Good evening Anna

I'm not really au fait with poetry critiquing so ...

Norwich Gravyard - great read. I found it quite moving. I wondered if the 'his hands' were the person who died fifteen years ago? If they are, how clever. If they aren't erm, were they God's? If neither, can you please explain yourself?!

I've a bus to catch and can't leave without knowing. I'll give you until a quarter-to.



Joseph

Comment is about Anna Percy (poet profile)

Original item by Anna Percy

Hebden was a bit of a one off for me - had the offer of a lift - am more of a Lancashire lass. The structure of a poem is always less important to me than the message and the imagery - mine are sometimes criticised for it. I find that when you are performing a poem, the structure isn't as important cos you know how you want to read it. There are a lot of serious poets on here though who do study the form. Still - it is easier to invent new structure, than it is fresh imagery or imagination, so there is hope for us yet. Perhaps we will be able to hear you in Wigan one day...Take care for now.

Comment is about Ross Kightly (poet profile)

Original item by Ross Kightly

Hello Dave, Thank you for commenting kindly on 'The Last Dance' it was my first posting, so WOL automatically posted it to my page as I had no sample work, still I am quite happy for it to be there.
Cheers ;-)) TC

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Hi Kate

I like your profile poems. There's a humour and relish for being alive which breathes through them. More please!

Comment is about Kate Tym (poet profile)

Original item by Kate Tym

Hello Freda, thank you for your generous comment. I have to confess to being a doppelganger for your regular Dave Morgan to paraphrase Henry Miller, since I never visited Lancaster until about 1980, but I am flattered at being mistaken for anyone who has stayed etched on your memory for so long. I've been so overwhelmed at the growth of the WoL site that I've not been on recently, so thank you for leading me back into the fold.

Dave

Comment is about Freda Davis (poet profile)

Original item by Freda Davis

I liked your Churchill poem, Dave. He had all sorts of flaws, as you acknowledge, but he was the man for the hour. His spoken words still stir the blood and bring tears to my eyes. He remains THE symbol of Britishness for me, and that's why these other parties try to hijack him for their own purposes, of course. I didn't have a problem when a protester gave him a Mohican a few years ago ... he was big enough to take that in his stride and in some way it only added to his iconic (overused-word, but the right one here) status.

Comment is about Dave Bradley (poet profile)

Original item by Dave Bradley

Good evening Kate,

I enjoyed your very funny poetry. I must say I didn't think a poem called Sunday Morning TV would take me on quite such a journey!

Look forward to seeing more of your stuff.


Joseph

ps. "Brothers in biscuity Arms" is brellyant. Loved it.

Comment is about Kate Tym (poet profile)

Original item by Kate Tym

Thanks for your continued support of WOLOP Cynthia - if only everyone could be so enthusiastic...I noticed that blogs dipped for the second month running, having peaked in September. If that trend continues, hopefully we will get back to a stage where looking through blogs will be less arduous....which should help on the commenting/judging front also.
Although I maybe being overly optimistic - have just checked and we were only 6 less in November than October...

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Isobel - after your kind comment on Queen Pin, I thought I'd have a look at your profile, and I was delighted by the poem - 'What's it all about'? indeed! Don't put yourself down about the singing either - the quality of the sound clip is excellent and does justice to the rhythmic verve of the poem. Terrific reading!
Cheers.

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Mind, Isobel? How could I mind such a kind comment? I remember Hebden Bridge - unfortunately not able to make it this month - double-booked with family excursion to NMM Pictureville Cinema instead! Obviously I'm going to have to look at this whole issue of line breaks - Graham's are not the first comments - it has been said in workshops as well about other poems of mine. A redraft of 'Queen Pin' is in order some time, once she's out of the public eye, perhaps. Thanks again, Isobel - hope to see you again some time.

Comment is about Ross Kightly (poet profile)

Original item by Ross Kightly

Congratulations cobber on your Poem of the Month. Nice to see someone win it who I have actually met (Hebden Bridge briefly). There is much truth about long term relationships in your poem. Would agree with Graham that the line breaks are odd but like the interesting imagery and think that the poem is well executed. Hope you don't mind me commenting here.

Comment is about Ross Kightly (poet profile)

Original item by Ross Kightly

HtS,

I enjoyed your Ringworm & grease. Brilliant. Graham Fellows would be proud.

Mwoar!


Fassbinder

Comment is about Horace Thespider (poet profile)

Original item by Horace Thespider

Hi Cynthia. Thanks for looking at Social Algebra Alphabet. Glad you enjoyed it. Not really that cleaver, this one. just a bit of fun and anexperiment. Win x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

dear red shoes - Thanks for looking at Social Algebra Alphabet. I lost it at the begining! don't look too deeply at this one it was just a bit of fun. Win

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Hi Ann, Thanks for looking at Social Algebra Alphabet. and for putting things right in your comments! lol win

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Good afternoon Clare

"If I was" is a really clever poem and clever for its funny & sad. Loved the Grandmother knitted eyebrows story/poem. I thought of Alan Bennett with all that analytical detail of the woman. I can't get gravy-on-the-legs-to-give-the- impression-of-tights out of my mindl

Joseph


ps. Congrats on getting a prize at the Troubadour. Your name is on a list I have just received by email .... I am assuming you are THE Clare Kirwan!

Comment is about Clare Kirwan (poet profile)

Original item by Clare Kirwan

Hi Ann,

thanks for taking the time to read and make comment on my work

steve x

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

HI Cynthia

thanks for taking the time to read and make comment on my work

as for your question - lovely question and thought

thanks

steve x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Andy,

thanks for taking the time to read and make comment on my work

steve x

Comment is about Andy N (poet profile)

Original item by Andy N

Dear Anthony,

I can't seem to locate an e-mail address for you on here, otherwise I would have e-mailed you privately just to offer you some solidarity in the face of a recent tirade against you posted elsewhere.

I agreed with your comments wholeheartedly and thought they were expressed in a very succinct and witty way. To say so on the actual discussion board would, in my opinion, just invite another tirade of hypocritical invective upon both our heads and I have elected to abdicate from that particular battle....until the next time. There is bound to be a 'next time' as I cannot envisage being able to keep my trap shut the next time a piece of egregious clap trap is posted here disguised as 'poetry' or even 'comment'.

Keep the faith.

Jx

Comment is about Anthony Emmerson (poet profile)

Original item by Anthony Emmerson

Good morning Ann

I enjoyed the dancing poem and the array of gentlemen that abound in it v much. The descriptions are clever, believable and familiar. I recall 'wearing' a pencil behind my ear once (for emergency villanelle-writing-on-the-bus you understand) and someone assuming I'd be good at carpentry! I can't even put up the Christmas Decorations let alone shelves!

It's a great poem Ann and there are a lot of great observations in it. I think Goethe appreciated the dance just as much:

Please send me your last pair of shoes, worn out with dancing as you mentioned in your letter, so that I might have something to press against my heart. ~ Goethe

look forward to reading more of your stuff.


Joseph

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

I realize you won
You always did.
I gave,
You hid.


'End of the affair' really enjoyed it. Reads/performs well, just read it aloud and loved it.

Very tight writing, clean and cutting.
Great.

Comment is about Tommy Carroll (poet profile)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

Thank you Andy for your comments and suggestion but alas I know little of Manchester, more of a Cheshire chick.

I do hope you have news soon about your missing friend Alex , it is very very sad.

Augusta x

Comment is about Andy N (poet profile)

Original item by Andy N

How diligent and observant you are Isobel, of course I was utilising the stresses rather than the syllables, ( I'm fibbing)

A king’s ransom spent on my education too…

I have made amends.

Thank you.
Augusta X

Comment is about Isobel (poet profile)

Original item by Isobel

Hi Ann,
Thanks for the kind comment. i think in that picture- i'm pausing before the blank page, frozen in fear. i may have been stood there for several minutes. either that or i'm getting a coffee.
I like the repetition in your poems. I see desire and nature are the same here. Do you read much Ted Hughes? i felt a lot of him when I read your poems.
Thanks.

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Kealan. Youcan now edit your blog entries without them jumping up to the top of the pile. Win (Admin)

Comment is about Kealan Coady (poet profile)

Original item by Kealan Coady

Hi Kath

I really enjoyed these poems. Very well crafted too. I liked:

what distant ocean
dreams,
had drawn their
silent vigil

very lyrical. And the "Tadpoling" was triffic. I've noticed that in next to no time, people have forgotten Woolworths ever existed. Maybe that's just down here in London. I remember 'the nets' too!

I shall pop-by again and read more of your great memories.

cheers

Fassbinder

ps. 'Eating sandwiches with pondwater hands' is such a great image.

Comment is about Kath Dodd (poet profile)

Original item by Kath Dodd

Thanks for your comment on my poem Jeff - the voice is tuning itself up for Christmas and so looking forward to the next Tudor!

Comment is about Jeffarama! (poet profile)

Original item by Jeffarama!

Thanks for your lovely comment on Coming Home - I was very touched. Quite an emotional one to write and read so I am glad that I didn't cross the fine line and make it too sentimental.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Love your stuff, so well crafted and full of pictures.
Steve smith

Comment is about pauline sewards (poet profile)

Original item by pauline sewards

Dear Ann,
thank you for commenting on my poem -you have seen the heart of it....I struggled with the word "Un-amputatable for a while , trying several others , but used it because it's an ugly word and when you think of someone you have loved and still love and wish you could see,but can't, it hurts and you could in one act brutal cut off that wish so it would no longer be painful...then, the longing returns with the pleasurable memory...that's love.Loved your 'dray' and thanks for bringing the smell of swarfega to mind...in that tender ,dancing poem...hmmm, your poems are so gentle ...it makes me realise how hard-edged a lot of poems are...hmmmm somethign to ponder..
Steve Smith

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Hi Sian.
it's good to hear from you again : ) thank you for reading and posting your very kind comments on Kilim, deb x

Comment is about sian howell (poet profile)

Original item by sian howell

Thanks for your kind comments on my Foxes poem, how come it's impossible to see your own typos! All corrected now - thanks!
I like your strangers on a train poem. Quietly touching!

Comment is about Greg Freeman (poet profile)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi WInston

thanks for your comment as ever

steve x

Comment is about Winston Plowes (poet profile)

Original item by Winston Plowes

Hi Belinda

thanks for the comment on the haiku thing

steve x

Comment is about Belinda (poet profile)

Original item by Belinda

HI Cynthia

the poem Unchained - the word 'war' is deliberately 'missing'

steve x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Cynthia

thanks again for your comments

an eclipse is the passing of one celestial thing over another - shadow is an effect of this process

steve x

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Freda. I have already put your analysis in a discussions thread a while ago in a slightly abridged form. Win :-)

Comment is about Freda Davis (poet profile)

Original item by Freda Davis

Hi Winston
I have put the analysis on the Discussion Thread 'Do we Dare to Criticise. It seemed a good home for it.

Comment is about Winston Plowes (poet profile)

Original item by Winston Plowes

Hello Ann
Thanks for your kind comments about my poem. I enjoyed reading yours just now. I like the picture of the "Wilkes ' man and the turn around at the end of the poem. I like your bold approach and look forward to reading your poems and blog in more detail - Pauline

Comment is about Ann Foxglove (poet profile)

Original item by Ann Foxglove

Thank you for your comment on my poem South with Endurance - why do you think is about the north pole I wonder???

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Thank you for your comments.
I will be near bolton for a while at the start of next year so hopefully will get up the guts to attend one of the events there while i am!

I think as people say science is a creative subject aswell, but far too often i end up just stuck learning and regurgitating facts.. but that is more a fault of the overly exam happy education system then the subject itself!

I was able to do some work with some parkinsons patients and it really affected and stuck with me, as i think it would anyone.

I really like your poems, especially Ignition distraction.

Comment is about Winston Plowes (poet profile)

Original item by Winston Plowes

I really enjoyed Drinking on Trains, could really picture the woman, the vagueness of her memories alongside very vivid images, the plastic cup that's too light, the miniatures whose design is so intricate. Lovely, the enjoyment of doing something almost disreputable!

Comment is about pauline sewards (poet profile)

Original item by pauline sewards

Hi Sue, Yes, your first piece on WOL is indeed a powerful one. I look forward to reading more of your work. Winston

Comment is about Sue Hall (poet profile)

Original item by Sue Hall

Steve (its Emma from Mondays writing group) saw you on the front page of the website and thought id pop over to say Hi. This piece is amazing! it blew me away! love the whole feel of the piece, such amazing ambience of the night time and the morning. Fantastic stuff! see you soon! Take care, em.

Comment is about Steve O'Connor (poet profile)

Original item by Steve O'Connor

Hi Beulah,

thank you for taking the time to read and make comment on my poem

steve x

Comment is about Beulah (poet profile)

Original item by Beulah

If I was is brill/funny/sad - great!

Comment is about Clare Kirwan (poet profile)

Original item by Clare Kirwan

Thank you for your kind comment on my work. 'Artist Supporting Artist'!

: )

Jx

Comment is about Beulah (poet profile)

Original item by Beulah

thank you for your comments

Comment is about Beulah (poet profile)

Original item by Beulah

I think you are being a little prejudiced there Therm. I have known very many lovely Southerners. They are just not as immediately open to strangers. Once you break the ice, we are all the same.
Good luck with the auditions Beulah - I'll be crossing my fingers for you!

Comment is about Beulah (poet profile)

Original item by Beulah