign the bottom of the page so I'll know I've already worked on it) for a year because I want to see it with fresh eyes.

Comment is about Untitled (blog)

ha ha ha fukin brill! xx

Comment is about Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

wow!!! my hairs stood up!xx

Comment is about Plum blossoms in snow (blog)

Original item by Dave Morgan

Great to see you back posting Rachel! I remember those summers not at all...

Comment is about Summer of Love (blog)

Original item by Rachel McGladdery

lovely hun xx

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

Original item by Andy N

ha ha ha im still fuckin laughin hun xx fukin brilliant! i'll take a cooker&the budgie that doesn't fly ta luvvie lol

Comment is about Tricky Mickey (blog)

Original item by Jack Pascoe

love this 1 hun xx

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

aaaaw hun xx

Comment is about The Uninvited (blog)

wow xx

Comment is about The Burnt Bee (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

aw lovely hun xx

Comment is about Summer of Love (blog)

Original item by Rachel McGladdery

thank you dave hun xx

Comment is about The Rant Of A Mind Deserted (blog)

Original item by Melanie Coady

wow rebel thank you so much xxx u rock huni!

Comment is about goodbye (blog)

Original item by Melanie Coady

Some lovely lyrical lines here.

Comment is about Abstract Notions (blog)

Love it.

Comment is about Old Alfie (blog)

Like this a lot - clever stuff.

Comment is about Lockdown (blog)

Really enjoyed this - real history there in a quick and tasty form!

Comment is about No Jobs For A Man (blog)

Original item by Dave Dunn

Whether anyone actually does that, i.e. has various bottles lined up in different stages of emptiness, it's a pretty good image of mental and physical disorder...

I like the regular rhythm and structure, too!

Comment is about The Student (blog)

I like this because of how it addresses an big theme in very few words!

Comment is about one life (blog)

Original item by Beulah

Yes, Ken Dodd's dad must be long dead, so the dog must have had a bl00dy good innings! The tongue-twister could however still be kept alive a few years longer by reversing a couple of the words, to 'Ken Dodd's dog's dad's dead.'

Comment is about Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Interesting controlled delivery, which is very Japanese, keeping everything in check, but hints of something not being quite right planted in there in most if not every stanza.

Comment is about Plum blossoms in snow (blog)

Original item by Dave Morgan

I've read this a second time it seems better somehow - has it got a new verse, the one about the woman going down the stairs? Anyway, i didn't 'get' that bit when i read it last night, and now it makes a lot more sense to me - good stuff Andy!

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

Original item by Andy N

I'm interested in the full name and address, if you have it - (The Taxman.)

Very enjoyable. I can relate to this as i went looking down the local market for a replacement laptop monitor - but thank God i didn't buy anything from there. If it's half-price it must be dodgy, especially as that cheap price still includes the profit margin!

Comment is about Tricky Mickey (blog)

Original item by Jack Pascoe

I used this as team name in a pub quiz once. ha ha!

Comment is about Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

I went to see Norwegian Wood the other week, I was worried because the book is still travelling around in my veins from first reading it years ago, haunting me still - its characters and plot lines are as fragile as petals. The film didnt disappoint, have you seen it I wonder? The 'walking' scenes were incredibly powerful, the scenery just as it should be - hazed, dream like, all a bit of a blur...how could this have been left to happen - sort of feeling, walking around with the clouds pulled over your eyes...blimey I am waffling, I have this poem to thank for that. I enjoyed this.

Comment is about Plum blossoms in snow (blog)

Original item by Dave Morgan

Hahaaa!!! Another good un from you John - would love to see you do this :D

Comment is about Ken Dodd's Dad's Dog's Dead (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Loving the rhyming scheme in this Pete, and an excellent subject to boot. 'And look I am cured, the finest Parma' - great play on words there, love it

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