I echo what Stu says - so powerful - I think the length is perfect though - cut down in an instant so to speak

Comment is about I Was Just Thinking About You... (Blue Mosque Istanbul 12/01/16 10:40 am) (blog)

Original item by David R Mellor

Hi Rims - I like this but agree with Ray that the 'oh dear' seems out of place - it's a stronger line without it I think - but it's your poem! There is some lovely wording & I like your discription of a 'skin underneath the vessel' I can identify with that! Xx

Comment is about Lazy Evening (blog)

Original item by Rims

Straight to the point as always Mr C - well put xx

Comment is about p45 (blog)

Original item by Tommy Carroll

A poignant piece - & begs the question is asked - nice x

Comment is about Is it (blog)

Thank you so much for reading and your lovely comments !

Comment is about Patrick Rushe (poet profile)

Original item by Patrick Rushe

Hi Vic, loved Nice Try! Some men! Thanks for reading and commenting on What :)))

Comment is about Pixievic (poet profile)

Original item by Pixievic

And as always Julie - thank you xx

Comment is about Nice Try ....! (blog)

Original item by Pixievic

Thanks for reading & commenting on 'Nice Try' - it's really appreciated! And I'm sure you're not a man who does such things!! Xx

Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)

Original item by Martin Elder

Thank you Martin! - I am a believer that eyes are the windows to the soul! You can tell a lot by someone's eyes!! - as to who said it first .... well that's a battle I've entered into before! Widely credited to the Bard - but also Di Vinci I believe!! There are many ways of saying it & lots of people have done! Thanks again x

Comment is about Nice Try ....! (blog)

Original item by Pixievic

Thanks Andy, much appreciated

Comment is about Smoke room (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

I share your nervousness about prizes but they seem to be an inescapable fact of the contemporary poetry scene.

Comment is about And the winner is .... (article)

Original item by Frances Spurrier

Sandbags for the soul eh? Thanks Julian. I hope things get back to normal up there as soon as possible.

Comment is about Poetry floods the Calder Valley (article)

very you. read this next month please (:

Comment is about Pure Panic (blog)

Original item by Nigel Astell

remember this from monday. great piece. one of your best i think..

Comment is about Smoke room (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder

perfect.. x

Comment is about On the death of David Bowie (By Emma/written in 2 minutes when I woke up!) (blog)

Original item by Emma-Jane Stradling

also excellent. love indigo midnight here in particular.

brill..

andy

Comment is about Will It Ever Snow Again (blog)

Original item by Gus Jonsson

excellent, excellent, excellent. not a word too much or out of place.

top stuff matey.

hope you are ok

andy

Comment is about Forever (blog)

Original item by Gus Jonsson

great stuff. still working on the notes from monday that i took. will get them over to John over the week-end.

Comment is about January 2016 Collage Poem: The End of the World (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

A poetic account
of what could be
but we escape
the end to write
another collage poem
of what might be.

Comment is about January 2016 Collage Poem: The End of the World (blog)

Original item by Stockport WoL

I'm afraid I'm similarly distrustful of poetry competitions and particularly the reasons given for deciding on the winner.

I spent many years in the wine trade and there are acute similarities between poetry and fine wine. The problem comes when one needs to describe/laud them both.

Explanations are useless. The reader/drinker knows how they make one feel but cannot accurately explain in words without sounding ridiculous.

Steven is right! Change what?

Comment is about And the winner is .... (article)

Original item by Frances Spurrier

Why thankyou. Although I did have to google the meaning of succinct haha. It's a good word, I like it! ..So thanks for that :)

Comment is about Empathy (blog)

Original item by Stu Burton

Which 'British poetry' are they talking about? 'British poetry' is a various art - it's also the land of Beowulf, Skelton, Blake and Bunting...

...not to mention Aphra Behn, Christiana Rossetti, and Dame Edith Sitwell and Geraldine Monk...

Comment is about And the winner is .... (article)

Original item by Frances Spurrier

I love the lyrical flow of this poem and can imagine that it would work really well performed. Nice one

Comment is about Eat your own heart out. (blog)

Original item by Daniel Wardak

What an excellent poem Vicki. I have been made aware some years ago that there a good deal of men who undress women with their eyes. Who was it that said the eyes are the window's to the soul.

Comment is about Nice Try ....! (blog)

Original item by Pixievic

Love the serenity of this poem.
That line, wishing to sit with another soul.
I pictured myself siting next to you smiling and enjoying the peaceful sounds of the rain.

Comment is about Rainspell (blog)

Original item by Pixievic

Very witty :)
Love the last 7 lines especially the last two.

Comment is about Nice Try ....! (blog)

Original item by Pixievic

hi stu - the poem uses Dawkins as a metphor really - but I agree he is a rather vexatious chap

it always amuses me how someone who claims to be a evolutionary scientist, when grandstanding on matters of religion relies so heavily on the unreconstructed arguments of pamphleteers of the 13th and 14th century

but then I also included the joke about branches, since Dawkins is rather an unreconstructed mid-19th century evolutionary biologist

Comment is about Taking Tea with Dawkins (blog)

Original item by jeremy young

thank you for your thoughtful comment Stu , was really good of . i suppose i was trying to a make an an awful event personal (human) as it could have been any of us at any given time and place . and the postcard as it were couldn't be written as it were, cut tragically short

Comment is about I Was Just Thinking About You... (Blue Mosque Istanbul 12/01/16 10:40 am) (blog)

Original item by David R Mellor

It's No. 32 on our local Chinese, Graham.
(Slipped up tonight, haven't we?)

Comment is about A PEKING SPICE ODDITY (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

John, don't I remember this getting as high as No7 or was it No 23?

Comment is about A PEKING SPICE ODDITY (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for reading & commenting on 'nice try!' - I shall make sure the graffiti is removed ;-)!! Xx

Comment is about John Coopey (poet profile)

Original item by John Coopey

Hmmmmm - ahhhh go on then ;-) x

Comment is about A PEKING SPICE ODDITY (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Haha! Well .... It a little known pub called The Golden Cock - Doncaster I believe!!

Comment is about Nice Try ....! (blog)

Original item by Pixievic

Hi M.C.
I still have memories of the Jacques lossier trio playing that familiar piece of Bach. On high days and holidays I would occasionally switch to king edwards cigars. You are of course right about having a pint with a hamlet, very nice!
i have occasionally trolled through some of the old adverts on you tube. I think my favourites were probably the late Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins in the cinzano ad's

Comment is about M.C. Newberry (poet profile)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

Thanks, Vicki. Perhaps you'll rub that writing off the wall now?

Comment is about A PEKING SPICE ODDITY (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

...and they're smaller too! Wagon Wheels used to be the size of, well - wagon wheels.

Comment is about POUNDS (NO SHILLINGS) AND PENCE (blog)

Original item by M.C. Newberry

I recognise myself in this, Vicki. But which wall is it? I should paint over it.

Comment is about Nice Try ....! (blog)

Original item by Pixievic

Heartfelt and greatly touching in universality. Well crafted too in great old-fashioned metre and rhyme.

IMO, the third verse could easily be omitted, giving the last stanza an eye-watering punch, leaving the 'now' aspect entirely open to reader interpretation. Just a thought. Great poem to cast off 2015.

Comment is about I DREAMT YOU WERE LITTLE AGAIN (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Very true Stu & nicely succinct! x

Comment is about Empathy (blog)

Original item by Stu Burton

Oh John this is priceless & your delivery perfect!! Thank you you've made me smile!! xx

Comment is about A PEKING SPICE ODDITY (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

Thanks for the thumbs up, MC.
Stu - Yes, a Chinese Take-away song really was a hole in his portfolio. And who wants to hear about an astronaut anyway?

Comment is about A PEKING SPICE ODDITY (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

this is brilliant, especially the audio. ive waited literally hours for a david bowie/chinese take away crossover, and dreams do come true, you rhymed egg foo yung.

Comment is about A PEKING SPICE ODDITY (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

thanks cynthia! i looked at this again earlier today actually and i like it more than i did. yes, i paint, although i am not an artist. i just enjoy the process. creating something, be it writing or painting, is really rewarding.

Comment is about manifesto (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

Nice bow-out of the year. I also like the 'structure', a fresh form of the 'list poem', a type that always enjoys popularity. I really like the scope of material used.

So you paint as well. Creativity tends to be in multiple arenas, doesn't it? If you have it, you've got to work it.

Comment is about manifesto (blog)

Original item by Stuart Buck

I want to get back to this, Katy. Very interesting. Needs both my time and clear attention.

Comment is about The Temptation of St Anthony (blog)

Original item by Katy Megan

There's always space for an oddity as tasty as this!

Comment is about A PEKING SPICE ODDITY (blog)

Original item by John Coopey

A cold Tuesday night in early January and we get a packed first Poetry on the Spot of the year; so much so the emergency chairs had to come out.
Liz Magee and Carrie Carrie were brilliant POTS Players and improvised poems from prompts which included 'your eyes are covered with German tomatoes'. Guest Poet Peter John Cooper was on top form and the audience's contributions to a David Bowie inspired pair of crowd sourced poems were well thought out. Paul Canon Harris and Bob Hill Poet and Author are two very grateful hosts.
Brilliant choons and sound from Conrad Barr topped it off.
Next month we are back at Chaplins & The Cellar Bar on the 9th of Feb with guest poet Kim West and POTS Players tba.

Review is about Poetry on the Spot on 12 Jan 2016 (event)

Re. "Smoke Room" - and Hamlet cigars. Not only do I recall
smoking them with a pint but somewhere I have a VHS
tape comprising the collection of the famous TV ads.
My own favourite is the jockey left in the starting stalls...
a ready reckoner for so much that happens - or doesn't - in life!

Comment is about Martin Elder (poet profile)

Original item by Martin Elder

Thanks Wolfgar, well I do have beliefs , though exactly what they are is really to do with intuition with other layers added in. Your point is a perfectly valid one! I suppose this could apply to any incarceration or an abuse of freedom. We need to value it when we have it.

Interesting thanks, Stu. I try to use black humour as an entrée into forbidden areas, and hopefully it may hit a spot. The great thing with the original is the suspension of the final line throughout . Mine is a countering of that fulfilment. A bit like jazz that toys with a theme, or in your case, a starter that teases the palate!!

Comment is about IF (blog)

Original item by ray pool

Thank you all so much for your kind comments. This was inspired by a pub a few miles away from where I live that is now being refurbished , as what I am unsure but on one of the windows it bears the words' smoke room' etched into the frosted glass. This began to set my mind thinking about times even before I was around ! but also when I used to smoke hamlet cigars, cue - music ( for those who may remember the advert)

Comment is about Smoke room (blog)

Original item by Martin Elder