Thanks for the like Stephen.
Thanks Tony, I did some tweaking to this as I know how critical it can be with short poems not to wander off the point . I'm pleased you found it worked.
Ray
Comment is about DEATH ENCAPSULATED (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Hi Stella. Yes I was nonplussed by your removal of 'Away from the World' from WOL as I remember it being particularly great. Glad to know you're going to be published. I'll make sure I buy a copy. đ
Comment is about Stella Forsythe (poet profile)
Original item by Stella Forsythe
Pleased you like the poem, Stephen. Iâm glad theyâre not triffids as they are pressed up close to my garden fence. I expect the farmer will be harvesting the crop soon. Itâs been strange having these bright acres so close. Iâm careful not to let my dog wander too far in for fear of losing him. Tony
Comment is about RAPE (blog)
Original item by Tony Hill
A wry comment on the state of human concern today. I keep
looking for news about what is happening to the sun, but
without much success so far.
Comment is about IT'S THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT (blog)
Original item by Short Attention Span Poetry
Spot on. A small gem of insight which deserves anyone's time.
Comment is about The Difference (blog)
Original item by Mike McPeek
Stone the crows !! If you'll pardon the expression. đ
Comment is about WHY, WHY, WHY...DELILAH? (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Excellent poem, Tony. Wonderfully sinister. Made me think of triffids lurking outside.
Comment is about RAPE (blog)
Original item by Tony Hill
Thanks very much, John. Much appreciated. As with other issues I write about, I find it sad that I have to do it.
And thanks for your comments, MC. Always interesting to read your views.
Thanks to Nigel and Uilleam for liking this.
Comment is about Uxbridge (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Glad you like the poem, Ray. I wasnât aware of how many military allusions I had made until the poem was almost complete. There is something threatening about a field of rape, at least I think so. Tony
Comment is about RAPE (blog)
Original item by Tony Hill
A fine poem full of detail and the sweep of imagination - epic in its way and I especially like the line "sullen as munition." in fact the references to the military altogether.
Ray
Comment is about RAPE (blog)
Original item by Tony Hill
Never mind Delilah â sheâs the least of our worries- stop cruelty to Mice!
I think the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts (their proper name) should ban Havergal Brianâs "Fantastic Variations on an Old Rhyme" which used the tune of Three Blind Mice as the basis of his work â and to boot, AntonĂn DvoĆĂĄk's Symphony No. 9 IV. Allegro con fuoco for similar reasons.
Just Stop Farmerâs Wives!
Save the Mice!
đ
Comment is about WHY, WHY, WHY...DELILAH? (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Ah yes, the Fields of Athenry, an absolute gem, to which we sang along many a time in karaoke fashion in my local a couple of years ago.
I once thought it was an "old-time song", not realising it had been written as recently as 1979-quality writing that.
Comment is about Noli Timere (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Gorgeous. A song to celebrate life, Helene. đ
Comment is about Healing (blog)
Original item by HĂ©lĂšne
Well said, Uilleam. I couldn't agree more. đȘ
Comment is about Rent-a-Gob (blog)
Thank you so much, Uilleam. I started out with a description and stumbled into a metaphor. Nothing much has changed in half a century, has it?
Working people get by on pride and not much else đ
Comment is about Burley Road (blog)
Original item by John Botterill
Thanks for the kind words, Clare. Only just wrote the 'Twixt Pen and Eye' and I don't have any upcoming collections so it will be a while before it gets published elsewhere.
Comment is about Clare (poet profile)
Original item by Clare
A cracking line John: "...cobble-stoned determination"...ordinary folk around me every day, just getting on with the hard reality of life.
Comment is about Burley Road (blog)
Original item by John Botterill
Thank you John for a lovely poem.
I didn't realise it was that long ago.
Comment is about Noli Timere (blog)
Original item by John E Marks
Thank you Keith; I am all too prone to "doom -scrolling".
As John B. suggests, knowledge is power indeed- and that is why so much money is invested in propagating lies and hatred through the Murdochian sewer posing as "journalism".
Comment is about The Media (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Troubling times Hugh, and I'm sorry for your trouble.
Unfortunately, theirs is a generation for whose futures, nothing but contempt has been shown.
Their so-called "elders and betters", (the politicians who partied and vomited in the seat of government during lockdown whilst their mums and dads could not say their final good byes to their grandparents) effectively gave two fingers to any notion of "respect".
We reap as we sow.
Comment is about Hundreds of school kids run riot in Manchester city centre as cops hit with eggs,shops closed and trams forced to crawl !! (blog)
Original item by hugh
One of my favorites! đ
Comment is about Just another tom petty reference (blog)
Original item by Jordyn Elizabeth
I agree with your analysis, Keith. Knowledge is power.
Comment is about The Media (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Stuff and nonsense, MC. How before an alliance of animal rights activists, vegans, and the RSPB ban âfour and twenty blackbirds baked in a pieâ?
Comment is about WHY, WHY, WHY...DELILAH? (blog)
Original item by M.C. Newberry
Revenge certainly, MC, for the humiliations of â72 and (especially) â74. Less widely remembered than the year-long strike of 84/85 was the overtime ban the previous year which the Coal Board conceded - Thatcher didnât have all her ducks in a row at that point. Revenge. Served cold.
Comment is about 1984 AND ALL THAT (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
This is a classic. Although you can never really know the meaning I attach to such a word. đ. I Hope this is being published in a book because it deserves the widest audience possible. đ
Comment is about Twixt Pen and Eye (blog)
Original item by Chris Armstrong
Yes, Graham, rape does have a very distinctive smell. Iâm looking at the field as I write this. It looks very downtrodden after hours of rain. Tony
Comment is about RAPE (blog)
Original item by Tony Hill
Glad you like the poem, John. There has been a crop of rape immediately behind my house. I have been able to observe its âmoodsâ all summer. So bright above, so dark an interior, hence the Janus reference. Tony
Comment is about RAPE (blog)
Original item by Tony Hill
As usual, Stephen, you have hit the nail on the head. Sacrifice is for other people and other times. Which is why we're in the mess we're in. Great poem đ
Comment is about Uxbridge (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Here's a odd one to throw in the mix!
I think when it's drying out after rain, rape smells like a fine white burgundy wine. Meursault or Puligny Montrachet!
I'll get my coat!!
Comment is about RAPE (blog)
Original item by Tony Hill
I can never balance up whether it is best to ignore the news (and risk burying my head in the sand and become less informed) or read it and not be so moved by it!.
We should all remember that we cannot solve all the world's problems as so many 'do-gooders' think we can.
Some days I feel that if I hear one more word about 'gender', 'illegal immigrants' and bloody 'climate change' I'll find a hermitage somewhere, take my wine cellar and hide!!
Media eh? Googler's-Extraordinary!
Comment is about The Media (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
Intriguing contrasts that no doubt have manage to survive to
this day. I tend to think that the individual has it within his/her
self to rise above their environment and reach out for something
worth the effort. It's aspiration and awareness that count in
the long term in this life, allied to an ambition to be better than
they are.
Comment is about England, or To England (blog)
Original item by J F Keane
Politicians tend to go with the flow - to adapt to meet what they
think are the ways to obtain votes. Too much one way or
another can also lead to the sort of self-destructive hubris that
has affected the Tories in recent times. They have become
largely detached from the concerns of the electorate who are
concerned about the environment but not to the extent that
sees a rush towards unsustainable targets in too short a time.
The Earth has seen weather change before - check the entry
January 1661 by Samuel Pepys in his meticulously kept diary...
recording an extraordinary unseasonal winter when the ways
were all dusty, rose bushes were in bloom and flies flew up and down. Let us also bear in mind that the advent of 24/7 global media brings news that in other days would have been
either kept to a local/national level or even left unreported.
Work towards a better cleaner planet - and take that message
to where it really belongs: places like China and other similar
producers of harmful emission on an awesome scale.
Comment is about Uxbridge (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Farage is like Marmite, that's for sure. But it can't be denied that
he has performed an important service in exposing what is
happening in the institutions that should be the backbone of any
civilised country. But from comments I read, "backbone" and
"civilised" are largely absent from our lives. But I remain an
eternal optimist. The wheel turns.
Comment is about Rent-a-Gob (blog)
Thank you so much, KJ, Stephen, Clare and Greg for your wonderfully supportive comments. It means such a lot to me.
It is 45 years since I lived in Leeds. I enjoyed it (mostly). Still, experiences shape us, don't they? And the fight to make ends meet goes on in these places.
Thanks Nigel, Manish, Tom, Tony and Reggies ghost for the likes. đ
Comment is about Burley Road (blog)
Original item by John Botterill
Whilst resident in the now vanished single officer's quarters
during my time with the Met. money was taken from our accounts
to pay for a comprehensive range of newspapers - broadsheet
Red Top and local - and these always provided a wide range of information and opinions that served to act as a very useful
means of keeping up with the news across the social and
political spectrum of the day. I guess that today that function
has been replaced by the social media and a healthy concern
about overt media partiality in the public mind.
Comment is about The Media (blog)
Original item by keith jeffries
You have a point Tony. These crops are alien and make it difficult for some of us to breathe, I think.
Comment is about RAPE (blog)
Original item by Tony Hill
Profound and moving, Clare. As ever! You have tapped into a universal feeling here.
Comment is about Take Pity! (blog)
Original item by Clare
Looking back from this "climate change" era, there is a certain
irony involved in the outraged stance of those supporting the
resistance to the closure of mines, not least the "uneconomic" sort. Certainly, the individual effects on those at the sharp end
are a matter for deep regret and marked a seismic social and economical event in UK industrial history. I had no policing
experience of the dispute, being busy enough as a custody Sgt.
in the hectic heart of London at the time. Personally I was perplexed why Thatcher didn't use the courts against the
activities of Scargill but guess she preferred, with political
nous, to use shock and awe tactics for maximum effect after
the way the miners had embarrassed the Heath government and reduced the country to a three day week and candle-lit evenings. Something which didn't endear the miners' cause to the wider public.
In an historical context, the demise of
the stage-coach and its support network across the country at the hands of the railways - and the later
demise of the railways due to the
advent of the motorways, are events
of comparable socio-economic importance. Nothing is forever.
Comment is about 1984 AND ALL THAT (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
I bloody love beef stroganoff.
Comment is about Rent-a-Gob (blog)
Yes, Kevin. That was him. And a poem? Stop it, Iâve got a cracked lip.
Weâve moved from Selby to Wakefield, Greg. There are a lot of country Parks/nature reserves here where there once were pits. On balance I prefer that..
Comment is about 1984 AND ALL THAT (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Three dark couplets, Ray, and very affecting. Sometimes brevity works - it certainly does here. Tony
Comment is about DEATH ENCAPSULATED (blog)
Original item by ray pool
Great social history, John. The dispute really ran on until March 1985, didn't it? (I know, 1984 makes a better title). Up here in Northumberland, a hive of mining post second world war, there is little trace of the industry now - a few wildlife areas that were once opencast drifts, an excellent mining museum at Ashington, plus the mining institute in Newcastle, of course. And names like Killingworth and Shotton that stick in the memory. A huge part of our national heritage wiped from the face of the earth. I remember the miners' strike as the biggest national schism before Brexit. Even down south, you couldn't help taking sides. We had a 'friend' who was in the police, and made a fortune in overtime going up there.
Almost 40 years on, those days still stir my blood. I remember weeping to see TV pictures of the defeated minsters marching back to work, their banners still held high. At the mining musuem in Ashington, on the site of the old Woodhorn colliery, there is a large picture of Margaret Thatcher with that quote of hers (almost as famous as 'There is no such thing as society') referring to 'the enemy within'. She presided over the hollowing out of UK industry, and squandered our North Sea oil receipts on paying for the resulting dole queues. Now, with the daylight robbery and plundering of the state utilities such as fuel and water, we can all see the irony - and true meaning - of her words.
Comment is about 1984 AND ALL THAT (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Very good, John. A quintessential northern poem - an anti-Betjeman one, if you like!
Comment is about Burley Road (blog)
Original item by John Botterill
I remember it well.
Although I have never worked down the mines, I did live in a pit village and had to walk through the picket lines to get to work. (Not scabbing, but the pickets blocked the whole road, and no vehicles could get through)
You mentioned Ian MacGregor, I seem to remember him putting a paper bag with eye-holes over his head whenever he went out in public.
By the way.... It's not a poem
Comment is about 1984 AND ALL THAT (blog)
Original item by John Coopey
Oh no, not Professor Brian Cox again!
Comment is about Our life on this earth is the creation of an extremely clever mind (blog)
Original item by hugh
Outstanding, John. I love 'cobble-stoned determination'. This sort of experience certainly makes you grateful for a bit more comfort later on.
Comment is about Burley Road (blog)
Original item by John Botterill
Thanks for all the comments, Graham, Greg, Telboy, KJ and John C, which I found interesting and informative as usual. (Thanks to Tom, Manish and Reggie's Ghost for the likes).
Reading this poem again, I find it rather cynical, even brutal. To be honest, it's not really me. However, global heating and the climate crisis aren't really me either, and I think that something has to be said on this issue, which is the most pressing of our time.
One thing: I would reject the allegation of Tory bashing. I seem to remember that Boris Johnson was keen on low emission zones in London and made some ambitious pledges at the Glasgow COP. Given the obvious and present consequences of not reducing emissions, it shouldn't be a party issue for serious politicians, whatever their idealogicl stripe. What is happening (and it is a Europe-wide phenomenon) it that green policies are being pulled into a wider anti-woke agenda by all sorts of opportunists and populist cranks.
In a more innocent life, I once wrote another poem about Uxbridge:
An Uxbridge childhood
At the beautiful house of things
The children play on garden swings
Enjoying sun and lemonade
While paintings, vases, diamond rings
Contrive to spend life in the shade.
The passers-by will crane their necks
To see this slice of Middlesex
The pristine lawn, the fresh-clipped trees
The flowers blooming as they please
And long-lost friends arrive and say
How wonderful it looks today
The stained-glass windows catch the sun
The toy collection oozes fun.
The winter chill is closing in
The feeding bird no longer sings
The Northern breezes numb the skin
Theyâve frozen up the garden swings
At the beautiful house of things.
Much nicer, isn't it?
Comment is about Uxbridge (blog)
Original item by Stephen Gospage
Thanks for your support Stephen and Holden, HĂ©lĂšne and Manish!
I remember feeling like I had nothing left to say at that point in my life (and you could argue I was right) but when I then started writing lots of poems about how I was giving up I should have realised I wasn't really going to stop.
Comment is about I Tried To Give You Up (blog)
Original item by Tom
Stephen Gospage
Tue 25th Jul 2023 08:29
Beautifully written and deeply disturbing, John.
Comment is about DON'T TWITCH ASIDE THE CURTAIN (blog)
Original item by John Coopey