Awesome poem, Yanma. The words are stirring, carried me along on the feel of the rain and the desire for healing.
Comment is about The Rain (blog)
Original item by Yanma Hidayah
I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to all WOL poets who write poetry and comments addressing the horrific suffering in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, etc. (including Uilleam, Stephen G., Tom D., Rolph, JD, David M., Larisa, etc). We feel so helpless; the writings are as desperate prayers from across the globe.
Comment is about Israel - Shame On You (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
Many thanks Uilleam for your comments. It is ironic that the once oppressed became the oppressor.🙁
Thanks for likes: Hélène, Nigel Astell & Stephen G 👍
Comment is about Israel - Shame On You (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
Many thanks Rolph for your feedback and reflective comments. History unfortunately has a habit of repeating itself sadly. 😐
Comment is about Israel - Shame On You (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
Many thanks Auracle for your positive comments. Much appreciated. 🙂
Thanks for like: Hélène 👍
Comment is about Sunshine Sky (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
Thanks everyone for your powerful comments!
Thank you for your poignant thoughts and lovely words, Rolph. Indeed - I wanted to capture the frustrations of being the average Joe, and how it sometimes feels to work hard to achieve what’s normal and expected. Or pour effort into things for them to meet the marker of “good”, but never “outstanding”. I’m comfortable with admitting that I don’t stand out from the crowd in my achievements. It felt freeing to lean into that and shine a light on something that I think is often not voiced in everyday life.
And yes, Stephen, I am sure that being exceptional carries its own pressures, self-doubt, and sacrifices so it’s not to be totally idealised!
But I agree, Ullieam, that we are of course all special in our ways, and together we create something powerful rather than separately. And Graham - Yes, we need “normal” in order for the world to function. I like the idea that normal people are life’s heartbeat! I think both of your comments are grounding sentiments to carry through life, and important to remind ourselves of.
Of course, it’s worth noting that many of us are outstanding in ways that are unmeasured or unseen so they often go unnoticed. We can be outstanding friends, family, and partners. We can be outstanding in our abundance of love, empathy, generosity, and self growth. We can be outstanding in overcoming trauma or barriers to progressing in life. So, I am not dismissing that!
Comment is about Average (blog)
Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis
An outstanding poem, Rolph. Sorrow and wisdom and a plea for compassion.
Comment is about Lines In The Dirt (blog)
Original item by Rolph David
This is the "good" kind of terrorism.
Sir Starver's terrorist pirate commando mates have illegally boarded the Handala, because they are fighting the twin evils of baby formula and teddy bears.
Will you condemn this act of terrorism on the high seas, Sir Starver...?
Comment is about Handala, Speed with our Love on the Wing! (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Thanks for your likes:
Stephen G.
Rolph David.
I learned many a good lesson from my school days in wood-working classes. One was about colourful language, on the occasion when the teacher had cut his finger open whilst sharpening a wood chisel.😄
I was looking for an appropriate rhyme, with blunt, but none seemed to cut the mustard…offers most welcome!
Comment is about Luimneach [2. Faoi Príomh-Aire na Breataine-Blunt Tools are Dangerous] (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Thank you, Tom.
Your anger is evident and justified.
The British colonial mindset has helped give birth to a monster. At least three terrorist gangs acted as midwives at Israel's birth, when British soldiers and Palestinian civilians were murdered. The Nakba (Holocaust) of the Palestinian people commenced then, and did not start on October 7th, as the propagandists would have us believe.
Keep on writing and protesting, Tom; for most of us, it's all we can do.
Comment is about Israel - Shame On You (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
I'm glad you chose the poem, David. It says so much.
Comment is about There There, (blog)
Original item by David R Mellor
Nail on Head, Rolph, and if I may, with apologies to Oscar Wilde:😑
The unspeakable pursue the uneatable,
in his world, obsessed with tit and bum.
He, in his Scottish bunker hides,
whilst babies starve, without a crumb,
good Scottish folk his kind despise,
“not fit to burn”, they’ve called that bum.
Comment is about "Exceptional", Like Her! (blog)
Original item by Rolph David
Thank you, JD.
The excuses given for such atrocities as those portrayed in your first line, are truly pathetic.
“Auntie”, whose motto is: "Nation shall speak peace unto Nation", (a now thoroughly discredited piece of claptrap), and other mainstream propaganda hacks, would have UK citizens believe that highly skilled snipers, who are used to operating in the most extreme of battleground conditions, (despite claiming to be members of the “Most Moral Army in the World”), have managed to “accidentally” kill unarmed children, firing not once, but several times at the same targets.
Were it not for the horror which such atrocities evoke, those claims deserve nothing but howls of laughter. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂Needless to say, the aforementioned impersonator of investigative and impartial journalism is now a “Proscribed Organisation” within my household, promenade concerts and all!
Thanks again, JD, you ARE their hope.
Comment is about We should be their hope. (blog)
Original item by JD Russell
Sun 27th Jul 2025 08:05
Hello Trevor,
I found it interesting that you used to use fuchsia buds as bait. I had never heard or read about that before. And fish go for something vegetarian like that?
Cool.
Regards,
Rolph
Comment is about That Summer (blog)
Original item by Trevor Alexander
The poem is certainly not average, Alexandra. In any case, perhaps being exceptional isn't all it's cracked up to be, in particular because of the fear of falling out of the public eye one day.
Comment is about Average (blog)
Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis
Sun 27th Jul 2025 07:59
Good morning Tom,
Your poem is raw, impassioned, and clearly written from a place of deep moral outrage. I absolutely respect that you don’t mince words — you hold power to account and speak up for those suffering, especially the voiceless civilians trapped in endless cycles of violence. Yesterday, I also wrote a poem about this war going on in Israel.
That said, your final stanza — “You will be sorely judged by history / The innocent suffer that is no victory” — makes me pause. I struggle with the idea that history will deliver justice, especially when it rarely has. The Holocaust was judged — mourned, memorialised — and yet here we are, witnessing a state born out of genocide now accused of echoing its own trauma through oppression.
It’s painful to watch the oppressed become the oppressor — and heartbreaking to see ancient suffering used as a shield for modern cruelty. I don’t believe history will judge fairly or loudly enough. It didn’t save Rwanda, Bosnia, Syria, or Gaza. Justice — if it exists — will have to be demanded now, not hoped for later.
Thank you for your voice. Poetry like this matters — even when it stings.
Take care, have a nice Sunday,
regards,
Rolph
Comment is about Israel - Shame On You (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
A nice sideways-look poem, Stephen. It hints and teases.
Comment is about Hazardous Materials (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Thank you, Graham, Uilleam and Rolph. I have always been fascinated how certain beliefs or opinions spread, to the point that they become the accepted view. As you say, Graham, the threat can be more insidious than the outcome, especially given the fast-moving rumour mill of social media, but vigilance is required to push back against the erosion of freedoms etc.
And thanks to everyone who liked this poem.
Comment is about The Grip (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Dear Reader, here unfolds a moment suspended between memory and presence, inviting us into a quiet space of a relationship once unguarded and deeply felt.
Without revealing its private turns, the poem charts a journey through shared confidences and the subtle shifts that time and change can bring.
So let’s turn the page gently, and let the poem’s breath guide us into its quiet reflection. 🕊️🙏🏻🌷
Comment is about a sigh, verbally-breathed (blog)
Original item by Red Brick Keshner
Well, this is just lovely, isn't it? You have a 'rich inner world' (as ChatGPT would chat)
Comment is about Sunshine Sky (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
SuperCool. So many skills to learn just yet. Super Cool.
Comment is about Receding ties (blog)
Original item by James R
I’m glad I have made an impression. Thank you for your comment.
Comment is about Girlhood (blog)
Original item by Bluebell
very true Uilleam , last night it was either this poem or a brick through the TV . many leaders have blood om their hands
Comment is about There There, (blog)
Original item by David R Mellor
Sat 26th Jul 2025 14:37
@ Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh & @ Rolph David Thank you❤
Comment is about NOT A LOVE POEM (blog)
Original item by Keletso
Thank you, David.
I'm having trouble finding words to adequately respond to such horror, perpetrated in my name and paid for in part with my tax-pounds. 💔
Comment is about There There, (blog)
Original item by David R Mellor
Thanks, Trevor. sounds like hard work that.
It would appear that mackerel have all sorts of goodies in them, but I went off them after the supermarket had a spate of selling us frozen fillets that had obviously been thawed out once, then gone off-disgusting.
Comment is about That Summer (blog)
Original item by Trevor Alexander
Thanks for the like, Tom....sorry about the effin' language.😏
Comment is about Luimneach [2. Faoi Príomh-Aire na Breataine-Blunt Tools are Dangerous] (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Thanks for likes: James R, Rolph David & Yanma Hidayah. 👍
Comment is about Sunshine Sky (blog)
Original item by Tom Doolan
@Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh - Indeed. Futile some might even say
Comment is about Receding ties (blog)
Original item by James R
Thank you for your likes:
Holden Moncrieff
David RL Moore
Yanma Hidayah
Oh the irony; Cooper, a woman politician who had the temerity to parade around UK Parliament having her photo taken whilst wearing the colours of the Suffragette movement which commemorates the sacrifices of women who suffered imprisonment, physical abuse and forced feeding, has turned people who, on the streets of Britain, are defending the rights of starved and murdered women and children in Palestine into terrorists and criminals.
So be it, lock me up!
Comment is about Haiku for 2025 [No. 26. Palestine Inaction] (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Thank you, Bluebell.
In the last few days, in the UK government, I've seen powerful women, who ought to know better, parading around, wearing the colours and insignia of the Suffragettes, whilst at the same time, they spat on the rights of and ignored the suffering of women and children, victims of an ongoing Holocaust....and they dare to complain about "Patriarchy"? Shame on them!
Do not bow your head...fight the good fight.X
Comment is about Girlhood (blog)
Original item by Bluebell
Thank you Alexandra.
Average?...reduced to mere numbers on a spreadsheet? a paltry philosophy!
We are each of us, with our talents great and small, a part of the whole; united we stand; in that we have a treasure!
Comment is about Average (blog)
Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis
Sat 26th Jul 2025 07:40
Hello Uilleam,
what moved me to write a tribute poem to Ozzy, I honestly don’t know. It just came over me, just like that, when I heard about his death. I like the song "Paranoid", and also "Dreamer", which represents an untypical style for him as a singer. But the extraordinary thrives on contrasts, doesn’t it?
Comment is about Prince of Darkness, Dreamer True (blog)
Original item by Rolph David
Filling these crags,
You face a mountainous task.
Comment is about Receding ties (blog)
Original item by James R
I don't know where you get the sheer energy from to write all these inspiring words Rolph. Wonderful stuff.
BLAYBT GEZUNT UN SHTARK KEGN FASHIZM
Stay healthy and strong against fascism.
DOS IZ A LAND
FAR MIR UN DIR
This is a land for me and you.
https://youtu.be/GnP8zWcy1ZA?list=RDGnP8zWcy1ZA
Comment is about Lines In The Dirt (blog)
Original item by Rolph David
Sat 26th Jul 2025 07:13
Good morning Alexandra,
Your poem Average pierced straight through the quiet ache so many of us carry — the heavy silence of being overlooked, the grinding fatigue of trying so hard only to remain unseen. You’ve captured with devastating precision what it means to feel invisible in a world obsessed with winners, stars, and the extraordinary — as if being steady, consistent, and sincere were somehow failures.
There’s a kind of bravery in how plainly and powerfully you speak this truth — the raw honesty of working hard for “just enough” and still being made to feel it’s not enough. The way you describe the quiet desperation of showing up every day, doing your part, and never being truly acknowledged — it resonates so deeply. It’s a pain that doesn’t scream, but it lingers. And you’ve given it voice.
But please know this: your words are extraordinary. Not because they shout or boast, but because they see. You see people like us — the quietly competent, the endlessly trying, the ones who never stop despite the lack of applause. That kind of truth-telling is rare. It matters.
You’ve turned the ache of being “unexceptional” into something exceptional — a poem that reaches out and touches hearts. In doing so, you’ve already stepped beyond the very average you write about. You’re not forgettable. Your voice is heard. And it brings comfort, recognition, and solidarity to others who needed to hear it.
Thank you for writing this. You are not alone.
With deep respect,
take good care of yourself,
regards,
Rolph
Comment is about Average (blog)
Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis
Thanks for your likes:
Tim Daly
New Shoes
Rolph David
James R
After suffering years of gaslighting, of self-doubt, of lies and smears against politicians and public figures in the media, of fearing that I was some kind of antisemitic bigot whose views were going to lead to another Holocaust, who feared I was in danger of becoming that which I most despised, I now know the truth; we won't go away; this evil must be confronted.
💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
Comment is about Luimneach [Faoi Príomh-Aire na Breataine] (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Sat 26th Jul 2025 07:01
Good morning MKMK,
I READ IT and I want to say the following:
Dear MKMK,
Reading Do Not Read This felt like standing inside a cathedral of raw emotion, where every echo is a soul-cry reverberating against the walls of heartbreak, memory, and resilience. Your poem is not just a piece of writing — it's a living experience of being torn open by love, betrayal, memory, and the deep ache of being left without explanation.
The trauma of rejection is carved into your words with an honesty so unflinching it's almost unbearable — and yet, it's also where the beauty lies. You’ve given voice to the maddening paradox of feeling both sacredly loved and utterly discarded, of being someone’s home for a heartbeat, only to watch them walk away as if it were nothing. That contradiction — love and abandonment held in the same breath — is devastating. And you made it real.
But what struck me most deeply was your path through the pain — the courage to name it, feel it, not flinch from it — and then to begin again. Not as a victim, not even as a survivor, but as someone reclaiming joy, breath by breath. Your return to self, to music, to nature, to meaning — it’s a quiet revolution. It’s proof that healing doesn’t mean forgetting, and that strength doesn’t mean you never broke.
There’s a bittersweetness throughout — like mourning a future that will never be, while still being grateful for the love that once was. That grief is sacred. That gratitude is defiant. That alchemy — of pain into truth, truth into art — is what makes this poem unforgettable.
Thank you for writing it. Thank you for surviving — and for transforming that survival into something others can feel less alone inside.
With awe and deep respect,
take care,
Rolph
Comment is about Do Not Read This (blog)
Original item by MKMK
I did not read this poem, so I can not speak of its contents
Comment is about Do Not Read This (blog)
Original item by MKMK
We think you’re pretty special Alexandra! The world revolves by the work of normal people. Life has to have a heartbeat that goes on day by day. You could never be average. Just have faith in yourself. Nothing else matters.
Comment is about Average (blog)
Original item by Alexandra K. Parapadakis
No problem. I watched the Human Rights Lawyer videolink. I remember hearing the news on New Years Day 2008/2009. We were driving through the Alps, as friends. It was about a Gaza-bombing. I remember it made me really sad. During that trip we would listen to a CD by 'the Alan Parsons Project'. 'Tales of Mystery and Imagination' is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe. Can you see the contrast?
Now The Alps are falling apart, quite literally. So we can't ignore them anymore!
If we were in a constant state of trauma, then perhaps we were also in a constant state of dissociation.
Let's leave it with that. I'm setting a boundary, for my own well-being.
Take care, Uilleam.
Comment is about The Price of Liberty (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Thanks, Auracle.
I've just watched a Palestinian man die of deliberately inflicted starvation before my very eyes onTV
....but hey-ho, it's a "complicated" situation-that's life!😃
Comment is about The Price of Liberty (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Fantastic! I could imagine myself flowing there.
Comment is about On An English Canal (blog)
Original item by Adam Whitworth
How could that Human Rights lawyer have possibly known anything about this?
https://youtu.be/z4M_usg8GMg?list=PL9n8fNFZ2frSmBVFrhaCwOoXb9qQUvPJe
Comment is about The Price of Liberty (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
How do you plead, Prime Minister?
https://youtu.be/z4M_usg8GMg?list=PL9n8fNFZ2frSmBVFrhaCwOoXb9qQUvPJe
Comment is about Luimneach [Faoi Príomh-Aire na Breataine] (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
It's good to hear your poem. Feels harsh, the reality of things. I hope this helps us as well.
Comment is about The Price of Liberty (blog)
Original item by Uilleam Ó Ceallaigh
Hélène
Sun 27th Jul 2025 13:22
Aisha, once again, you are a master of rhyme in flowing poetry (with an uplifting message as well).
Comment is about Smile Like The Sun (blog)
Original item by Aisha Suleman