I miss the ocean; even more since reading this. I feel wind-braced by it. Atmospherically done, Ann. Thank you.

Comment is about little dog digging (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Sad and to the point Isobel.I can`t get the images out of my head. Good poem.

Comment is about Human Nature (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Jeez Isobel, well done, especially the last lines reflecting the appalling focus by, for example, the Today programme with that pillock Naughtie seemingly most interested in the cost to the stock market, whilst people searhcd for their loved ones.
And, yesterday, focusing on whether there were any British casualties. shaming. superbly done you.

Comment is about Human Nature (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Yes, Dave, I've heard that too, that Towton involved the greatest loss of life on an English battlefield. It's a pity there's not more there to commemorate it other than the single monument. I think the time lapse renders it safe to make a monologue.

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Perhaps, Isobel. Folks do refer to my "bastard poems".

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Cate
That tapping sound you hear on The Wars of the Roses is me hitting my mate (a Lank) on the head.

Comment is about Cate (poet profile)

Original item by Cate

An abundance of exciting imagery here - hard to say which I liked the most but if pushed it would be: chalk, a shark,swimming in the shards;the teeth littered - bites of a face x

Comment is about Merlot (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

Thanks as ever for commenting on Sausages, Cate. Unless I'm misreading other comments you're the only one who's got it, as it was indeed meant to be ironical. Oh well.

Comment is about Cate (poet profile)

Original item by Cate

Throughly enjoyed this John. I visted the site of the battle in December. The majority view of historians seems to be that it was the bloodiest ever on English soil - but who's ever heard of it?

Comment is about The Wars of the Roses (Battle of Towton) (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

I must say - for a Yorkshire man, you do have an excellent sense of humour - are you sure there isn't a little Lancashire blood mixed in somewhere - maybe a bastard line or two?

A very amusing poem. x

Comment is about The Wars of the Roses (Battle of Towton) (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

I really like this one. I am a great believer in keeping a wild part in my garden, and allowed a proliferation of nettles in one corner for the night moths to breed. Until my little grandson fell in them and got stung badly whence I uprooted all the buggers. My night moths will have to find somewhere else to breed!
Cate xx

Comment is about Wildlife (blog)

Hi Steve - thanks for your comment. You are a trooper coming to the Tudor - testimony to just what a great venue it is! Thanks for doing the Jump poem for me - it is very original - amazing what we can make out of little experiences like that - though if I'd known it was a real life story originally, I probably wouldn't have chuckled quite so much! I won't be compering next month - so I shall be even more rat arsed - unless I draw the driving short straw.
Look forward to catching up. xx

Comment is about Stephen Pass (poet profile)

Original item by Stephen Pass

The daffodils are all out.... thats the first sign of spring for me. A nice hopeful feel to it this one Andy.
cATE XX

Comment is about Spring is Coming (blog)

Original item by Andy N

As Dave says very thought provoking. We watch on the news as all these atrocious things are happening, and in the same report are asked to realise our insurance will go up and the FTSE is affected...not sure what that says about us as a species.
Cate xx

Comment is about Human Nature (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Clever use of irony to get a very pertinant point over about the state of our world today.
Ignorance is bliss?
Cate xx

Comment is about Sausages (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

"It’s just that them west side of the hills
Are Yorkies wi’ t’brains taken out."
Oh you naughty little Yorkshire muppet!!
Love love love it though.....even if you are from the wrong side of the Pennines.....
Cate xx

Comment is about The Wars of the Roses (Battle of Towton) (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thank you, Andy & Winston! :)
little bit later I'll add some more.

Comment is about Polina (poet profile)

Original item by Polina

Thank you Cynthia I needed to hear this, I know it already but had forgotten - the reminder is timely.

This is one of the reasons I love the written word, for it reaches another in ways we can't imagine when we set pen to paper.

Comment is about Trilogy of Heroes (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

I've dedicated a poem to you. Just posted The Wars of the Roses.

Comment is about Uncle Ned (blog)

Original item by Cate

It's really good, Isobel. I didn't even try to make a poem. It certainly ended on a realistic, but very grim note.

Comment is about Human Nature (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Thank you all for the wonderful comments. I am going to have to edit this a lot. If you only knew where I was when I wrote it, or what I wrote it on lol. The breaks are not there because I wanted them there, they were places the napkin ripped and I just wrote it how I saw it when I copied it. I will clean it up sometime this month.

Again, thank you all for the warm welcome to your community. And thank you even more for the criticism. That's the main reason I'm here, it's hard to tell yourself what about your work sucks. Thank you.

Comment is about A Song for Breakfast (blog)

Hi Isobel, I only heard about the tsunami in Japan last night, I rarely watch TV or read newspapers. I figure someone will tell me about the big stuff and they usually do.

This poem has me feeling small and insignificant, I often feel this way when confronted by Nature either flexing Her muscles or in Her glory.

Thank you for the images and expressing so clearly the emotion.

Comment is about Human Nature (blog)

Original item by Isobel

I think this is your best yet, a real thing to say about universal experience, in your own unique way. IMO, the repetition is excellent as it highlights your basic idea perfectly.

Comment is about It's all just words (blog)

Original item by Melanie Coady

An English repat. from Australia, I think the very first poem I read was MacKellar's "My Country," and the very latest your "Our Country", S'hi!

Comment is about S'hi D'Amour (poet profile)

Original item by S'hi D'Amour

There is some wonderful stuff in here. I love:
Then I wrote
the end of your world
in a song
I never had the heart
to sing you.

I agree with Isobel that it would be even better with some editing, some pruning to reveal the best part of this superb flowering shrub.
It is interesting that we have had a discussion elsewhere on the site about line breaks and, for me, one or two of yours could do with rethinking, simply to bring out the the best in this excellent piece.

Comment is about A Song for Breakfast (blog)

Light hearted and I agree, I don't want to know either & if we lived in a too sterile environment we get terribly sick - germs, bugs and those creepy-crawlies anre good for you :) x

Comment is about Sausages (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

This is quite a display of linguistic skill, all that assonance, internal rhyming, alliteration etc. etc. In spite of deliberate verbal acrobatics, you still manage to make some clever points when taken line by line. Did you perhaps mean: 'maimed' or 'named' with 'mamed'? I like that we have no hint of your diction intent in the title. Would you consider making stanza 1 only 4 lines in sync with the other stanzas, for great visual formatting?

Comment is about Natural Disasters And Nuclear Foreplay (blog)

Original item by Kealan Coady

Bloody hell! What a breakfast, I am dismayed, saddened, filled with a longing to hold out a hand and say, "I know..."

Very moving and many wonderful phrases here, I was pulled along in the wake of each line to the next, like the proverbial book - unputdownable. x

Comment is about A Song for Breakfast (blog)

Wow - powerful in all its brevity - I can well imagine how a word that would stick in the mind x

Comment is about the perfect word (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Well now lad, Ahm thinkin theers enuf praties go round!
Anyways up, mine er red an if mi memry serves reet, thys r white.....
Cate xx

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Ey up Dave, thanks for the comment on Uncle Ned. It was a good night all round at the Tudor. I would agree that dialect poems are necessary to preserve a fast disappearing World.
Cate xx

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Hi there Anthony, long time no speak! Thanks for the comment on Uncle Ned. I enjoyed the links you sent me... thanks. I have an old vinal record of The Fivepenny Piece, a couple of The Oldham Tinkers. We used to sing quite a few of their songs in the bad old days so Im familiar with all their work.
I agree with you that our old dialect songs and poems should be treasured. I was doing some research a while back into the origins of our Lancashire dialect, and its quite fascinating. Most of our Lancashire dialect words come directly from the old Anglo Saxon, with a big input from old Viking.
Such a rich heritage should be preserved as much as possible and in as many ways as possible.
Cate xx

Comment is about Anthony Emmerson (poet profile)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

Hi Dave, thanks for the comment on Uncle Ned. I really enjoyed yours too. Heres to many more nights like the last one at the Tudor!
Cate xx

Comment is about Dave Carr (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Carr

Hi Andy, thanks for the comment on Uncle Ned. Glad you enjoyed it.
Cate xx

Comment is about Andy N (poet profile)

Original item by Andy N

Hi Laura, thanks for the comment. Glad you enjoyed Uncle Ned
Cate xx

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Hi Isobel, it was great to see you the other night and your comparing was great, maybe a new line? I really liked this - the sadness is there but it isn't dwelt upon - there's lots of twists and turns and questions and, once again, I love your use of song - hey Big Spender! - I'd have liked to have heard more of that too! Take care, hopefully see you next month down the Tudorxxxxxx

Comment is about Something Old, Something New (blog)

Original item by Isobel

There are some good lines and ideas in here Terry. For me it was too long - it needs pulling together and focussing in some way.

Comment is about A Song for Breakfast (blog)

I'll second that welcome, Terry!

Funnily enough, when I first read this I found it reminiscent of Mr Black's style, so it is interesting that he should also have commented on it.

I like the economy of words to convey your ideas and the detached way you write about something painful.

Comment is about Ghost Writer (blog)

Enjoyed all of your sample pieces, Kay but 'Nobodys Child' carried a particularly kick!

Look forward to seeing more! x

Comment is about kayberley (poet profile)

Original item by kayberley

Wow! Just read this again after reading the story of Neil Moss.

There's so much more to it now. What generous gifts you wished for him. I have seen a waltz of starlings' wings as they pirouetted over one of Blackpool's piers, it's an amazing and awe inspiring sight.

For years I collected "smallest" things for my son, Joseph, who died the day after he was born, he was the smallest of my three children; a tiny pebble from a beech and a perfect bivalve shell, translucent in it's thinness; a snapped bud from a bunch of flowers; a minute toy car and a diddy bath time duck from Christmas crackers; a perfect, polished, unstrung little conker. There's quite a list - everything precious, everything treasured. Trying to capture moments that he might have had.

As a scuba diver, who once got left behind in the dark over 100 feet inside a shipwreck, I can imagine for a moment Neil's terror. My air supply was limited too & without a torch it was unlikely I would have got out. Luckily my buddy came back for me and I live to tell the tale...

Comment is about Visiting Neil (blog)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

I'm in the same boat as Winston here with this piece, Fergus.. Got a cracking title too which is always a good thing with poems I find too! lol

Comment is about Fergus McGonigal (poet profile)

Original item by Fergus McGonigal

enjoyed your sample poem, Polina - hope you put some more up..

Comment is about Polina (poet profile)

Original item by Polina

can be read several ways this, dave to me but the obvious meaning to me 'i can't be bothered knowing' brigade (which i guess is closeish to 'i don't want to know' brigade).

really enjoyed it however in particular 'They say there's millions on my head

and even billions in the bed.

Why not keep the figures to yourselves?

Why the compulsion to dig and delve?'

Keep em coming,bud..

Comment is about Sausages (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

i do like the structure of this poem, melanie.. probably my favourite of yours so far and i think you work well towards the end...

i think steven is right on the 'me' too..

top stuff - keep em coming! x

Comment is about It's all just words (blog)

Original item by Melanie Coady

thanks everyone xx

Comment is about It's all just words (blog)

Original item by Melanie Coady

wow wow wow xx

Comment is about A Song for Breakfast (blog)

'absent friends' sounds heartbreaking :( maybe therepeutic.

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Fantastic, Chris. I am all for the graphic images you use. It is the comparison between "his" cosy world and the reality of what has been done and the continuing suffering of the parents that gives the poem it's intensity and power. Absolutely wonderful poem. Well said, Christine.

Comment is about Mr and Mrs (blog)

Original item by christine yates

You tell the story so well - make the reader really feel along with you, as well as carrying them back into the past, your past. The title is great - and if grand, then isn't that how adults seem to children. Perhaps it is our maturing and growth through such times that brings us to understand that in fact there are no heros. xxx

Comment is about Trilogy of Heroes (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

I still want to be a loved child and get called Pops - nicely done Dave

Comment is about I Want to be you (blog)

Original item by Melanie Coady