Thank you, Stephen, some wounds never heal.

Comment is about If Only (blog)

Original item by Brian Hodgkinson Jr.

This is a smashing poem, Greg. Some years ago, I read a quite serious political article which mentioned, in passing, that Hartlepool was full of housewives who answer the door in their underwear. Things seem to have gone downhill since then......

Comment is about Andy Capp (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Moving and packed with great metaphor.

Comment is about If Only (blog)

Original item by Brian Hodgkinson Jr.

This has a great (bad) dream-like quality. I can't decide if it's hitting me or the other way round..I know that feeling, from somewhere.

Comment is about Chicken Licken (blog)

Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari

Thank you Nigel and Stephen for commenting ?

Thanks also to everyone who has clicked 'Like' for this poem ?

Comment is about Deadlock (blog)

Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari

Thank you Ghazala and Nigel for commenting ?

Nigel, it is where secret dens usually are! I'll open up a pack of biscuits and eat some until you get here! Ghazala you can come too!
And anyone else who leaves a comment on this poem ?

Thanks also to everyone who has clicked 'Like' for this poem ?

Comment is about Chicken Licken (blog)

Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari

Yeah, procrastination and mañana, but I'm originally from Ireland. The Irish aren't as hasty as that....

Comment is about Perseverance (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

Where is your secret den? I will come and join you.

Comment is about Chicken Licken (blog)

Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari

The whole truth and nothing but
what is seen written in riddles
collage poem unusual interpretation
expressed somewhat erratic format
the truth is yours to find.

Comment is about May 2021 Collage Poem: Truth Not Fiction (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

Added to which - "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" !

Comment is about Childproofing A Poem (blog)

Original item by d.knape

Everything will work out well
After each night the morning dwells
Anxious write? well worded.

Comment is about Chicken Licken (blog)

Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari

She's surely got those "Procrastination Blues" !!

Comment is about Perseverance (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

I’m sure you’ll have your own slang for it but a dunny is a toilet (both the toilet bowl and an outside toilet). They also call it that in Australia.

Comment is about University Of Stupidity (blog)

Original item by d.knape

Thanks, Kevin. That car must have thought you were reading one of your poems!
And thanks for the Like, Leon.

Comment is about THE GARDEN (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

I watched and heard some interviews with Hartlepool voters on the TV/Radio and the overriding sentiment that seemed to come across to do with their dissatisfaction with Labour was of 'being taken for granted'.

These are very interesting times, ripe for observational writing. You're hitting a rich seam lately Greg! Good stuff.

Comment is about Andy Capp (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks for the kind words, Greg. Your poem reminded me that I’d actually written The Headland. I find places like The Headland strangely beautiful, especially on a slow Sunday afternoon. If I remember correctly, the first British casualty in WW1 was at the Headland - German bombardment from the North Sea. As to the town’s recent voting habits, I quietly despair. Oh, the hanging of the monkey during the Napoleonic war is now a thing of civic pride. Tony

Comment is about Andy Capp (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks for your comments, Phil and Tony. And Tony, thanks for your wonderful poem. As you might have guessed, I have never been to Hartlepool. Now, having read your poem, I kind of feel I have. If posting my little effort had no other effect, it was worth it to read 'The Headland'.

Comment is about Andy Capp (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Hi Greg, I live about a fifteen minute drive from the Andy Capp sculpture. It’s at the Headland, or Old Hartlepool as it used to be called. An interesting place to which I’m frequently drawn. Tony



THE HEADLAND

Past the God forsaken roundabout,
its guano-mottled, brine-bleached statuary
the only thing of civic pride for miles hereabouts;

past the minimalist youth and his propensity
for casual violence; beyond the last man standing
public house, marooned in its car park, empty

at 3.15pm on an afternoon that isn't ending
as you might have expected; past the row
of shops and their crestfallen guttering;

past the drive-by tattoo parlour,
the blood and thunder butcher's,
dull thuds on the wooden hour;

past the the tirade of gulls in the harbour,
circling, plying their endless trade;
past the pawn shop, the no-credit jeweller's,

cheap at rings in their seedbeds,
an empty plaque of sunless absence;
past the crime that is always being committed

to which there will never be a witness;
past the dog seeking retribution
for its ribcage; past all of this

and face the sea, its diminishing return,
its ship to shore silence and emptiness,
which is going nowhere, ever. Walk past this.

Comment is about Andy Capp (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I agree, and don't even let the left hand see what the right hand gives.

Having said that, a little publicizing helps to focus others who are better placed to give and opening up their wallets.

I believe most people have a kind gene inside them - somewhere.

Enjoyed. P. ?

Comment is about What is charity? (blog)

Original item by DR. MUKUND BHANDARI

Aw. Yes I remember it well. Good write.?

Comment is about Andy Capp (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks for the likes, Aviva, Holden, JD and Nigel.

Comment is about Come Dine At Mine (blog)

Original item by julie callaghan

Thanks to John Aviva and Holden for liking

Thank you to Keith and Stephen for commenting. It never ceases to amaze me how we all react in different ways to the ongoing situation. There are those who crave for the pubs. Good luck to them with that. But I think that all of our lives have somehow been touched and probably changed in some fashion and what was normal will never quite be normal again which isn't an entirely bad thing

Thanks to all again
Martin

Comment is about An island of silence (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Thanks for your comments, Ray. But not Passport to Pimlico, please! There's been too much of that 'spirit' already in the last few years.

Comment is about Vauxhall (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks for your comments, Ray and Graham. The pub is on the Wey Navigation, the New Inn at Send, which Ray will know as the location of Write Out Loud Woking for its first two years. The friends were fellow am-drammers who have only been able to read any lines on Zoom for the last 15 months or so.

Thanks also for the Likes, John, Phil, Tony, Stephen, Julie and Holden.

Comment is about Easing (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Are you saying that Mum provided copies of Titbits and Reveille for you, Ray? If so, how enlightened. I admire your daring, to mention the sainted Enid Blyton and the ladies that adorned those mags in the same breath. It brings on a certain frisson.

Comment is about THAT'S WHAT MUMS ARE FOR (blog)

Original item by ray pool

As you may have noticed from my lack of activity on here, I haven't written owt new for a while. So I will be boring the good folks at Well spoken with more repeats of the usual stuff.
Still I can't wait. On line isn't the same.

Ps.
Did you know that someone has driven their car through the window of the Doncaster Brewery and Tap.

Comment is about THE GARDEN (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

That is brilliant.

I found a note I wrote in an a writing notebook I have not touched in years. I told myself to read Prometheus and Andromeda. I was so touched. It was so emotionally raw.

Thank you!

Comment is about Prometheus and Andromeda (blog)

Original item by Nash

Julie Callaghan.
(I put the capitals back in)
I now have a new phone,
that old phone was not too SMART!

Comment is about julie callaghan (poet profile)

Original item by julie callaghan

What? you have Fake News in Spain also?
It's all biased.
No Truth anymore.

Comment is about keith jeffries (poet profile)

Original item by keith jeffries

Dunny? what is a Dunny?
I'm from Texas so you have to explain.
?

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

My sentiments entirely - well done. P ?

Comment is about Be Here (blog)

Original item by Eric Berard

Thanks Jennifer, -just crawling back again sorry for the delay. I'm afraid Mum's the word on this lady's demise, but I see you are considering options. It's all a bit Hitchcock ain't it?

Ray

Comment is about SENSIBLE SHOES (blog)

Original item by ray pool

We have the canal quite close to us here. There is an exhale about the place, almost a time warp. I had a friend who wrote canal fiction and visiting him to review his books was a delight. This could be the definition of easing Greg! Another world.

Comment is about Easing (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

I remember there was a Rowton House in Vauxhall, and a pub called the Elephant and Castle. I really would be lost doing West End gigs now and am grateful for being absent from all that you describe so well and with such anguish. I advise a viewing of Passport to Pimlico for a good wave of nostalgia and British spirit.

Ray

Comment is about Vauxhall (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

To be close to water is refreshment for the soul Greg. All life can be on a canal! The lungs of town and country . You paint an alluring picture, I'm thinking of a prequel to Three Men in a Canoe.

Ray

Comment is about Easing (blog)

Original item by Greg Freeman

There've been times, when I was so embarrassed at the bloody thing going off I would happily have dropped it down the dunny.

Comment is about University Of Stupidity (blog)

Original item by d.knape

Jumping with joy
not a care
in the world.

Comment is about Come Dine At Mine (blog)

Original item by julie callaghan

Thank you for the additional likes and for the kind comment Stephen G.

Comment is about Escape Room (blog)

Original item by julie callaghan

And rabbits, Stephen. And thanks for the Like, Kevin. Shouldn’t be too long before we’re boring them to death at WellSpoken again.

Comment is about THE GARDEN (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

A tragic story and a very brave man. You can kill the poet, but you can't kill his poetry.

Comment is about Myanmar poet dies in detention after interrogation (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks to everyone who liked this poem. It is an abstract work, and probably dishonest, because things do matter, even if we don't want them to. Still, it's nice to suspend belief for a minute or two.

Comment is about What Matters (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

Never mind, John. Dandelions and nettles are all the rage among Green party voters

Comment is about THE GARDEN (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Great rhythm, Trevor.

Comment is about Perseverance (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

This is breathtaking - real poetry.

Comment is about The hands of my birches (blog)

Original item by Sanja Atanasovska

This is a brave poem and it's good that you can express this so convincingly. I could not delve deep into such matters.

Comment is about Deadlock (blog)

Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari

I echo Keith's words. I loved this poem.

Comment is about An island of silence (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Yes, I often wonder what goes through the mind of self reflecting recidivists especially those who lack family guidance in choosing a preferred course.

Many are the reasons for frequent transgressions.

Certainly something for us luckier ones to reflect upon.

Thanks for the blog and the prompt.

P

Comment is about Bars (blog)

Original item by Stephen Gospage

I love the title and its link to the last line. And the rest, of course!

Comment is about Escape Room (blog)

Original item by julie callaghan

Nazia, Aviva, thank you bother very much for your comments, I really enjoyed that one as it combines so many things for me and I never knew Bunyan wrote my school hymn, even if his words were changed later by Dearing. ?

Thank you also to those of you that liked this one.

Comment is about John Bunyan's Shed (blog)

Original item by Graham Parker and his musings

Really like the opening line. Tony

Comment is about The hands of my birches (blog)

Original item by Sanja Atanasovska