John,
I had first hand experience of life under Franco's rule for two and a half years. Everything was under control with severe penalties for being disobedient or even complaining. The bureaucrats enjoyed their power over people as did the Guardia Civil and the Church. They were all hand in glove.
Thank you again for this poem
Keith
Comment is about The dictatorship of the bureaucrats (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
A fantastic poem with a sort of inevitability about it , reminiscent of Orwell or perhaps Solzhenitsyn, and the powers that be, the very worst types in control, and brings to mind camp guards co opted by the aggressors, that kind of person John.
A small masterpiece. Ray
Comment is about The dictatorship of the bureaucrats (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Neat and complete, Frederick. Just like the moon. 😀👍
Comment is about new moon (blog)
Original item by Red Brick Keshner
A profound poem, John. A great read on an important subject.
Comment is about The dictatorship of the bureaucrats (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Another beautiful, and slightly sinsiter, poem, Stephen.
Comment is about A Winter's Chill (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Thank you Keith, as ever. It's a pity that others' do not share your understanding that to empathize with and have sympathy for the people who have to live under dictatorships does not imply approval of these authoritarian leaders
Comment is about The dictatorship of the bureaucrats (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Thanks Nigel. 🌷
A little note of thanks to you for your continuous support and motivation.
Your words uplifted my spirits. Was going through a rough patch. But God has now created a new garden of bliss for me.
Comment is about Let's do it for sake of humanity (blog)
Original item by Sunshine
Poems are the stations where few thoughts become words and reach their destination on a page, blog, word document or elsewhere....many are found in trash box as well😂
Comment is about Poet's mind (blog)
Original item by Sunshine
So true Nigel. I've seen this bond always. A very beautiful bond to witness. But not all children are lucky and not all women are blessed.
Blessed differently.💖
Comment is about Was it love? (blog)
Original item by Sunshine
Thanks Keith. The first hand accounts which inspired the poem were very moving 👍
Comment is about A Postcard From R.A.F. Oulton (blog)
Original item by John Botterill
Thanks for your comment on Postcard from RAF Oulton, Keith. I really appreciate your thoughtful analysis. It was taken from a display at Blickling in Norfolk. Much of the poem is taken from first hand accounts which I thought were very moving.
Comment is about keith jeffries (poet profile)
Original item by keith jeffries
This poem echoes from the past and has a message for today. Well crafted with a spirit which is hard to define but resonates profoundly.
Thank you for this
Keith
Comment is about A Postcard From R.A.F. Oulton (blog)
Original item by John Botterill
The queue of life is here in this poem where good folk are played with over and over again.
John, thank you for this as it is a poem of one of life's abuses. How often have I seen these queues.
Keith
Comment is about The dictatorship of the bureaucrats (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
There is no stronger bond
from a womb to life born
this stays forever between
a Mother and child.❤
Comment is about Was it love? (blog)
Original item by Sunshine
Words that travel
Along lines stopping
At a station
Called Poet's Mind.❤
Comment is about Poet's mind (blog)
Original item by Sunshine
There is no greater gift then giving
There is no greater reward attained
Then the thank you that is given back to you.❤
Comment is about Let's do it for sake of humanity (blog)
Original item by Sunshine
I really don't see what the furure is all about.
People must be allowed to remember with something like pride the millions who have died repelling fascism.
I'm glad to hear of poems being broadcast on the radio and turned into popular songs, glad to hear people were moved to defend Pushkin's house.
Without the last seven lines isn't this an interesting and 'worthy' poem? I'm assuming these are the lines giving offense, I think no more than so many other unnecessary 'rant' style outbursts giving both barrels to Donut Trump or that moron Boris so many lovely folks voted for.
I'm happy to skim over the 'rant' indulgences if there is art of any value in other parts of the attempt. No poem's perfect.
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Greg. You really should take a more than cursory look at spiked, maybe read a few articles even, what do you think? It is a contrarian publication and its raison d'être is to challenge lazy thinking.
After reading this online mag consistently for most of a decade I always feel challenged by its point of view. Sometimes I agree, often I don't. It describes itself thus: "spiked is the magazine that wants to change the world as well as report on it. Edited by Tom Slater, and launched in 2001, it is irreverent where others conform, questioning where others wallow in received wisdom, and radical where others cling to the status quo.
At a time when it is fashionable to cancel ‘problematic’ people, to sideline voters when they give the ‘wrong’ answer, and to treat human beings as a drain on the planet, we put the case for human endeavour, the expansion of democracy, and freedom of speech with no ifs or buts.
Our motto is ‘question everything’ – or as the New York Times put it, we are ‘the often-biting British publication fond of puncturing all manner of ideological balloons’."
"People should know that your views are contaminated by extremely rightwing websites. Please keep their poison off our pages in future." Greg Freeman
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
"It merely, and carefully, raises the prospect that there may be a variety of points of view." Would you have said the same at the time of Hitler, John? Maybe you would. You don't seem to appreciate that this poem is in danger of casting you as an apologist for genocide. Claiming ' free speech' to spread your views is all very well. Putin certainly doesn't believe in it. I notice that this is the second time, to my knowledge, that you have quoted a website called Spiked in support of your views. I've taken a look at it, and, predictably, I don't like it. People should know that your views are contaminated by extremely rightwing websites. Please keep their poison off our pages in future.
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Thank you Ray. This poem does not provide answers as to the facts of this terrible conflict - that will be done by history. It merely, and carefully, raises the prospect that there may be a variety of points of view. Putin is not Russia and we need to be careful we do not conflate them. The title of the poem 'Russia is Burning' points to the damage that is being done to Russia by this conflict. As to personal insults, I treat them with the disdain they deserve.
"On social media people have tried to turn Ukraine into a kind of storyline. Matthew Dowd, who describes himself as a ‘thought leader, writer, analyst’, reduced the war to the good-vs-evil tale of Star Wars."
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/03/25/the-war-in-ukraine-is-not-all-about-us/
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Thank you to Frederick - Emer and Jordyn for taking time to read and 'like'
Thank you for your comment Keith, it was a lovely day last year, we worked side by side all afternoon and felt so content. It was wonderful to feel so happy in each other's company. Thank you again.
Comment is about AUTUMN INTO WINTER (blog)
Original item by Flyntland
The brevity of this short piece is just perfect. Clear, tight and quite to the point. Our wonderful capricious promiscuous unfathomable weather!
Good work
Comment is about August Morning (blog)
Original item by julie callaghan
My thanks also to Julie Callaghan for your like - feedback is such an encouraging reward.
Comment is about FOR UKRAINE (blog)
Original item by Flyntland
A poem which brings together a retired life and the how the seasons reflect on this. Well crafted and succinct.
Thank you for this
Keith
Comment is about AUTUMN INTO WINTER (blog)
Original item by Flyntland
War brings out the worst and the best in people, but dictators have their own agenda, often catalysts for violent change and social disruption. Also, if we look back we can see advantages in science triggered by the need for defence and also for aggression which add in to the sum of human experience, often with great suffering as a result though. Sad to admit it, but we can't seem to prevent such cyclical events by reason or rationale. Everyone needs a voice however strident and freedom of comment should by expressed even in the face of revulsion. My opinion only.
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
The point is, John, we all know how Russia suffered - and eventually triumphed - during the second world war. We don't need any history lessons. Putin is now squandering all that heroism, with genocide and barbarism. He is the fascist now.
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
I couldn't agree more Mike.
Not all victims of gun/knife crime are innocent, but when they are it really brings home just how evil these cowardly b******s are.
My heart goes out to Olivia's family.
Comment is about An Applause For Olivia (blog)
Original item by Mike Bartram
John Marks - Defender of the Oppressed!
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
As if I wasn't already angry enough at what is happening to the innocent people of Ukraine, now I've been subjected to reading this shite
I know that WOL is a poetry site, and as such is impartial in matters of politics and religion, but posts like this really have no place on here.
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Thank you to JJ Walker - Stephen Atkinson - Holden Moncrieff and Russell Jenkins for reading and for your likes.
Thank you also to Stephen Gospage for your greatly appreciated comment - a great confidence booster
Comment is about FOR UKRAINE (blog)
Original item by Flyntland
This piece seems inappropriate in the current climate. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be proud of myself putting my name to it. Sad!
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Are you saying that the Russian atrocities perpetrated in its invasion of Ukraine are just lies, propaganda disseminated by the west? Are you saying that just because Ukraine doesn't want to be swallowed up by Russia, that it would like a different future, then Putin the assassin and poisoner has the right to flatten apartments and cities, hurl cruise missiles at market and railway station crowds? Never forget Stalin's pact with Hitler, if we're talking about history. But maybe you are not a real person at all, just a Kremlin bot.
Comment is about Russia is burning (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Thanks Stephen. You're absolutely right, I'd imagine everyone has some key places from their early childhood where lots of memories were formed. I think I was lucky.
Thanks to Jordyn, Jennifer, Nigel, Frederick, Stephen, Jule, Stephen, Holden, Clare and K Lynn for reading and hitting 'like'. 😃
Comment is about Grandad's Shed (blog)
Original item by Tom
Thanks Stephen. I am very trying.
Comment is about Along the unhallowed way (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Close to unbearably moving, Russell. A really great poem.
Comment is about Goodbye Mum (blog)
Original item by JD Russell
Thanks to Nigel, Frederick, Steohen, Julie, KJ, Holden, K Lynn, John B and Pete for liking this one.
Comment is about 'Write Something' (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
A fantastic poem, with such a perfect turn of phrase. 'This one man's hobby war' sets the tone prefectly for the description of all the horrors to come. Thank you.
Comment is about FOR UKRAINE (blog)
Original item by Flyntland
It's a general problem, Keith. The first time I went abroad in 1971, I remember seeing a group of British tourists doing a noisy goose step in the high street of a small Dutch town. I still do not know why.
Comment is about A Cruise Ship (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Thanks to everyone for the kind comments and support.
Comment is about Thank you, Stephen Gospage, for never letting us forget about the war in Ukraine (article)
Original item by Greg Freeman
Thank you for this. It endorses the fact that we are on the rocky road to ruin.
Keith
Comment is about THIRST (blog)
Original item by Dee Allen.
Thank you Stephen, I'm glad you liked the imagery. Trying to make death sound more appealing! 🤣
And thank you Julie & John, glad you found it uplifting. There's hope, even after death! ... maybe 😃
And thank you for all the Likes always much appreciated 🌷🌷
Comment is about When... (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Graham,
Thank you. There are times when I think I am alone in my thoughts. I was so astonished yesterday. A group of several people who were so dismissive of local people. I felt a sense of personal and collective shame at what I witnessed. What causes this behaviour? I am at a loss.
Thank you
Keith
Comment is about A Cruise Ship (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
I'm glad I'm not your friend 😆
🌈
Comment is about The Darkness in Tow (blog)
Original item by purplemoon
Every new day can be a fresh start, Mike. An encouraging poem 🌈
Comment is about A New Day (blog)
Original item by Mike Bartram
A subtle, yet affecting piece, John
Comment is about Along the unhallowed way (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Pete (edbreathe)
Mon 29th Aug 2022 20:32
I really like that
Comment is about Lower Case “a” (blog)
Original item by Robert C Gaulke