Alright, who's the comedian who 'air-brushed' me to that size?

This was the first time I performed my 'naked finger puppets' routine. Indeed.

Comment is about Multi-self-award winning poet Darren Thomas at the Old Boar's Head, Middleton August 2008 (photo)

I saw you take the one by myself, Paul.. Didn't realise you took this one! I must admit I was made to feel so welcome by everybody - can't wait to do it again! Whether the rest of my stuff will give the audience as much fun - we'll see! lol

Comment is about Andy N (left) and Antonionioni have some fun at the Old Boar's Head, Middleton August 2008 (photo)

Hi I like the pun Cheetham and cheat him. I've been through the 'Curry Mile' several times. Nice photo.

Comment is about Manchester open-top bus tour (blog)

You wrote this when drunk? Wow! I have to say coming back from Manchester to Wigan on a sardine train is not enjoyable.

Comment is about Manchester City (blog)

Cheers for the comment on the audio file. I like a bit of fun. Your 'Catherine Poem' is good too; images flying through my mind with the quick constant stream of your voice.

Comment is about alex iamb (poet profile)

Original item by alex iamb

'They fuck you up your Mum and Dad' we all know where that comes from. Philip Larkin. This is quite a long poem. A lot of what you say rings true but maybe could be abridged. However I say go for it and then a little bit of editing. Always your fan as you look amazing.

Comment is about The ingredient’s for the disturbed (blog)

Hi Antoninioni,
What's so ridiculous and sardines as beans?
They're great on toast!

Love Janet.xx

Comment is about Manchester City (blog)

Thanks folks. I like it formal (makes tiger 'roar' sound).

Comment is about A poem (blog)

Original item by Stuart A. Paterson

Hi Richard

I think there's some great lines here but maybe a bit too much. Are you writing part 3? if so maybe all the last stanza should be in that. I like the idea of a 3 part thing if thats what you're planning but with the last part a kind of reflection if you know what I mean.

As I said though I love some of the lines so maybe look at the format? any help? Jeff

Comment is about Welcome to the city Pt 2 (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

Hi Richard

good stuff, I think we all want to leave some mark, there was some writing on the wall under the paper when I was decorating from a child who used to live here. Very well described, felt there with you, cheers jeff

Comment is about Memories (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

Hi Shelley, sorry, don't know what happened with the chat line. but i have to go to work now, so maybe another time?
I love going to the poetry nights, they're great fun and meeting the poets on site can be enlightening. Pity you live so far away.

ps, i'm always on the look-out for helpful hints on my poetry, so if you ever get the itch, please feel free to scratch a comment or two to my blogs or profile.
Love Janet.xx

Comment is about Shelley Ann Dwornik (poet profile)

Original item by Shelley Ann Dwornik

I snow what you mean...innocence and happiness...and I love the contrast of 'red brick arms'
Neat.

Comment is about 1963, WHEN THE SNOW STOPPED FALLING (blog)

Original item by Rodney Wood

Daydreams hm,
Hi Rodney, Love the thought of angels around a table eating marshmallows, great imagery in that one line alone.
Sitting in a cafe with other poets smiling need not be a dream. Get yourself down to Wigan to the Cafe Nero, this Tuesday.I believe it is exactly as you would wish.
Meet some of our English "natives". ha ha.
Love Janet.xx

Comment is about THE THINGS THAT WILL HAPPEN TODAY (blog)

Original item by Rodney Wood

Hey Rodders...thanks for your comments but I removed them by accident, I was actually going to reply 'do you know me?' at your suggestion of the frizzy hair and cold breasts....uncanny!...anyway please replace these comments as I will gladly attempt those extra few lines for the fun of it-----good advice
Shelley

Comment is about Rodney Wood (poet profile)

Original item by Rodney Wood

Hello Rodney,
thanks for your observations on my poem "gota freya." I really hadn't given a thought of "natives" being condescending as it isn't in my vocabulary. But if it gives even one person that feeling, then it's got to go, or perhaps if i put "the" before it, might not be quite so abrupt?

Any suggestions are more than welcome, and about your other observations made also.
Particularly the structure as i haven't had any training whatsoever. ( maybe i should, when i can find a really inexpensive class or workshop local to me. Or even online.)

Thanks too for all your other comments.
All of them are well received and welcome. Especially where you point out where it can be improved, but more so when you say how.

Love Janet.xx

Comment is about Rodney Wood (poet profile)

Original item by Rodney Wood

Thanks for the advice, Janet.
I've added another couple of poems.

Comment is about Emma Purshouse (poet profile)

Original item by Emma Purshouse

HI Lauretta, I think its wonderful the way it is, its raw and agressive and to the point. I think many people can understand this and wish they had said it, or could. I think it has parts that can be felt by all kinds of people, as it covers so much.I think almost everyone I know, has a few of these feelings. great auto write!

Comment is about The ingredient’s for the disturbed (blog)

Diva!

Comment is about Gemma O'Neill, singer with The Dirty Normans at Riders, Bolton June 2008 (photo)

Richard,
I liked all of this apart from the first verse which just seemed to be an intro to the rest of the real and dirty poem.

Comment is about Welcome to the city Pt 2 (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

I would like to comment upon this now that the automatic writing has ceased.

I think that this would become a poem (too long and fragmented) but as it stands it is just automatic writing. The work was inspired by the members of a self help / therapy group that I used to attend. It is a collection of possible ideas and is based on no one but everyone, it takes parts of abuse and just uses the snippets i took from therapy session to inspire the writing.

It was typed out exactly as you read it.

the only alteration I made was to the spelling as when you type fast, well you know what I mean.

When we used to go to therapy, first it was important not to feel ashamed, second to be brutal and honest as denial just componded. You even had to insult each other in order to express hiding frustrations and grudges from the past. It was a kind of cleanse.

I think that writing and doing prformance work is a good way to express the power of emotion, you have to harness it, like with anything if its not controlled or directed or even dissipated it can be destructive.

Alcohol is probably the worst contributor I have seen. Ironically its the easiest available drug, and in small amounts is pretty much ok, especially wine with your meal etc.

oh I dunno

Comment is about The ingredient’s for the disturbed (blog)

Try to write a univocal poem eh! It starts to go wonky after clock and gets serious instead of more ridiculous.

Comment is about Manchester City (blog)

Hi Ant, great to meet you last night, really enjoyed the night too. I've not been to the museum for a while , you've inspired me to take my daughter!

cheers, like the Gary Glitter thing you did! cheers Jeff

Comment is about Magic bus (blog)

Lauretta, what is it that Pauls got, the rest of us didn't stand a chance!!! Ha

Great stuff, and fantastic performance, and very nice legs too babe!! Jeffarama! XX

Comment is about Rude Paul (blog)

Hi Abi, congrats on your 4 years here, mustn't be all that bad! Its nice to read this after hearing you perform it last week.

I suppose it's inevitable that you miss Nigeria and Lagos (I knew it was former capital - I'm a bit of a geek on capitals of the world!). If the roles were reversed, its hard to say how I would have settled in your country, I can't imagine not living in Bolton and the North West! I have been to Gambia and Morocco, so know little bit about Africa, I also got very interested in the sad events in Rwanda.

So, basically, well done, it can't be easy, you're welcome and I love reading your work, Jeff X

Comment is about Fourth (blog)

Original item by Abi

Hi Emma,
Welcome to the site.
I like your sample poem, mainly because i've had the literal experience of the rabbits bottom.
( i worked in a place where we sold game and poultry.)

How about letting us in on some more, you may find you will receive more interest in your work which from your profile, seems quite extensive.

Thanks for the memory, Janet.x

Comment is about Emma Purshouse (poet profile)

Original item by Emma Purshouse

ps. it didn't transfer as i wrote it.
Not as easy as it seems. Must have to be copied from the computer i think.xx

Comment is about Richard Brooks (poet profile)

Original item by Richard Brooks

Hi Richard,
Your anchor does look better, but i still think if you raised the first and last word one more time as well as raising again the ones you did, it would be spot on.

is it.
this owe
death etc. etc... etc... they


Great stuff, this concrete poetry though, and something completely new to me which you've inspired me to practice with. Thankyou.
Love Janet.xx

Comment is about Richard Brooks (poet profile)

Original item by Richard Brooks

It was a joke Richard. Sorry to be obscure, but when you ask existential questions you will get responses from strange people like me.

Comment is about Malpoet (poet profile)

Original item by Malpoet

Meow. meow. Purr, purr

Comment is about My Kitty Kat (blog)

It's an anchor, right? No, wait a minute. It's dead souls floating through the sea toward Davy Jones' locker.
Concrete poetry is usually set in its ways but this is great.

*Noticed your recent part 2 about the city but not had chance to really read and digest it Richard, due to boring revision and heaps of poetic apathy brought about by the former.
Keep writing though, I'm enjoying much of your work.

Comment is about Anchor (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

Lauretta, I was just cooking dinner when I had a mind flash, and I worried that your hormones could be extreemly out of control, I have seen females with this after 5 shadow, you may want to go in for a check up. take care

Comment is about five O'clock shadow (blog)

That was a general question, I didnt post it in the what is poetry discussion but a new one. You must have me confused. Ric :-/

Comment is about Malpoet (poet profile)

Original item by Malpoet

Very evocative and good underlying message. Thanks for sharing.

Comment is about Memories (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

The last 6 lines of the second stanza don't seem to belong there.
The whole of the third stanza, i just can't contemplate. It's out of focus, if that makes sense.
Then i picked it up again after that.

But after all that said, for goodness sake, don't alter it for me. I've said before, i'm not a literary expert. Please, if it feels right to you, leave it as it is. It's your work and you should believe in yourself and any work you produce.
You'll never please everyone with everything you write. It's about experimenting with what you have to hand and learned.
Love Janet. xxx

Comment is about Welcome to the city Pt 2 (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

It is meant to be treated as an individual poem from the first one. I think I will have to come back and re-think this maybe. Where did you get lost in particular?

Comment is about Welcome to the city Pt 2 (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

Oh, how poignant.
This paints pictures in my mind and evokes memories of when i was house hunting.
The imprints of previous occupants in every room became my decider of whether or not to put in an offer.

Strangely enough, the feeling of wanting to remove all my own imprints from the home i shared with my husband, all came flooding back.
Very weird.

Thanks, love Janet.xx

Comment is about Memories (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

Hi Richard,
Sorry, but you totally lost me with the changes you made to this poem.
There's still some great sections but somehow i feel the plot's gone

Love Janet.xx

Comment is about Welcome to the city Pt 2 (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

ps. Almost like a flat-line. x

Comment is about Anchor (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

Hi Richard,
Maybe it's the way they were meant to die?
Evokes great depth of thought and feelings. As if they're going into an abyss.


I thought at first, this was going to be the shape of a ship. If it's an anchor, raising the first two words and last two words of the bottom line would curve it.
Having said that, the "bottom line" is apt, for the sailors anyway. ( death being the bottom line.) :- )
Love Janet.xxx

Comment is about Anchor (blog)

Original item by Richard Brooks

Thanks people, very much humbled by your gracious comments. I'm glad to share, though i must say this Lagos isn't exactly a village, it used to be the country's capital till politics moved it to Abuja. Its still the industrial and financial capital though. As they say in Nigeria, you haven't really lived till you live in Lagos!
And the grass... I actually say a dog pee near where i picked my blade the next morning...oh dear!

Comment is about Fourth (blog)

Original item by Abi

I know what you mean. I do feel compelled to leave someone a comment because they have left me one. I find the whole thing quite narcissistic, its a shame that one needs a comment to allow them to believe their poetry is good. There are however a few poets on the site who are more 'honest' than most and actually leave constructive criticism (which I am here for, I generally know whether right or wrong, what is good about my poems but Im blind to my own weaknesses) Darren for example. Do you attend the gigs?

Comment is about Dermot Glennon (poet profile)

Original item by Dermot Glennon

Haha. this is great. Do tell, have they changed the fish nets yet? I used to love wearing them, that is when I could find my size, always made for longer legs then mine. My problem with them was they would dig into the bottom of my baby soft feet, and at the end of the night with high heels and fish nets, I felt crippled.If they could make them smooth on the bottom where feet are, I would consider wearing them again. As for the after five shaddow, girl have you not heard of wax? It will hurt, but if your growing hair all over and wish it to vanish, then wax, or shave every day. Im blessed ,Im not a hairy person. wonderful poem!

Comment is about five O'clock shadow (blog)

Hi Pete,
there's some brilliant observations in your poem.
I see and hear this kind of thing every single time i go to work. It really is a way of life for some people.
Surprisingly, maybe. It's usually the regular afternoon drinkers who are the ones most likely to fit the bill for this one.

Great write and frighteningly real.
Love Janet.xx

Comment is about this is my social life (blog)

ps. yes i know that's not what you meant by a 5 o clock shadow. sorry.x

Comment is about five O'clock shadow (blog)

Ha ha. I just had the most scratchy vision of spiky hairs sticking out of the holes in fishnet tights. ha ha. very funny image. very funny indeed. Thanks for that.
Love Janet.x

Comment is about five O'clock shadow (blog)

Have you been spying on me Pete Crompton?
Only my cat did exactly that same thing on my best trousers too.
My own fault for not hanging them up before going to bed. But then, that's what the dreaded drunken state does to us poor perfect mortals isn't it!
Love Janet.xxx

Comment is about My Kitty Kat (blog)

Hi Antoninoni,
Looks like you had a good day. You've certainly managed to write an interesting sonnet from it anyway. I like the way everything seems to slot in place to create a nice rhythm.

I went into a shop in Wigan a while ago which was selling dead bugs and beetles in jewellery.
Apparently it's the "in thing" as far as raising spiritual awareness is concerned. I decided to give them a miss.
Love Janet.xx

Comment is about Magic bus (blog)

Thanks Richard for you nice comments. I generally avoid the showcase (and it took a long time before I posted a profile) because I still bear the scars of mutual self congratulatory writers workshops where people write a complimentary comment on your poems and it is expected that you will do the same for them. That said, I genuinely do quite like a couple of the ones you've posted up here - with the hopping around from one setting to the next (urban street tableau to dark forest tableau to etc.) in the first one, and the lass who'd fallen off a pier and dragged down the coast to a waiting rapist in the poet and muse thing.

As to my attitude in the discussion thing - it's mostly put on. Mind you almost everyone else is being disingenuous in that thread so it's not just me. For all the "well I could call x a poem and I could call y a poem" (and so on and so forth), if those people were reading an article in the financial times and their significant other said "what are you read dear?" they wouldn't say "a poem". So, deep down, they sort of know.

Comment is about Richard Brooks (poet profile)

Original item by Richard Brooks

If anyone wants a larger version of their photo please feel free to email me - mail@shaysart.co.uk. I'll be going away for a week so it may take a little while but I'm happy to provide them. Seamus

Comment is about Gemma O'Neill & Paul Blackburn sing "Happy Birthday" to each other at the Howcroft Inn, Bolton August 2008 (photo)

I read your posts on the what is poetry? argument posted by myself originally and you sounded so intelligent and confident of your opinions I alsmost hoped I wouldnt like your poems! But of what Ive read I have to say I've enjoyed and found your choice of words and language engaged me alot into the world of your poem and created very vivid images. I love the subtleness of the image of the spade against the wall. Thanks. Richard

Comment is about Dermot Glennon (poet profile)

Original item by Dermot Glennon