I discovered this thread round about a month ago and i feel priviledged that I post amongst a group of really talented people. It makes me feel relieved that others enjoy writing poetry and reading other people's poetry too. Sometimes being a 'poet' is very lonely. This thread is nothing but positive and I'm truly grateful I've found it.

Yes, there are a lot of talented people here - I feel the same by the way, did you know of this forum/website? someone mentioned it to me a while back. I post some of my poems here too - http://forums.familyfriendpoems.com/ I don't always get replies but there are lots of other poems posted there as well, from people all over the world (I hope its ok to post the link? someone gave me it in a thread I started in the advice forum on DS, when I'd asked about publishing poems, which I doubt I'll do now...).

If you want to publish some of your poems into a book, you can use this website:
www.solentro.co.uk I use these people to self publish my poems because it just looks so nice having your work all bound up in a proper book. I go for the paperback version because hardback is very expensive! But the site is totally free of charge and you create and design your own layout.

Thanks for supplying the link to the other site. I will take a look.

Ta Wizzy and Sandy

Wow, the thread hasn't been this busy since Part 1 Unfortunately, I won't have time to read everything today. On my next library visit I'll devote the whole session to catching up - I'm looking forward to that

Mods and Rockers

The Mods loved cool places, The Who and Small Faces,
Their targets of red, white and blue
On T-shirts were markers, on Vespas in parkas
A new sixties culture broke through.

The Rockers loved Elvis who wriggled his pelvis
And Chuck Berry intros with riffs,
The Summertime Blues was the anthem to choose
For leather-clad bikers with quiffs.

Both movements ignited a fight and alighted
In Margate and Clacton, all those
South coast destinations were perfect locations
For enemies coming to blows.

Disturbing the peace meant arrests by police,
As deckchairs and punches were thrown
The promenade quiet was wrecked by each riot,
This wasn't the Margate I'd known.

I hid in an alley and witnessed a sally
But don't know who settled the score;
Although it was chilling, I found it quite thrilling
To see Mods and Rockers at war.


©

Biz

It's so nice to see you here again! You never kept anyone away, your feedback has only ever enhanced the thread

I hope you can pop in now and then

_wow! Great to see you posting again Biz, but I think your logic is way off.

Sticks and Stones

Where goes the spat out bigots words
When the speaker throws their content
Are they living in a syntax capital
Festering in a vowel sewer of accent
Waiting to blast the next poor sod
With the hot air of a four letter barrage
Sticking to their victims mantle
As an obscene inarticulate collage

How their target wrenched the flimsy paste
Which bound them to his thinking
He’d walked the boards of syntax city
And suffered from it’s stinking
Each ripping cast the fetid grammar
From his porous vesture
Seeped his mind but not so far
He could not wipe their lecture.

‘I’m clean of your foul literary
I avenge myself with reason
For ignorance and quackery
I charge your writ with treason’
‘For your crime of bigotry
I expose with light your failure
Illumination is my axe
Rub you out with this eraser’


The battle won he forged ahead
Down Street Confabulation
Watchful of a new advance
His discernment our salvation.

You're a very valuable addition wizzy.


DS doesn't seem to recognize me and is giving me a very hard time. It's taking ages to log in.

I was just joking, and I'll try to pop in from time to time. In the meantime, keep up the good work.


I hope life is treating you well John.

That Which Is Not Spoken

Can you hear,
that which is not spoken,
can the signs be read,
how do you know,
whats hidden within?.

Is my body language clear,
when I gaze from afar,
staring out the window,
picturing what could be -
tales of adventure,
missions of intrigue,
wild wondrous battles,
it all goes on out there,
where I am not.

When I walk past,
plodding down this long winding corridor,
do you ever wonder,
what may be on my mind?
I dont suppose you do,
I tend only to let those I feel close to me,
acknowledge my bursts of imagination
and glimpse at what lies within...

If only my mind were better organised,
more sense made of the wild and wonder I conjur up
in my minds eye,
the imagined adventures and possibilities could be endless.

Do I ever let my guard down?
do you see the longing, in my eyes?
to be chasing...something...
the dream I once had,
the adventure as a child felt possible,
how I long to say begone to the monotony of a safe daily life
and hello to an uncertain future -
If only I knew what said dream really was.

I really admire the way your mind works. You have written a poem that I most definetely can relate to. Bigotry is the worst kind of torment. Thanks for sharing.


Do you hold in a lot of emotion Izzy? I thought your poem was very good, but it saddened me a little.

Oh? I'd hoped it'd be a bit more positive, than other ones anyway. Yes I do though.

Yes, it was a positive poem but it demonstrated that you perhaps are taken for granted somewhat, that people fail to recognise you or understand you. At the end it seemed to suggest that you were thinking "whatever! I'll just get on with it anyway!". That's why I liked it.

I think those that I talk to do understand me, to a set extent. Actually the part about walking down a corridor etc., was me thinking about when im at work and people pass me by. I don't go out socially very often at all of course such people at work don't really know me that well at all but friends I chat to online, do moreso than them (if that makes any sense?).

I live in my own world, me

HELLO EARTH...HOW ARE YOU?

Hello Earth....How are you?
Are you feeling well today?
Should I listen to your answer?
Is there something you want to say?

(Earth replies......)

"Hello human.....I hope you're pleased
Of the destruction you have made.
For mankinds self indulgent dream,
The price I've really paid.

Hello murderer.....I hope you hang
For each tree that you have killed.
I hope you suffer indigestion
For each creature you have grilled.

Hello vandal.....I hope you're glad
For all the things that you have broke.
For the hole in my ozones heart
Is sure to make me choke.

Hello thug.....Are you not in jail
For the crimes that you commit.
All the water that you poison,
All the fires you have lit.

Hello reaper.....for you are my end.
You're the one who'll bring me death.
For each destructive act you make
Is for me a dying breath."

(Human Replies......)

"Hello Earth.......How are you?
I weep with so much shame.
For your ultimate destruction,
Mankind must surely take the blame."

(c)

Wow, thats sobering reading, Wizzy. Nicely put though - makes you think. If the world could speak, what would it say indeed - I shudder to think!.

Sorry I forgot to reply to this post before. That sounds interesting, I'll have a look. Thanks for the link

Thanks for commenting. I am genuinely concerned about the way mankind has abused our wonderful planet. I have written several poems to reflect that - but I'm not an environmental flip-flop person who hugs trees! Perhaps I could become one though. Here's another in a similar vein:

ON MY PLANET

Where I come from there is glorious blue,
Glorious green, beautiful red and purple too.
Everywhere about is colour and awe,
Nothing quite like it would you have seen before!
There are tall flowers, and swaying trees,
There is summer heat and there's a cooling breeze.
Everywhere you venture you'll see something so great
You'll realise that your world is in a terrible state.

On my planet the world is all free
Where the people are one, living harmoniously.
There is no fighting, there's no war or crime.
Just people living having a fabulous time.
There are smiles and laughter everywhere that you go,
There are children playing, running to and fro!
Love is the law and peace is the aim.
It puts the people of your world to the greatest of shame.

In my world there are fresh forests of green.
Pure crystal oceans that are sparkling, serene.
There is no destruction, there is no pollution.
Where there are problems there is a solution
There are ways of doing things that protect all that lives,
We take nothing away, my world just gives.
Contentment is the aspiration, is what we all share.
Your world behaves as if it just doesn't care.

On my planet there is respect for us all.
We get helped up each time that we fall.
We accept all that's different, no judgement is made.
Encouragement is restored when dreams start to fade.
The beauty that surrounds is there at our birth,
It also exists on the planet of earth.
But until the day when the planet is healed,
Animals and people will keep getting killed.

(c)

I can understand that lol im not an 'environmental flip-flop person' either (although I did get a green Blue Peter badge for helping the environment, as a child)

Another good piece - thanks for sharing.

I just wanted to say Happy National Poetry Day

Love Song of Culloden

We stood side by side at Culloden,
Defending our homeland so fair;
With the ranks of the enemy waiting
I suddenly noticed her there.

I gazed at a tangle-haired lassie,
A beautiful stranger and while
I frowned at the foe in the distance
She blessed me with one fleeting smile.

The sun appeared, brightening further
The vision that made my heart dance;
Her eyes were as blue as a sapphire,
Her long golden hair lit by chance.

She carried some meagre provisions,
Where war-soiled banners unfurl
In the desperate time before bloodshed
She seemed like the prettiest pearl.

The order went out to get ready,
On hearing the great battle cry
I joined in the charge for our freedom,
Preparing to do or to die.

And after that English shot left me
In bandages pale and festooned,
The girl I'd seen earlier gently
Nursed my incurable wound.

O lassie, you helped to soothe me on
The last of my Jacobite trips
And the final few words I heard spoken
Came out of your whispering lips.

While meadows of thyme have provided
This heart with a heavenly place,
I'll never forget the tears you cried,
Aye lassie, they fell on my face.


©

Ta Wizzy


Wow, a truly heartfelt and uplifting poem. It meant a lot to me as I was the carer for my Mum who passed away at home, as she wanted. The last verse is particularly brilliant in my opinion

And wins! Another gem John - you always grapple with the big questons

How romantic that makes me picture Braveheart. Great piece.


John?

That's me I love my candles - I have three, not four as in The Two Ronnies

Great write Justmadeit, I loved the sad atmosphere you conjured up.