Tue 4th May 2021 20:40
Thank you Stephen, I really appreciate it ?
Comment is about Pharisaic (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
Thank you for the thoughtful and kind comments.
Comment is about Sword or Pen (blog)
Original item by Mike Bartram
All red herrings, it was the butler that did it.
Comment is about Detective Stories (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Yes, clearly a heartfelt poem. I like the theme of contrasts and paradoxes.
Comment is about The Hardest Tears (blog)
Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari
This poem is excellent poetry about poets and poetry. The ranges are open.
Comment is about Sell-By Date (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Bravo. ? I know the feelings.
Comment is about The Hardest Tears (blog)
Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari
Thank you, Stephan. Though the theme has a sad side, I did not intend it to be sad hence the title. Thank you for encouraging me to write poetry. ?
Comment is about Hope (blog)
Original item by Brian Hodgkinson Jr.
Thank you, Aviva, for your word of encouragement.?
Comment is about Hope (blog)
Original item by Brian Hodgkinson Jr.
Garden/horticultural destruction always seems both sad and invigorating, in that most of it can be recycled. If I had a quid for every time I've said 'it's the cycle of life' to my wife whilst uprooting stuff or chopping shrubs back, I'd be a millionaire.
Christmas trees take on a different perspective (I have to admit we have had an artificial one for decades now) as they are elevated to deific levels once a year and are then forgotten for most of it.
I think I can feel your regret here Ray. It's just the cycle of life remember.
Comment is about CHRISTMAS TREE (blog)
Original item by ray pool
A fine poem, enjoyable despite its sadness.
Comment is about Hope (blog)
Original item by Brian Hodgkinson Jr.
GS certainly has a point about "English" being an attitude...a state of
mind. As for "mongrel race" - a phrase that seems to have gained a certain cachet nowadays - again certainly, but to a degree that
was severely limited over the past thousand years by the barriers
against any travel of meaningful distance and royal actions that
moved against immigration of any size (Queen Elizabeth 1st was
notable in that respect) plus the resident population's understandable
suspicion of foreign influence in dangerous days that saw other
nations look upon these islands with covetous eyes and wars
were all too often a state of affairs across their world.
Fair's fair - as we English say.
Comment is about England in My Head (blog)
Original item by Steve Higgins
Your poem shows that the pen does a pretty good job, Mike.
Comment is about Sword or Pen (blog)
Original item by Mike Bartram
Some wonderful (not to say alarming!) images, Ray.
Comment is about CHRISTMAS TREE (blog)
Original item by ray pool
A really powerful piece of verse. Good one.
Comment is about Pharisaic (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
An enjoyable reminder that the imagination can go where the feet can no longer travel.
Comment is about Wild Places (blog)
Original item by Trevor Alexander
So good to hear from you, Philippa. This is a beautiful and moving poem.
Comment is about RESTING PLACE (blog)
Original item by Philippa Atkin
Thank you for the wonderful comments Tom, Philipos & Ferris (hope it hit you in a good way!) And thanks for the likes & continued support, Keith, Julie, J.D. & Holden ?
Comment is about Beyond (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
There's nothing more emotive to many than when the discussion turns to what is regarded by the term/label English.
Whether we like it or not, we are a mongrel race, added to, diluted, melanged with many different races over the centuries. I too regard myself as English but only in the above terms. My children I regard as English but they had a Polish grandfather!
I think English resides in a way of thinking. A way of acting (good or bad). From the upper-class twits to the beer-swilling football louts, that's us English.
The only issue I really have with Steve's piece is his claim that even the birdsong is English. An interesting observation as many of our garden birds are migratory. Come on England!!!
Comment is about England in My Head (blog)
Original item by Steve Higgins
This is an excellent and inspiring description of the fight for morality and self-control with conscious conscience and determination.
Comment is about At the front (blog)
Original item by Ghazala lari
Although you weren't able to share a last goodbye or tell each other final messages of support, you are still doing all he could have wanted from you, remembering him well.
Comment is about Hope (blog)
Original item by Brian Hodgkinson Jr.
A well thought verse. Contemplation and analysis of human emotion, mind and feelings is a complex task. Well portrayed the flexible self. ?
Comment is about The Hardest Tears (blog)
Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari
Thank you Nigel for your poetic response ?
You are right once again, where one road ends another road begins, and so on and on.. and maybe not all roads lead to WOL but I'm happy to meet all the travellers for those that did.
Thanks also to everyone who has clicked 'Like' for this poem ?
Comment is about End Of The Road (blog)
Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari
When there's nothing
more to say
I see it travelling once again
on a road
in a poem
I am reading today.
Comment is about End Of The Road (blog)
Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari
Mon 3rd May 2021 22:11
Philipos
Mon 3rd May 2021 20:54
The all seeing eye of the camera which never lies. Enjoyed. P
Comment is about Pharisaic (blog)
Original item by Holden Moncrieff
Philipos
Mon 3rd May 2021 20:52
Recalling Churchill's mastery of words - spoken and written - I recall the comment attributed to an American observer that he "marshalled the English language and sent it to war". I am not being entirely
frivolous in remembering another vein altogether - that in Germany
written pornography was banned whilst the pictorial sort was not.
An interesting connection that surely shows how words can be
feared for any type of reason when it comes to controlling the
minds of others.
Comment is about Sword or Pen (blog)
Original item by Mike Bartram
Philipos and JM - thanks for the comments. As age moves in, I
find I have no problem whatever keeping up the relationship! ?
Thanks also to those who took the trouble to "like" this piece of whimsy.
Comment is about BEDDED BLISS (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
The words carry their own weight and meaning - and resonate
accordingly with those who chime in tune. You could substitute
other identities and the message would also resonate accordingly
with those others who chime in tune. It's rare to find anything that
mentions either "England" or "English" nowadays so that in itself
is to be noted and read with interest. As for northerners having a
primary claim to the identify you specify, I would argue that the likes of Alfred the Great and Hereward the Wake, followed by ill-
fated King Harold and the subsequent Norman incursions from
France, combined with the surviving Anglo-Saxon population to
create the "English" identity that emerged over the ensuing one thousand years - and were more "southerners" than northerners.
I know the latter like to claim most of what's good but there are
plenty down here in the south who can point elsewhere in that
regard. ?
Comment is about England in My Head (blog)
Original item by Steve Higgins
Philipos
Mon 3rd May 2021 16:17
Timeless thoughts - so pertinent for today's world. P ?
Comment is about Beyond (blog)
Original item by Stephen W Atkinson
Currently operating on ZOOM. 1st, 3rd, 5th Saturdays as usual.
For details and to be added to our mailing list contact Jim at talking_zebras.co.uk Invites sent out 2 or 3 days before each meeting.
Doors Open 2:00pm for a 2:15 start. Continues until 5(ish). Folk can join or leave at anytime as long as they do it discreetly ?
You are welcome to listen or to contribute. Poetry or prose, your own or other peoples (check permission please) on any subject other than Religion and Politics.
Spots are 4-5 minutes and we go round those present as many times as possible on the day.
Comment is about Talking Zebras (group profile)
Original item by Talking Zebras
Thank you Tony, Stephen, Holden, Keith, Aviva and Ghazala for the likes and for taking the time to read.
Thanks for the very kind comment Kieth, I really wanted it to be ambiguous and dealing in the grey area of relationships and how we navigate our path through these lives our ours.
Comment is about The Distant Lifeboat (blog)
Original item by Tom
I do defend illiterate writers, but this is an excellent poem.
Comment is about Writing for non-readers (blog)
Original item by Robert C Gaulke
Leon,
I personally think that northerners are the true English but then I’m biased ? Thanks for looking in
Steve
Comment is about England in My Head (blog)
Original item by Steve Higgins
Aviva, thanks for looking in. I deliberately used England and English a lot to create a sort of rhythm and that makes the poem trot along nicely but I think you’re saying that there isn’t much substance to this poem and looking back you’ve certainly got a point. I’m not sure I had a point in the first place but you’re right, it needs reworking.
Comment is about England in My Head (blog)
Original item by Steve Higgins
Thank you J.D. Bardo, Jason Bayliss, and Jennifer Malden for taking the time to comment on this poem. ?
J.D. I've already been around for a couple of decades since I wrote this, I'm definitely teddy-bear-soft and slipper-cosy by now. Let's stay around a long time more too!
Jason I like that 'yesterday's kiss on the face of today' although I'm not sure if sometimes it is more of a kick somewhere else that yesterday tried to give me.. as for my future self... should I kiss or kick?
Jennifer I agree with you all those things you mention are far better the more time they have to them
Thanks also to everyone who clicked 'Like' for this poem ?
Comment is about Dream On (blog)
Original item by Aviva Rifka Bhandari
It is quite clear from this poem that you have great word-craft, there's control and flexibility in the metre as well as natural and flowing word choices... but it feels to me (and others may well disagree with me on this) that as much as you've used the words English and England many many times you haven't really said anything important about what that actually means to you or should mean to anyone.. and I feel as if you could have (because you have the word-craft). Obviously it is quite apparent that you think all these aspects imbue some sort of character or disposition or something important... but we don't find out what that actually is. Apart from all these details about 'where you came from' what else about 'what you therefore are' could you have said?
Comment is about England in My Head (blog)
Original item by Steve Higgins
<Deleted User> (30611)
Sun 2nd May 2021 20:55
Mmm. It's an odd thing isn't it? People can live in the North West or the South East, be rich or poor, well educated or not, yet still feel quintessentially English.
Comment is about England in My Head (blog)
Original item by Steve Higgins
Sun 2nd May 2021 19:45
Liked this Ray! Might be an idea to get some form of 'employment' with so many women out of a job cos of Covid. Was she strangled with a lisle stocking, or beaten to death with the shoes?
Jennifer
Comment is about SENSIBLE SHOES (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Perhaps they were given a 'privy ledged' position?
Jennifer
Comment is about Sad Saturday sewer story (blog)
Original item by hugh
This crack sounds decidedly familiar!!!!! Nice.
Jennifer
Comment is about How I solved my wife's desire for an expensive dress (blog)
Original item by hugh
keith jeffries
Wed 5th May 2021 00:04
A gentle poem which takes the reader from a desperate situation to the fruition of friendship and love. It places love above sex which is the order where these emotions should be. It is a poem of transformation and personal healing found within the hearts of two people are are honest with each other.
Thank you for this
Keith
Comment is about The Accidental Best Friend (blog)
Original item by J.D. Bardo