Poetry Forum

twoleftfeet wrote: I find it hard to reconcile omnipotence with genteel British self-repression

Yup. It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.

Thanks - I like what you make of this

DB

I didn't really agree with much you said. No problem with that. That's another problem I find on many forums, the crits word is final! I don't remember signing up to that as a deal. I certainly wouldn't take any crits of my poems as final, though I would be pleased that someone bothered to do it at...

What do you mean by 'paint-by-numbers poetry'?
Luisetta

Thanks for your appreciative comments. :) Actually I think that's Hades you're thinking of. Whether or not Ares settles for a no is beyond the scope of this poem, as the speaker is a feminine voice. The question really is, does Aphrodite ever say no? We know she does have an affair with Ares. But wh...

Ares No, my dear, I wish you wouldn't call me like this. Oh, I do remember that June night with you all lit up at the sight of me, everyone knew, going to bed one by one, until it was just us. 'Dear lady,' you said, 'Are you in love?' Never been less so, but that cool space of private thought was n...

The cobbled rise, the gradient exposé; Yes I agree with k-j about expose. Wondered what was wrong with 'exposed'. thrilling eyes, such unexpected expanse such desolate energy. ...how about 'thrilling eyes surprised by/such desolate energy' ? The Sea, sharp-paper-points the sky, swirling clouds of i...

Tuna Crick Crick is another word for creek in Pennsylvania I like the strangeness of the word crick, and wouldn't explain it (not sure if this is an organic part of your poem. It becomes obvious further in anyway. The Tributary filtered purely down Allegheny mountains, bubbled at the wild morels, f...

Thanks for all these very rich comments - I agree with the criticism of the sun going down but b*****ed if I know what to put instead The people who saw echoes of human relationship in this were right, that was my intention, as were the echoes of meaning, but I wasn't driving at anything in particul...

I don't really want to go any further along factual lines for the same reasons as you (because I have too much to do and it's endless, and my facts will run out and they're not my favourite things anyway). But from a poetic point of view I wondered where the Middle East plugs into you or you into it...

Boy have you picked a subject here! I find it hard to evaluate this without reference to the framing of the images in the cultural and political contexts of our time. I admire you for expressing with eloquence what I have heard expressed in many ways in conversation among thinking folk in these isle...

Thank you, Cam - it seemed like a good place to be

Luisetta

Horse You've been on the lookout each time I pass, tail to the group. Today you are coming over, white streak all awry, nostrils warming the winter. Jacketed against the cold, you expect what you came for, and bump me hard when all I have is a hand to run along inside your mane and a bright orange ...

I say this from the point of view of a dictionary-sniffer, a mere dabbler in OE: On the first reading I loved 'saturate' because it Shakespearified it - it was a very successful use of unexpected cadence - and wasn't too obsessively Anglo-Saxon. I thought 'bedecked' was trying too hard. But then I w...

iv. Ice on the Root This time of year, the water won’t move. The track north, follows along the bank. Silver winds around such tired men leaning. They look over their shoulders at the hills arced and motionless. One branch in particular, could claw the white sun down if it reached hard enough. It i...