Thanks for your comments all. In fact - more than spam (which came in a tin with jelly round it) I remember pork lucheon meat from my childhood. That was cheaper than ham or spam and sold in nasty slices at Mace's, the local equivalent to the Co-op.

I don't think the poem is cleverly constructed at all but for once I'm not apologetic about it. I even considered injecting a few spelling mistakes for good measure ;-))

The subject matter is indeed close to home - somewhere between Showcase and Galleries, in fact.

I'm glad if it provided a bit of light entertainment and a bit of nostalgia about the good old 'strapped for cash' days.

xx

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

I do like the idea of this and the dialogue style with the clock's personification. The rhyming words slide in almost unnoticed at first because I didn't feel much rhythm in the lines. I think this would be more powerful if shortened. The message is a strong one with its sharp ending line. The title is also very good with its flavour of childish tantrum.

Comment is about Big bad clock (blog)

Once again you have lifted my heart with your warmth and humour....long may you continue!!
Cate xx

Comment is about Haircut (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

I think most writers retain something of the child in them. It makes them able to see something special in the mundane.
Like this one Dave
Cate xx

Comment is about Filling time at grandparent's (Childhood) (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Naughty Dave... youre underestimating us! If course we did!! lolCate xx

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Greg. Thanks."firm covers/old technology" What, you mean books?

John. Thanks. Much too long for your liking, surely?

Comment is about Ineffable (blog)

Good morning Ashley, welcome to WOL. Hope you find something to interest you on here. Winston (Admin)

Comment is about Ashley Fisher (poet profile)

Original item by Ashley Fisher

I did, belatedly, to my embarrassment. My analytical skills need sharpening up in 2011. Sorry, Isobel. But I do not withdraw my praise of the other kind of spam!

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

No one seems to have twigged that this is about poetic spam

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

I like this, Alan. We've all been surprised by the sort of intense, vivid experience you describe, but so often it's soon gone. Turn it into words which beautifully enapsulate the experience, as you've done here, and it's never lost.

Comment is about a moment in time (blog)

Original item by alan barlow

Dave, I reckon you never lost it.

Comment is about Filling time at grandparent's (Childhood) (blog)

Original item by Dave Bradley

SPAM, 'Spiced Ham'

Me mam got it from the Spiced Ham man.


Just call me father.

:-)

Jx

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

enjoyed this poem very much Charlene-thanks!

Comment is about Honey Money (blog)

Thanks again Cynthia for your encouragement. I've written a few pieces this way and from an entirely male perspective, perhaps I'll post one of them, your feedback would be welcpme :) x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

can I interest you in a little chipolata ?

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

SPAM is everywhere! Does it have a centennial or bicentennial, or something like that? BTW, SPAM decreased over the hols; even the geeky wicked take a break at the winter solstice.

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Neat stuff....unusually for me...I can't fault this.

Grand.

:-)

Jx

Comment is about Ineffable (blog)

Thank you Cynthia for commenting on Briefly - you are always so encouraging

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

It is outstanding, Ann, very compelling. And you thought you were in a dry spell!

Comment is about smoke and mirrors (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

This is outstanding, Marianne. I need to read it many more times. Sometimes I think your words, your phrases, are like ingredients in a mixer, all different in themselves, but making a homogenized whole with the spinning of your poetic mind and its crafting skill. Lord, that sounds daft, but never mind, I'm not removing it.

Comment is about On Reading War (blog)

Original item by Marianne Daniels

hi cynthia, yes i removed a few poems, dead records, gold texter and some older ones. just tidying up and i didnt much like those just mentioned...i write quite a lot so keep an eye out for new stuff x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

cheers mate, ur welcome

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

A well-aimed satire at the muddle of ideas inherent in organized religion generally. You have zeroed in with many striking comments which I think shows a genuine empathy with the 'church' dilemma. I enjoyed the conversation technique which becomes a monologue for the speaker, but not for lack of always hoping there really might be a 'voice'. The one sentiment I didn't quite like was: I forgive you for abandoning us all to Hell. IMO, it was 'stage-y', not really ringing sincere as the rest does, in its own funny fashion. And I could be totally wrong about the whole idea. C'est la vie.

Comment is about House of God (blog)

Original item by Graham Eccles

I likes a bit a tasty ham
{Please don`t confuse with poor mans spam]
For ham`s a lean and tasy meat
And in a buttie quite a treat!
Whilst spam is padded out with fat
{I really cannot fancy that!}
It lingers heavy in your tum
Not a feast for anyone!

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Wonderful spam! ... I used to love it at school, polished off everyone else's. Despite the final message, I think spam is a very worthy subject for a poem. Monty Python didn't have the last word on the subject, clearly.

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Love this one, Ray. Beautiful, rollicking rhythm, as befits the subject matter: Armageddon on a Saturday night. Favourite lines: "setting off alarms and turning on eclipses / the sun rose and sank in matter of minutes". Nothing else to say except that you've got to publish it between firm covers/old technology somewhere

Comment is about Ineffable (blog)

Fabbo! Only one cavil. 'Tomato only eat' is a poetic sin.

She’d tell me to just cherry pick

'Only eat tomato'

But amid the mounds of spam she gave

my eating was 'legato'....

or something.

OK, Legato doesn't work...but anything but 'Tomato only eat'

also 'get free' and 'must see' are surely better than 'go free it' and 'must see it'?

Just MHO (again...god, I am an opinionated sod, but it's given with love)

Lovely fun performance piece.

:-)

Jx

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

bitter? yes guilty as charged and no i do not. i think i sat on my rose tinted glasses years ago ;-)

thanks for the comment Rachel

Comment is about stripes (blog)

Original item by alan barlow

The first time I read this it caught me - the ending was a very neat surprise. And the poem is also very cleverly constructed - spam indeed. You're clearly commenting on something very close to home, but I'll not spoil it for others. Nice one.

Comment is about SPAM (blog)

Original item by Isobel

Thanks John for your comments. I think the reason I like attempting ghazals is to be able to use a phrase that I like, over and over again! And smoke and mirrors is a nice phrase, I agree! xx

Comment is about John Aikman (poet profile)

Original item by John Aikman

Andy it is so good to hear from you again and thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my work.

Yes I too love the paintings of Gus Jonsson, who I understand is exhibiting his work later this year. He says he wants to paint me in the nude but I have insisted that he keeps his clothes on.... what ever next.

Many thanks once again.

Augusta xx

Comment is about Andy N (poet profile)

Original item by Andy N

Dylans Mystic Garden ... wherein he he doesn't talk just keeps on walking...is the one in particular that springs to mind. Thank you so much for such praise... i am humbled.

Thank you once again .
Augusta xx

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thank you John for your oh so kind remarks and for reminiscing over our previous comings together… how sweet.


I will read your poetry with great interest and in particular I will relish the opportunity to critique those that lend themselves to the ‘erotic’ .


It was so nice to hear from you too.


Many thanks once again.

Augusta xx

Comment is about John Aikman (poet profile)

Original item by John Aikman

Good theme - think I'm the first one up!

Might do a couple more for this too, thinking about it

Comment is about Childhood - Competition Follow Up to 'Space' (blog)

Original item by Tom

Steve and Greg. Ta very much. This ain't gone down well on this or another site but I like it anyhow. I imagine it as summat the Two Ronnies might have done.

Comment is about An Unannounced Inspection (blog)

Good, amusing read, Ray, put together with your customary dexterity and excellent ear. The words bugger and burkha in close proximity please me the most. But I'd go further with the special measures, and dish out the one that Charles I received. You know it makes sense.

Comment is about An Unannounced Inspection (blog)

Well said, John! Can only heartily applaud such sentiments ...

Comment is about It's Not 5-0 is it Now, Merv? (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thank you for your kind comments on my comments! :-)

I just read Towards America again and it reminded me of a day when I was in the Scilly Isles and I was at the furthest point west in the UK (apart from Ireland, I guess) and the sign said 'Newfoundland' was the next stop, so I swam out for a couple of hundred yards and enjoyed the sensation of swimming towards North America...Canada.

Thanks for the memory.

:-)

Jx

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I love the term 'smoke and mirrors' and use it alot. I recently had to describe what it meant to a Polish colleague and it was fascinating to try and describe it. Describing what a metaphor means is quite difficult sometimes but my colleague thought it was brilliant.

Lovely 'almost ghazal'.

:-)

Jx

Comment is about smoke and mirrors (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I love this. Your love for your mum shines through this - you are very lucky to have had such a nurturing parent.

I like the pulling together of the music, the food, the spiritual nourishment.

Comment is about She fed my soul (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

Mark

Can promise you that I haven't removed any of my own posts so not sure what's happened there! Can you remember what it said cos I can't!

Anyhoo, that's by the by. Thank you for your reply, it's well considered, and I've actually really enjoyed this exchange :)

Yes, well, I think the tendency is that people always will approach these issues from an initially subjective position. Interesting that you too (and your mum) have experienced the gender confusion thing - people thinking you are not a man (and I like your self-reference as a boy there!). I accept what you are saying re positive qualities - I just object to them being linked to the 'feminine' I guess. It is a good idea to raise awareness of them - but also to do that with the aim that we can all be everything and anything. But we have to start somewhere, and without the springboards of the concepts already handed to us, then where else do we start?

I also happen to think that anger and aggression do not always have to be negative; although in a lot of cases they are, I have found my own internal anger to be a driving force in my life, not something that eats away at me, or causes damage to others...just something that, if I were without it, I might have just lain down and died by now.

Cheers - thanks for the debate :)

Comment is about Equally bad (AKA Rantings of an antisexist man in a post-feminist world) (blog)

Original item by Mark Mr T Thompson

nice, ann.. enjoyed this x

Comment is about smoke and mirrors (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Andy. this is great, missed it when it was blogged but your performance of it tonight at the G & V in Bolton was superb with Jeff on guitar acompanyment. the perfect tone was struck to match the subject. Actually you 2 work very well together. Win x

Comment is about Percy (blog)

Original item by Andy N

i too liked the last line...and in all that bitterness do we even know what 'unconditional love' really is? some of us love to hate.

Comment is about stripes (blog)

Original item by alan barlow

Hey! Happy New Year etc - "But, did you ever find your tongue/Jammed halfway up your sister's bum?" - I wish you'd post this poem! Your comments are as good as lots of the poems on here!

Comment is about John Aikman (poet profile)

Original item by John Aikman

Got caught out like that myself once - didn't have your dexterity of retort though - nice one

Comment is about Haircut (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for your comments & support. Hoping to go to the Tudor for the next Open
Mic. Be great if you can make it. x

Comment is about Laura Taylor (poet profile)

Original item by Laura Taylor

Thanks, Isobel. Appreciate your comments and support. X

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Thanks, Dave! Whadda mistake-a to make-a!!

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

The photo is from the old film of Great Expectations. Miss Haversham's room with her wedding breakfast covered in cobwebs! She later went up in smoke!

Comment is about smoke and mirrors (blog)

Original item by Ann Foxglove