When a man is made into a warrior he can never truly return to just being a man. He is always waiting for the next battle.

Comment is about AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER GOES HOME (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Jess Green's poetry certainly strikes a chord with me, Steve, as the husband of a primary school head who has packed it in early, in despair at the destabilising edicts from the likes of Gove and Morgan. If you didn't know better, you would say that they are out to wreck the state school system. No, delete the first part of that sentence. I'd also like to say thanks very much to the Bang team for being so warm and welcoming on the night.

Comment is about Bang Said The Gun still firing on all cylinders in new theatre home (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

A great article, Greg. And thanks for the link to Jess Green's poems – I hadn't heard her poem to Nicky Morgan. Wonderful stuff!

Comment is about Bang Said The Gun still firing on all cylinders in new theatre home (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

A defensible interpretation of our past, MC, but not in my view a viable blueprint for our future.

Comment is about WHAT ARE THE ODDS? (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for this good poem :)

Comment is about AN UNKNOWN SOLDIER GOES HOME (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Information and misinformation...or black ops. in action.
JC - I've followed the creation of the current EU closely -
with increasing resentment at its transformation from
the trading enterprise we originally thought we were
joining via the cunningly crafted change to political
entity. Government of a single nation demands the
most rigorous attention from its electorate and the idea
that this sea-faring powerhouse with a matchless
history of setting out and achieving wealth and influence
through its buccaneers, explorers, merchant venturers, evangelists and armed forces that remains unequalled -
should hand its sovereignty and trading decisions to
those stay-at-homes, failed dictatorships and the rest
who now strut the EU stage with our billions to fund
their inadequacies, is. frankly, grossly insulting in its
betrayal of everything that UK Ltd. achieved against
all the odds in the past.
Scaremongering would like us to believe we couldn't
succeed again - so yah-boo-sucks to those nay-
sayers in their tax-relief banks and business offices and
the troops of yes-men at their financial beck and call.
As for the SNP and their pro-EU position...let us
remember their historical affinity with "abroad" from
centuries ago - AND their attempts to forge alliances
with Nazi Germany during WW2 (Public Record at Kew)
- and think on that when they trot out their
self-serving spiel now. The Nazis, it has to be said,
didn't exactly take their wartime overtures (made
to their man across the sea in Dublin!) - too seriously!
Sovereignty rules - and let the devil take the rest!!

Comment is about WHAT ARE THE ODDS? (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Indeed - thank you for confirming that the poem hits the intended target.

Comment is about What You Won't Read in the Guardian (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

JC - my response...
Dog-gone!
:-)

Comment is about DOG DANCING (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

I loved this show when I first saw it at the Latitude Festival last summer and even more so at the Edinburgh Fringe. It is deeply moving and resonant if you were liked into the failed hope of the Blair years and the state we are in now. The writing is urgent, poetical and knowing. Go see if you can.

Comment is about Luke Wright in London, 2016 (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Interesting take there Trevor. Come the Revolution ALL bared marble and other stone statues will be painted in appropriate and original hues.

Comment is about Ode To Lely’s Venus (blog)

Original item by Trevor Alexander

This poem led me to check today's Guardian website. There at the top of the page, alongside pictures of the guilty: "Ringleader of Rotherham sexual abuse gang jailed for 35 years". I scrolled down the page: no mention of Savile (note the spelling, btw). So much for a cover-up.

The sad and ugly truth is that men of *all* backgrounds commit abuse. Savile mixed with the great and the good; the men from Rotherham did not. I doubt that fact (or their ethnicity) mattered a jot to their victims.

Did the girls in Rotherham have to wait far too long for justice? Yes. But now it's finally arrived it has been neither denied nor overshadowed, and I feel it's unhelpful to misrepresent that. Savile's victims suffered appallingly. These girls suffered appallingly. We're quite capable of understanding that they were poorly served by a system which let *all* of them down. Whatever the intention of this poem, I respectfully suggest the girls deserve better than being described as 'sorry slags', and the pain of Savile's victims is not something which should be written off as usefully proving 'white men do it too'. Abuse is not an issue to play politics with.

Comment is about What You Won't Read in the Guardian (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

similar to what Tommy??

Comment is about I write for HIM (blog)

Original item by Juhi Gupte

I enjoyed this very much, David. Concise, but contains so much.

Comment is about Sleet (blog)

Original item by David Blake

take care Steve-hope to see you soon.

our very best regards to you sir.

Patricia and Stef.

Comment is about The Rain (blog)

Original item by Steve Higgins

Thanks for looking in once again guys.Can't seem to knock out those verses like I used to! All the best, Steve

Comment is about The Rain (blog)

Original item by Steve Higgins

This piece has a similar feel...;#)

Comment is about I write for HIM (blog)

Original item by Juhi Gupte

I really liked this! You have so much cool imagery and it really feels like you're there too -- beautiful piece.

Comment is about Wind from my Window (blog)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

It makes me think.

Comment is about In Limbo (blog)

Original item by Juhi Gupte

Thanks Harry. I had this idea of cowboys and fell back on that idea in those lines. I 'm pleased you think it worked, as it takes nerve to shatter an image.

Ray.

Comment is about CRUISE LINER (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Oh no! Really? I know I can be obscure but I thought this one was more accessible...hey ho! The whole or just parts Tommy?

Comment is about Tommy Carroll (poet profile)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

A bit like circling for the attack?

Or the primal love dance that searches for amiability before physical contact?

We are so close to animals and birds, and insects and flowers.

Comment is about moving closer (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

I think most of us who write poetry are actively involved in expression of other 'arts' as well, especially related to music, rhythm and words. It's certainly true of my own experience.

I hope you are enjoying WOL It's a great, sharing site.

Cynthia

Comment is about Daisy Lancaster (poet profile)

Original item by Daisy Lancaster

Word nerd, eh? That's the only way to be in the poetry scene, if you really mean business, and I think you do. I believe good poetry is commitment to the power of words and the skilful 'manipulation' of this power. I wonder if by 'whimsical', you mean 'imaginative, innovative'? I really look forward to more of your work.

Cynthia

Comment is about Scarlet (poet profile)

Original item by Scarlet

I think this is superb, Scarlet. The fragile richness of these few words, expressing so much in so little, is real poetic sympathy. IMO, very few of us really grasp this essential power in our own writings.

Comment is about Edge (blog)

Original item by Scarlet

in the case of my husband,Geramar it would be nice.But even nicer if he had a head swop with George Clooney!

seriously-very sweet poem.

Our best regards to you.

Patricia and Mr Potato head Wilde.

Comment is about Would it be (blog)

Original item by Geramar

thanks Lynn - the ta made it safe and sound - have fun yourself picking your scabs lol x

Comment is about scab (blog)

Third time trying to say ta, Colin. If this one doesn't make it tuff! Have fun x

Comment is about scab (blog)

Thanks Cynthia. As I don't consider my writing poetry or enter into technicalities of what constitutes a good poem. I just write and it goes down on paper how it comes out. Regards Lynn x

Comment is about I've Got That Feeling.... (blog)

Thanks Colin and a musical link is always welcome! I just struggle to find the time to reciprocate. X

Comment is about I've Got That Feeling.... (blog)

What I find difficult, MC, is that for every persuasive argument for staying there is an equally persuasive counter argument for leaving; and vice versa.
The only given for me is that we know what STAY looks like. (We may like it or not). We don't know what LEAVE looks like.

Comment is about WHAT ARE THE ODDS? (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

As the saying goes: this will run and run...well, to June
at least!
As for us stupid British (English as in Nelson's day!), we
are content to remember the words of Thomas
Jefferson who was on the winning side in a certain war
for independence around 200 hundred years ago.
""Any nation that gives up its freedom in pursuit of
economic advantage deserves to lose both."
NATO preserves our military alliances, and thus our defence. The EU is merely a planned presumption
seeking steroid-like proportions of influence where it has
no mandate - and never did. Grocer Heath and his
succcessors maintained the deceit, dissembling and
lack of truth to ensure that the fabrication continued.
Churchill's Labour successor Clement Attlee (later
Earl Attlee) was a vigorous opponent of what he saw as a betrayal of our Commonwealth wartime allies when
the original Common Market was proposed. How innocent those words sound in the light of what was
being set up for the "softly softly catchee monkey"
transformation into a political entity with its own planned
army and unaccountable police force.
Not an attractive picture for this of all nations.

Comment is about WHAT ARE THE ODDS? (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Harry, this is really only half the tale. After I'd repeated, "No, the referendum" a few times, she then said, "Ah, the football".
I sometimes think that those Victorians were right to oppose emancipation to the unwashed!

Comment is about WHAT ARE THE ODDS? (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Ray,
I like the way Lines fourteen, fifteen and sixteen so unexpectedly (yet so rightly) `ground` the process.

Comment is about CRUISE LINER (blog)

Original item by ray pool

I like the way you`ve `immortalised` that one John (all grist to your Yorkshire mill )

At least there will be long enough to let some unpalatable home truths sink into psyche`s of some of the `Land of hope and glory` opportunists.

Comment is about WHAT ARE THE ODDS? (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

I love both of these poems Scarlet, you write well. As Stu says look forward to reading more.

Comment is about Scarlet (poet profile)

Original item by Scarlet

thanks very much Stu!

Comment is about Edge (blog)

Original item by Scarlet

elements of kate bush, liz fraser and mary shelley all in one. love it. crisp oxblood heads is lovely. starts out fantastical then descends into personal. nice to see you back!

Comment is about Edge (blog)

Original item by Scarlet

Wow! Thanks for the kind words, Cynthia. I do think Martial Music is better 'bunched' and have tweaked it slightly since. As for the rest, what will be will be.

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Hi Cynthia
I typed in Stars for a poetry assignment to see what had been written by people on here and came across yours that way. I don't believe I know your daughter but how wonderful to get comments so close together on the same poem...which,I'll say again,is beautiful and has inspired one within me which I may post soon ..you have an amazing talent !

Comment is about Cynthia Buell Thomas (poet profile)

Original item by Cynthia Buell Thomas

Yep I remember that feeling. But for the better?

Comment is about Change (blog)

Original item by Eric Broke

So good.

Don't get politically excited made me laugh out loud.

Let it Bleed x

Comment is about scab (blog)

I love the great sense of liberation in this one, Eric. Nice one.

Comment is about Change (blog)

Original item by Eric Broke

I don't understand this work.

Comment is about The Silencer (blog)

Original item by Katy Megan

thanks! the very little one (zephaniah) is 14 days old. his big sister (elizah) is very helpful. the cats dont like him much but we do.

as for the poem, its great as are the rest of what i have called 'rays travel and tourism sequence'.

Comment is about CRUISE LINER (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Have I hit a sweet spot, Stu? I don't know where the hell I'm going half the time: my creative side is like a jerky gearbox, sometimes in sometimes out of gear, but never smoothly engaged. Your comment has cheered me up as I sweated over the poem . Nice to see the little 'uns on facebook, by the way!!

Comment is about CRUISE LINER (blog)

Original item by ray pool

saw your reply and came back to this to say - the list of talent who died aged 27 (the 27 club) is staggering. my friend at uni who studied music theory wrote a large essay on the matter.

Comment is about Amy (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

enjoying this mini-series ray. this is alliterative heaven, and you paint travel and tourism as both a well oiled, depressing machine and an almost menacing juggernaut.

very enjoyable.

Comment is about CRUISE LINER (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Prejudiced or partial? There are grounds for considering
these in context. By all means let us have the
widest range of "voices" with messages of relevance
but care is needed to avoid ghetto-ising them to
accommodate views about why stuff is or isn't being
heard or read in festivals - or elsewhere for that matter.
I once bought all the novels of American author James
Baldwin - not because he was black, but because he was
a singular talent whose work crossed boundaries with
memorable effect - at a time when the social situation
in the USA was fraught with racial tension across the
spectrum.

Comment is about London literary weekend aims to redress festivals imbalance for writers of colour (article)

Original item by Greg Freeman

Thanks for your comments Stu. This was written on the back of seeing a documentary made when she was still alive performing in a small church in Ireland. I stole the line mad hair from somebody who was running the gig, inter viewed later. This is how she described Amy who I saw as quite vulnerable. I think you are right about the media, they are very much a double edged sword.

Comment is about Amy (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

Thanks for you comments guys. This was one of those rare moments when I woke up recently and put pen to paper so to speak almost immediately and then posted it the same day. Which is probably why the line should read 'cupped into my hands' as Cynthia has rightly pointed. I do normally spend more time over my poems. Honest guv!

Comment is about Five minutes (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder