Thanks for your thoughts on Shandy Man, MC. There's a little off-beat riff in it which is very simple technically but quite difficult to get your brain to accept its timing.

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Hey MC,
Thanks for the comment on my Snow poem, I appreciate your thoughts!

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Hello MC
Glad you liked "Angel of Peace".
I agree so many people seem to fail to understand the fragility of democratic society and the nature of Peace.

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Thanks for your comment on my poem MC. I think I'll stick with bemoaned for now cos I wanted to get across the idea of grumbling - which I really did have to put up with! In the past children used to lay down and sleep by the roadside on the way home, so tired were they from the work they did in the mines. I think I would rather have suffocated mine at birth.

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Hi M.C.

thanks for the encouragement.

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Hi M.C.

I'll go back to doing what I'm good at.

(Not writing poetry)

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Re 'An Old Git's Lament'-Aye Aye, it gets to us all in the end!

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Hi MC, 'The Reckoning', have referenced on site. Many thanks for commenting. P.

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You asked what the male equivalent was - I answered. I didn't say you had to be defined - not sure why you said that?

Can I ask why you use the term 'fair' in relation to women?

Gender's a social construct anyway, as opposed to the physical characteristics of sex.

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It says long-time, not long-term, and there shouldn't be a gender division in feminism, so the male equivalent is a long-time feminist.

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Hello MC,
Thanks for commenting on "News of the World". I suspect the photo you're referring to was taken at the Wigan WOL. I'd been to a meeting in Manchester and was nobbed up like a circus pony. The profile pic more accurately eflects my usual garb.

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Thanks MC - glad you haven't taken the hump. I'm writing one called 'Lifelines' at the moment which is the same title as my favourite of Anthony Emmerson's - but totally different in theme - and quality, no doubt. Perhaps I shall specialise in plagiarising titles ;)

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MC
Thanks for the thought and comment. Truly, much appreciated

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Hello MC,
Glad you liked Whinge and Fucking Bleat.
These moaning minnies make me badly.

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my spelling was a #### ######
as was my ########
i only meant the #### to ####
and instead it went ##### #####

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Newbury your ignorence nows no bounds- all alive to-day have a 'lineage' otherwise we wont be here now would we? and my ancestry dates back to the monkeis can you? and anyway my family have been dated back to 1698 as Thomas Quennell de Seavers, Lord high sheriff of Knowsley.

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Everyone on the planet has an ancient history, and as I am considerably younger than you I have the longer lineage.

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Hello MC.
Glad you liked "Let Me Pee".
On another front, Your restraint and courtesy in Discussions is commendable.
In contrast.

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Newbury: get off your elbow, lay-down your crack-pipe and answer the door to your debtors.

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It was indeed a memorable weekend, M.C. A great Friday night watching the opening ceremony on the big screen in the park, the excitement of the men's race, and almost as big a crowd for the women's, when I nearly got run over in my eagerness to get the perfect pic. I'm tempted to go and watch the time trials a few miles away on Wednesday. In the meantime here are a few imperfect pix, to give you a flavour of it.

http://heartofsurrey.wordpress.com/

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'Twas ever thus. Would that they didn't all urinate in that self-same 'piss-poor pot', MC. 'Old Tory' resembles 'New Labour' resembles Coalition resembles the next self-aggrandising lot to presume they have everybody's consent to [mis]govern our lives. Can't live with 'em, can't...use their bones for soup [without inviting the suspicions of the authorities.]

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Thanks, M.C., for your thoughts on The Olympic Spirit. The bike race comes through our little village tomorrow - biggest thing to have happened in the 30 years I've lived there!

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Hi MC, thanks for the comments on my work- Young Dude's swagger, glad you enjoyed it.

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I say that the cost will not be met nor exceeded by the income. But the politicians and their cohorts will cook-da-books to make sure the figures are pleasing. You read the literature.

What income raised will be creamed off by big-business. You read the literature.

It is an unconscionable excess at any time- but in one of austerity ( caused by the very people who have orchestrated this recession ) it is an outrage. You read the literature.

Massive inconvenience to the public in a host of ways. You read the literature.

The undermining of civil liberties and the handing over to private business functions of the state. You read the literature.

Who gives a toss about drug addled cheats with their sham amateurism. You read the literature.

£30,000,000,000 could supply help and facilities to very many individuals and organisations who/that are financially and physically 'hanging by a thread'. You read the literature.

Imagine those real sporting facilities that could be built across the 'GB' for ALL citizens, especially the young. You read the literature.

While peoples houses, cars and property are being robbed and children abused, the police are 'bobbying' it at the Olympics. You read the literature.

...and as for tourists being welcomed to the event- hundreds of people on short term lets are being evicted to make way for the 'wealthy' You read the literature.

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Hello MC
Yes indeedy. Now re-esconsed in the UK. Out of Wine was, in fact, posted from France.
Now need to catch up on what others have posted while we were away.

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Um, thank goodness they did vote against it, MC. The EU is a perfect example of the dangers of centralisation - a monolith remote from the needs, sensibilities and practices of those it misgoverns.

As for 'poetry isn't the best conduit for rational or fully informed thinking' I couldn't agree more...which is why I never claimed that for my poetry - it's pure and simply an emotional response to something dear to me. Were I to try rationalising in my poetry I'd end up another McGonagall.

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Hello MC.
Apologies for my delay in responding to your comments on . I have been on holiwags for 4 weeks caravanning and internet opportunities were very limited.
Glad you liked Research. One from my "back catalogue"!
Charente-Maritime is also an old post. It's where we went on hols.

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Oh, by the way; you also say that they are 'servants of their own sense of [duty and] self-preservation'. Surely that makes them absolutely the last people we should want in such positions of public, civic responsibility and power?

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Re: '100 Treasonous Filth-Baiting Syllables - you appear to have overlooked the bit where it goes on to say '[gov't]...AND CROWN'. Of course they serve the crown, primarily - no disagreement there; but they also get paid to enforce the laws emplaced by the parliaments, panjandrums and mandarins of the day as well, regardless of whether they agree with said laws or not [and how hypocritical: a policeman who smokes dope and arrests others for doing the same - a situation I've already come across.] And as for 'socialist utopias abroad' - I know you're being ironic there, but please don't presume I'm not intelligent enough to realise that there are NO socialist utopias anywhere on this planet. [Utopia? That's a pie-in-the-sky concept if ever I heard one! There is no such thing as perfection, ergo a 'utopia' can't exist by definition.] I'll go you one further: there's no such thing as a socialist STATE on this planet. Those systems that belabour their oppressed subjects under such wild misnomers are nothing but cruel travesties of the concept and besides - forgive me if I've misinterpreted the thrust of your comment - they aren't mine. I don't claim them. In fact, I abhor them.

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Thanks MC-were those your words? very good and spot on.

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Hi MC, thanks for the comment on my latest poem, "Fleeced". I am somewhat puzzled as to your rhyme though, as the subject was not about the work ethic, it was about private banks' ability to create money out of thin air as debt. This is affecting the whole world's economy.

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Howdy pardner.
Glad you liked "Arhur". Cornwell paints a very different picture of Arthur from the chivalrous knights of gleaming armour and round tables, damsels in distress and all that jousting.
Cornwell posits a warlord of the post Romano-British era (late 5th century) based on a vague historical figure called Ambrosius (Artorius) who is said to have repelled the Saxon advance west across Bitain at the Battle of Badon Hill. Cornwell constructs a fictional Battle of Lugg Vale (Herefordire) where Arthur's Dumnonian spearmen defeat other British kingdoms (Silura and Powys) to faciltate the unification of the British tribes for the coming battles with the Saxon invaders.
Nimue is best described as a druid and Merlin's "apprentice".

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Hello MC Glad you liked Thrashing. I remember my old english teacher telling us we should write what we know about!

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Hello mc, i didn't see the royal pageant but it's possible a tom pudding was represented. They have restored some of them, although i doubt that the barge and all 38 pans were there! Tom p's are not unfamiliar with royalty - but they were more associated with old king coal.

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Hello MC
Many thanks for your thoughts on Mr Gabardine Man and Avant Garde Verse. The latter was a Confucian attempt to ask the question, "If the poem itself says it isn't a poem, can its form say it is?". Maybe there's discussion thread in there somewhere.
Re the parodies - I have another Kinks classic in the oven, "Dedicated Follower of Thrashing" as well as the Stones "The Last Rhyme". I'm working on Elton John's "Your Thong" and Chris Farlowe's "Out of Wine"

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Hi again. It was the year before I was born! 1964. Had the pleasure to read that piece on local radio today :-) Win

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Hi MC, thx for the comments. I'm afraid I am too young to remember Frank "Typhoon" Tyson but the Hampshire burr of John Arlott is timeles and thankfully lives on in the TMS link I posted in the blog comments. Have a listen and you will hear the lines of the found poem spoken by the master. Oh and do see if you can post up your Compton/Richie Benaud piece. Win

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Hello MC. Thankyou for your comments on The Three Hulats and The Cart Belongs to Paddy.
A hulat is, rather disappointingly, a young owl; but I prefer the menace of interpretation of not knowing!

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Thank you for your comments on First Impressions, good to know the last two lines did kind of work as I hoped!

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Thanks for your comments on "Tanaburs", MC. The idea was suggested by (plagiarised from) a by-line in Bernard Cornwell's "The Winter King" which I have just re-read. For anyone with an interest in The Dark Ages (Romano-British, Saxon, Viking) times his stuff is a cracking read. You may be best familiar with his televised Sharpe stories.

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What ho! MC.
Glad you liked "You Won't Batter Anymore". Even the great Buddy can be improved on!
I think you're right about the repetitons in "Together" being overdone bu my own preference is to retain the 4-phrase chorus line after each verse but dispense with the final "envoie".
We (that's Richard, my co-writer and I) wanted something very simple lyically and musically for the kids, and also strong in Christian ethic but without being "god-y"

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Hello MC. Thanks for commenting on my poem "Nontraditional Haiku about my poem".
I have actually found my poem on other websites but have always been credited. Isobel asked if perhaps it was am extract? But this poem is a short one and posted word for word.
Thank you
Shirley

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Quote
surely room for "common ground" as no politician is to be totally trusted and no politicaldecision ever necessarily admirable/altruistic. My only misgiving in the general sense is the tendency to demonise "the right" and confer saintliness on the other lot...as if the latter were busy plucking their harps for us whilst the former were busy consorting with the devil
unquote

I mostly agree with the above and I have been known to attack the politics of the centre and the left...though to a lesser degree, because I do feel that the politics of the right are inherently more often problematic when considering social issues (of course we don't have to agree on that).

To be clear although that poem was about the a person whose views were informed by certain newspapers. The point was about the tabloid right, not the right generally. I mean I haven't had a go at the Times or The Telegraph. Both of those newspapers like the Guardian and the Independent operate to much higher journalistic standards. Whether your politics are on the left, the centre or the right, whether or not you agree with much printed in those papers...they are much more responsible in their politics.

Anyway I do agree with your point in the main and I have hammered politics of the the left and centre in the past where logistically they have been pants, for want of a better phrase. I also despise liberal fascism, something I myself have been on the end of.

Thx for posting, good to chat

Best

Chris

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Thank you for your advice on my stolen poem.
I took the advice of Yvonne Bruton and was able to prove the poem is mine. The website took down the poem. I have even written a haiku "Stolen Poem" about this experience.
I would not have had a problem with the website if I had been properly credited.
Thanks for your help

Shirley

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Hi M.C,

Thx for commenting a couple of times on my latest poem. We may not agree on our politics...but I do thank you for both reading and commenting upon the poem- very much appreciated.

Best

Chris

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Hi MC, Echoes. Much appreciate the comments. Ta v much.

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Hi M.C,

Thx for reading and commenting upon my last poem- very much appreciated. I have left a comment on the page.

My Best

Chris

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Glad you liked "Their Finest Hour".
Very interesting what you added about Churchill's destruction of the French fleet and the parallel with Copenhagen.
England 2 France 0

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Hi M C. Glad you liked Fizz Bomb. Yes, fun to do. It came out of the blue somewhat. Win

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Hi MC - have to say I enjoyed all the ripostes to my poem, but I decided against posting another riposte as no one wants it to go on forever!
But if any good has come out of it, I now walk on the left of the towpath and allow loads of room for cyclists coming up behind. :))
The main problem with mooring a boat, though, is that you actually need the whole width of a towpath to moor it, so I would only ask that cyclists remember this. (By the way, it was others who were apoplectic, not me! haha.)
As for your little ditty about cyclists wanting highways and byways, I would be completely all for it!!

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