You have lots of admirers, the sock on the head is very funny.

Comment is about Tiny Talk (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Charlene, I think your whole poem is contained within the first two lines, which are very good. IMO, good writing is knowing when to stop before you actually weaken, or destroy even, an excellent point. You are so right, the phrase 'Good effort' is insidious.

Comment is about Good effort (blog)

Hi Fergus.. Like the phenomenon of the unruly child. I rarely adopt a snobish position but have I think caught myself doing this under these circumstances. Looking forward to seeing more. Win

Comment is about Fergus McGonigal (poet profile)

Original item by Fergus McGonigal

Hi Fergus, sorry for the delay. Welcome to WOL. Hope you enjoy interacting with the site. Winston

Comment is about Fergus McGonigal (poet profile)

Original item by Fergus McGonigal

I like this, Andy. I could feel the spring coming on Saturday. Then woke up to a frost this morning!

Comment is about Spring is Coming (blog)

Original item by Andy N

I'm afraid, Ray & Anthony, there probably is no 'straightforward' answer as to why the words are placed this way. Something to do possibly with the visual effect (smoke rising from a burning building?) Or perhaps I wanted you to consider each word, to slow down the reading. But if truth be told, I did it because it 'felt right.' In the end, that's the only thing that matters.

Comment is about Breakfast Roll (blog)

Original item by Steven Waling

good stuff, dave.. can relate to this a lot m8

Comment is about The Poem (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

love it, cate... makes me think of my own family! x

Comment is about Uncle Ned (blog)

Original item by Cate

not sure if i like the no planning permission bit, anne but i love the visualness of the rest of the piece.. made me feel like i was there.. love it x

Comment is about little dog digging (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I hope you've got a shallow end!

Comment is about Wildlife (blog)

The way things are going Greg you may not have to wait that long! Very hectic here at the moment but will get to your latest offerings in due course.

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Clever to make something so minimal out of something so mind-blowingly vast. But to me it makes it a bit heartless? (Though I'm sure that you are not.)

Comment is about Breakfast Roll (blog)

Original item by Steven Waling

I like this. (Is she the other side of your Night Mare?) I love the way you've described the endearing traits of a loved one. It can just be the tilt of an eyebrow when somebody smiles - and all is forgiven, the world a brighter place.

Comment is about For You, Babe (blog)

Original item by David Mac

Thanks for your thoughts Steven. I wondered about Ray's point too, but perhaps in a different way. I would be interested to "hear" how you read it. Any chance of an audio?

Regards,
A.E.

Comment is about Breakfast Roll (blog)

Original item by Steven Waling

Thank you for commenting on Half Light Greg but isn't John Clare the one who got banged up for being nutty - spare a thought - but your encouragement very much appreciated

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Melanie, you're carrying too much for someone so young.

Comment is about Bastards (blog)

Original item by Melanie Coady

Enjoyed v much Ray.
Particularly impressed with "scare us he/heresy" - read out loud the rhyme is effortless.
Thought the rhythm of the passage from "treatment with a white tablet" ...."relieve heartaches" was a bit hiccuppy to engineer the rhymes. Didn't stop me enjoying it though.

Comment is about Shadow Boxing (blog)

I's'll etta woch aart!
Tha diggin' in mi tatie patch!

Comment is about Uncle Ned (blog)

Original item by Cate

David, I'm not sure what I was on when I commented on Chalk this morning. Too fresh from reading the paper, I suppose. Like you,I love the idea of the Med emptying and refilling. I've always wanted to see the world with the plug pulled out and the oceans emptied for a few hours. Just to see what it looked like.

Comment is about David Cooke (poet profile)

Original item by David Cooke

A clever and very much likeable poem.x

Comment is about Good effort (blog)

abso-bloody-lutely brilliantly funny. I wish I had written it.

Comment is about Interview. (blog)

Original item by Kealan Coady

You know what I think already. Age in no way lessens talent; apathy does, and self-pity and laziness. A fresh mind never wearies; it is impossible.

Comment is about The Poem (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Kealan, this is hilarious. 'Beards are not essential / As full training is provided' is fabulous. Irony is your bent, for sure, but so are beauty and philosophy, all essential qualities of a good poet.

Comment is about Interview. (blog)

Original item by Kealan Coady

Stefan has made a very good comment. There is an honesty about your lines that does attract people. Sometimes I think the ideas are a bit mixed up, and could be easily sorted, for more clarity. Do you carefully read your own finished work with a fresh eye, to check out how others will see it? One misused word can knock out your intended meaning. It happens to us all.

Comment is about What's next? (blog)

I like the poem, the banal interspersed with the awesome, state of the nation never put a man off his breakfast etc. What I find irritating are the words halfway, quarter way across the page. I've asked people before what they're intending to convey by this and got no straightforward answer, so Steven Waling, enlighten me, how long a pause does halfway across the page indicate?

Comment is about Breakfast Roll (blog)

Original item by Steven Waling

Thank you for commenting on 'Jehovah' Melanie and 'The Colours' - do appreciate your taking the time xx

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

Thank you for commenting on 'Jehovah' Cynthia - do appreciate your taking the time to say so and for spotting the typo

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

David, I like your penetrating style, so immediate in your 'catch a moment' that speaks volumes about the universal experience. I thought 'nodding' was falling almost sleep, as opposed to agreement. Both ideas work together; so the word is an excellent choice. Clever, ironic title. I can see where 'Cow' wouldn't cut it so well.

Although I can't see how the English find that term 'cow' in any way acceptable, let alone funny! And women use it about each other!

Comment is about The Night Mare (blog)

Original item by David Mac

Dave another great poem - I think I know exactly what you mean when enraptured by environment - this happens to me a lot particularly when in the fens - great stuff

Comment is about David Cooke (poet profile)

Original item by David Cooke

good poem. I like the naturalness of the language.

Comment is about rabbit (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Thanks for your comments. Initial reason for writing was being commissioned by The North magazine to write a 25 word poem - but obviously, I've been watching the news about Japan over my breakfast cereals, so that, as well as 9/11 and the Manchester bomb which came to mind. The irony, I suppose, of watching all this over breakfast; I don't know if I intended a message as specific as what you gleaned from it, but it fits. I'm sure others will see different things.I'm always rather reluctant to say what my poems are 'about' so I've probably already said too much.

Thanks for reading

Comment is about Breakfast Roll (blog)

Original item by Steven Waling

Hi Steven,

Good to see you posting. I'm hesitant to offer any comment on this - especially comments that may be seen as subjective.

Four lines that that give it weight are obviously:

tsunami
towers fall
a bomb
and
clears streets

They seem to be interspersed with the banalities of advertising, notes to self, newspaper headlines and public notices. I like what you've done with it visually - possibly breaking waves? I feel you are playing with the juxtaposition of the global and the personal. I couldn't possibly tell you why - but I liked it. No doubt someone will ask for a scientific proof.

Perhaps you wouldn't mind sharing what inspired you to write this, and to write it in the way you chose - and no, I'm not being facetious, just keen to learn and understand. I thought the choice of title was very fitting. What the whole says to me is that despite momentous and shocking events, life goes on - but again, I hesitate to suggest that was the message you intended; if indeed you intended a message.

Regards,
A.E.

Comment is about Breakfast Roll (blog)

Original item by Steven Waling

I like the new picture! :)

Comment is about Dry (blog)

Original item by Crackling

HI ALAIN
to post a gig on this site you need to go to: http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/submitevent.php
I did try your link but it did not work. If you were simply letting us know of a gig then please do email me with the details via julian@writeoutloud.net
thanks.

Comment is about New Gig (blog)

Original item by Alain English

Proper gradely tha knows! Love it.
When are you sisters going to sing in dialect then? and Fivepenny Piece were a pale imitation of The Oldham Tinkers. Try, for example, The Night John Willie took his ferret to a do:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAc6V0s5-H4&feature=related Or Oldham's Burnings Sands (dont be fooled by the magnificent Spanish singing in the opening bars:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_6pDwjbUzs&feature=related
Or Gary and Vera Aspey, real Wiganers who sing wonderful dialect stuff. Appropriate for Isobel with her sad wedding dress "blues" is Vera's Don't Get married girls. no tdialect but excellent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNfJGBhoeko

Comment is about Uncle Ned (blog)

Original item by Cate

cheers people. this is all true. it's about some crazy bird i know. i got more on her but they're a bit too rude.

Comment is about The Night Mare (blog)

Original item by David Mac

I love the line: I nodded down the phone. it reminds me of all those people (me included) who, when giving directions over the phone, point to left or right as pointless illustration.

Comment is about The Night Mare (blog)

Original item by David Mac

aw that's lovely sweety xx

Comment is about Still Waiting (blog)

Original item by Tom

The poem so appropriate to the title - liked this

Comment is about The Night Mare (blog)

Original item by David Mac

no wrys guys..love yer works xx

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

baby, baby, baby,
thank you,
thank you,
thank you!
x

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

Hi Melanie You've made my day. I thought this poem might be a bit obscure and the lines about the Mediterranean evaporating are probably the obscurest BUT they are also my favourite!

Comment is about Melanie Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Melanie Coady

PS JUst see you've been busily posting and have three I've not read. I'll get back when I can give them they attention they deserves. Also, just discovered that Steve Black on WOL lives up the road from my Mum in Reading and he can join us at Poet's Cafe for the legendary launch. NOw back to repricing my stock and the business of earning a living!

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

lol simple and funny and lovely hun xx

Comment is about The Night Mare (blog)

Original item by David Mac

Hi Greg I've been wrting this over the last few days but started thinking about it before the disaster struck Japan. Someone passed on to me a link about this bloke's work. Until I saw it I thought 'pavement artists' just knocked out pictures of the Mona Lisa, but now some of them do these big industrial 3-D jobs. I thought this bloke's stuff was amazing at first, but then thought at the end of the day they're not really any more amazing than what 'really' happens. I did think this poem might be a bit obscure (which I was I mentioned the artist), but just wanted to see what feedback I might get. I can't keep writing the same old stuff about my family history! The obscurest image (and my favourite) is the bit in the middle about the Mediterranean. It's been on a constantly changing cycle between sea and desert for millions and millions of years. Slowly evaporates and then gradually refills when the waters flow back in from the Atlantic. Mindblowing stuff. That's why they have all these incredible salt mines on some of the isalnds and the bones of tiny elephants that got stranded as the desert gradually got inundated. Blimey, this is a long post!!

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

ooh very nice too darlin xx

Comment is about Take it or leave it (blog)

Original item by David Mac

lovely hun xx

Comment is about Time and Happiness (blog)

Original item by David Mac

hun i cnt even describe how appropriate this poem is to me ive often felt exactly like this xx nice 1 huni xx

Comment is about Sadness Structure (blog)

Original item by David Mac

wow absolutly loved this one darlin xx

Comment is about Life Bores Us All To Death (blog)

Original item by David Mac

it's not silly at all hun i loved it anyway lol xx

Comment is about Why Do You Want This Job? (blog)

Original item by David Mac