That's an impressive Poetic list, Russell! Excellent 👏
Comment is about See you later Alligator, In a while Crocodile. (blog)
Original item by JD Russell
Most of these problems arise from the closure of grammar schools. A one-size fits all model of education just ends up suiting nobody and dumbing down standards to the LCD. The elite did not like (some of) the masses getting the same education their own children get; and the middle classes with low IQ children did not like them being branded as failures at secondary moderns.
Latin is not a dead language, all the Romance languages are built from it.
Comment is about Larkin and Owen poems dropped from GCSE syllabus (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Never truer words written! 😉🌈
Comment is about The Race Is On (blog)
Original item by julie callaghan
Sadly true, Brenda. We live in hope. 🌈
Comment is about When the World Grew Weary (blog)
Original item by Brenda Wells
Peter O" Toole asked where the loos were in Leeds University Students Union. I think your claims to fame are better, Stephen. Loved it! 😀
Comment is about Frost, not Nixon (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Some great lines in a superbly written piece 🌈
Comment is about Other Colours, Other Clocks. After W.H Auden (blog)
Original item by Ralph Dartford
The first really good love poem I have read for a long time. Every word counted.
Thank you for this
Keith
Comment is about Lover (blog)
Original item by Aisha Suleman
Education has suffered many a misfortune in recent years and all in the name of progress. I learned Latin at school and much to my personal edification as it opened up a gift for learning other languages. Decades back our Education System withdrew it from the common syllabus. It was deemed a dead language. In Spain they also took it off the syllabus and now it is back with many avid learners. Will we ever focus on what really matters?
Greg, thank you for this.
Keith
Comment is about Larkin and Owen poems dropped from GCSE syllabus (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
This awful war is on all our minds as we witness daily such horrors on our TV screens. This poem speaks of the next generation and of hope. It's all we can do and pray.
Thank you for this
Keith
Comment is about When the World Grew Weary (blog)
Original item by Brenda Wells
This one just keeps giving, Russell. Well done for slipping the zonkey in.
Comment is about See you later Alligator, In a while Crocodile. (blog)
Original item by JD Russell
Whatever the form, Ralph, every line is superb. 'Pound shop Essex town' - I know it well.
Comment is about Other Colours, Other Clocks. After W.H Auden (blog)
Original item by Ralph Dartford
Thanks Holden.
It looks odd on my phone though. On my laptop it looks as it should. It’s supposed to be a ‘broken sonnet’, but looks a bit like ‘free verse’ on my phone.
Comment is about Other Colours, Other Clocks. After W.H Auden (blog)
Original item by Ralph Dartford
Wed 13th Jul 2022 15:32
A really powerful poem, Ralph, each line is infused with both profundity and originality! 🌷
Comment is about Other Colours, Other Clocks. After W.H Auden (blog)
Original item by Ralph Dartford
Thanks for your kind note, Stephen.
Comment is about Teddy Roosevelt Park (blog)
Original item by Candice Reineke
Wokeish emphasis upon diversity for diversity's sake. That box ticked then. It is the insight and beauty of the poem that matters not the ethnic origin of the poet.
Comment is about Larkin and Owen poems dropped from GCSE syllabus (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
leila k
Tue 12th Jul 2022 23:34
Thank you...the song in question being 'Always' Bon Jovi!
Comment is about The Past (blog)
Original item by Mike Bartram
An interesting poem, Keith, and with all that has been going on I understand the option you have taken. Let's hope that some inspiring, gifted new leaders will emerge and galvanise us with new optimism. Maybe these things go in cycles.
More power to you and keep writing.
Comment is about Out of the Shadows (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Thanks to Keith, John C and John B for the comments..Yes, Keith, I could have completed another verse - perhaps I'll revise it at some stage. The last faltering couplet is a cry of despair, I suppose. In a way we are all hypocrites, although I recognise that so much progress is being made in renewable energies etc. The scale of the problem and the contradiction between people's aspirations and their behaviour is the challenge.
Thanks for the idea, John B I guess that vanity space flight is also part of the problem! John C - I think you summarise it perfectly in one line.
Thanks to Nigel, Frederick, Stephen, Aisha, Holden and K Lynn for the likes, which I appreciate very much.
Comment is about Conundrum (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Each gaze into calmness
is in itself
a peace found
inside moonlight poetry.
Comment is about Page 2. NLD (blog)
Original item by Sunshine
Thankyou, Stephen.
And for the Likes, Julie and Frederick, MC and Greg.
Comment is about THE TORY DANCE (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Clare. Your poem flows fluently; beneath the surface there is always a battle between the desire for freedom and the need for security. You chose wisely. J
Comment is about The Ancestral Scream (blog)
Original item by Clare
Beautiful and touching. A triumph!
Comment is about Four Pound, Half An Ounce (blog)
Original item by JD Russell
As usual, you have hit the nail on the head. I like the way you haven't rhymed the last verse, Stephen. As Gilbert O'Sullivan said, nothing rhymes!
You're right, the world is full of contradictions! Let's have another climate conference and invite Jeff Bezos along...
Comment is about Conundrum (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Small but perfectly formed, Julie. Like your poem! 😀
Comment is about Seven Cygnets (blog)
Original item by julie callaghan
Thanks for the very kind comments, Graham. As you may have already guessed, the two sections of this poem were written three years apart.
Comment is about From Gorbachev to Johnson (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Thank you very much Stephen & J.C. Where & how will it ever end?
And thanks for the likes 🌷🌷
Comment is about Playground Decorations (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Thanks for the likes Holden, John and Nigel 😀
Comment is about Scarborough Festival (blog)
Original item by John Botterill
Thanks kindly, Keith (Jeffries) it’s heartening to know that the language, its use, and the imparting of anticipatory feelings balanced out the partial comprehension challenge. Cheers, Frederick.
Comment is about The Rhymester (blog)
Original item by Red Brick Keshner
Exceptional, Stephen.
Comment is about Playground Decorations (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
You’re so right, Stephen. Knowing we need to do something isn’t Enough.
Comment is about Conundrum (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
I liked the unfolding - just the occasional forced rhyme thorn/scorn, tread/dread, coil/toil are a bit clunky. I love rhetorical questions in poems and the never ending nature/nurture debate.
Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.
Thomas Hardy
Comment is about Why? (blog)
Original item by Clare
Stephen,
as I came to the last line I somehow expected the poem to continue. Perhaps a few more stokes of the pen as the poem is very good indeed. What you say is clearly the case that we lament the damage done to the environment but contribute to its perennial destruction.
Thank you for this
Keith
Comment is about Conundrum (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
I really liked this poem. Clare> Mackerel skies on dappled days.
. “I saw the gooseflesh on my skin. I did not know what made it. I was not cold. Had a ghost passed over? No, it was the poetry.” Sylvia Plath
Comment is about Under the Mackerel Sky (blog)
Original item by Clare
Thankyou, Stephen. I was particularly happy with finding the word “sycophants” which was a perfect match of sense, rhythm and rhyme. Nevertheless I expect Terry Wogan is spinning in his grave.
And thanks for the Likes, Hugh, Holden and Stephen A.
Comment is about THE TORY DANCE (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Sorry if this seems pessimistic. I don't claim to be more virtuous than anyone else.
Comment is about Conundrum (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Mon 11th Jul 2022 16:41
Thank you so much, Stephen, I really appreciate your kind comment! 😊
Comment is about Nocturnal (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
You always get so much clever narrative in your work Greg. I'm a big fan. Wish I was there, so much inspiration. Rich words.
Comment is about From Gorbachev to Johnson (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Many thanks for the comments, John and Steve. And for the Likes, Frederick, Stephen, Holden, K, JC, and Dawn.
Comment is about From Gorbachev to Johnson (blog)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Thanks Stephen. I really enjoy your responses! I feel that we have had parallel lives! 😁
I was trying to capture my world before I was Hemmed in by a mortgage haha. Sheer bliss!
P. S. I didn't realise that Garfield had a brother! Now, there WAS a great player and another left hander!
Comment is about Scarborough Festival (blog)
Original item by John Botterill
A marvellous, evocative piece, Mike. Thanks.
Comment is about The Fence in Our Back yard (blog)
Original item by Mike McPeek
A fine poem on an unspeakable situation. Well done, Stephen.
Comment is about Playground Decorations (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
A lot packed into these six lines, Holden. 'A little midnight stroll' is quite sinister in this context. Good job.
Comment is about Nocturnal (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
A wonderful, tight descriptive poem, Candice.
Comment is about Teddy Roosevelt Park (blog)
Original item by Candice Reineke
Russell Jacklin
Thu 14th Jul 2022 07:10
The saying "see you later Alligator" always for me needed more, it felt like there was more to the story, so I set myself on a mission to write the story of its origin.
had a great time creating it😊
Comment is about See you later Alligator, In a while Crocodile. (blog)
Original item by JD Russell