Poetry Forum

fricative is a word though. It’s a consonant produced by the forcing of breath through a constricted passage – such as f or s. so the line “fertile with sweat and frictive meats” is a perfectly balanced fricative sentence – clearly composed by someone at home enough with the old fric to abbreviate i...

it's a bit like slobbing around the house in your soiled and grimy old tracksuit bottoms isn't it? you wouldn't want to answer the door in them but there's something sensually comforting about the anarchy of your own filth....well that's how i read it. but then, i'd never let my kitchen get like that.

i like this poem a lot. it made me think about the price you pay for any kind of freedom. and the way it's always comforting to see things in black and white despite the fact we know they're not.

touring theatre....if it sounds glamorous it's really not. at least not in this country. am just about to head off again to do panto( a great british tradition i couldnt really explain the appeal of). having children now that's impressive. especially a third! well done. if that's what you say. i too...

wow you guys are speedy! thanks for that i was having trouble with that stanza and reworked it so many times im immune to it now. it wasnt supposed to be a literal description of sex but more about rhythm and synchronicity....but im not sure it really came off. cutting it sounds a good plan. i didnt...

In a field between two train tracks I lay down my anorak beneath the scant shade of a lone lopped tree kneeling I watch amused as you attempt to scale the stunted monolith the wind rutting deep under ripples of shirt and soft brown skin till I am utterly convinced by your virility satisfied you dism...

i disagree, i think "a couple of chips" is nice - you can hear northern seaside in that. could you say "for" instead of "to" though? just a thought. the moments of bathos work best for me generally to create this picture too, especially "god's great blue rinse"...

well it's nice to feel welcome! ive just been busy working and touring and writing songs so i sort of had my creative outlets covered for a while. and truthfully my muse just left me for a bit....that hurt. so im on my own now and a bit rusty but ive got a healthy dose of oestrogen coming up for you...

certinly can't go wrong with a bit of loin fire..... i love the way you use punctuation like an excited puppy dog. i can almost see your tongue hanging out.... when did you start calling yourself bombadil?

thanks, i think you're right the poem needs work. nothing worse than a lazy poet....

hey that's cool. i don't believe in having to have foreknowledge to read poetry anyway. either you like it or you don't. intention seems pretty irrelevant because what's there is there and it's everyone's property once it leaves the pen. i might try re-writing it to see if the effect is better. im a...

thanks....now im really confused. to edit or not to edit? on the cycling theme, i have a song i could share with you! does this site have the facility to upload mp3s?

thanks for your comments guys. i suppose what i was trying to do - which didn't quite come off - was to use timeworn phrases to create a sense of claustrophobic familiarity as a backdrop for the journey of the poem....to add your own mark to the sense of history. not an easy task. but i don't think ...

Waterloo Bridge Tonight I am contemplating giving up this race Letting the cat out of the bag and plunging all into dim obscurity But like the dog chasing its tail inside my brain It’s a no win situation; to escape I put on bright colours and pedal off; it’s winter And my gloves are thick - “windsto...

wow. thanks for your comments guys. certainly didn't expect to start that. terry, im sorry you are offended but i do not apologise for the content of my poem. i do not use this language lightly, just as i do not use any language lightly: i choose my words carefully. this poem is about the breakdown ...

powerful shit. good to see someone writing poems about stuff that matters. (i mean as opposed to self-centred head-cases like me)
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If I were not a whore it might hurt me This abandonment This distance you have stolen This wound you have gashed But fortunately I only have to open my legs And there is consolation waiting In the package of another Empty chest of lies Tonight as I deck out my face in customary Mask, it’s just anoth...

im with terry. and it took 3 years of an english degree to make me see that! a good poem stones me to my soul to quote the great van morrison. and i just want to let it run all over me like this one does.
thanks leslie
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thanks for giving it some condsideration! i did just need to get it out of my system and was aware it would be something of an experiment. don't worry about being insensitive - once you put your heart into a poem it's fair game i reckon.
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I hate you I hate you I hate you Nobody has ever made me feel as bad as you do I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you Nobody has ever made me feel as used as you do I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you Nobody has ever made me feel so cheap as you do I hate you You fucker you fucker you u...

thanks guys. "no road" - don't know that one. you have a copy?
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people on oxford street look like people I know people who come and go as I strain to make out their features, convinced I see people I know or people I used to know long ago; people with whom I lost touch or faith or who lost it with me; people whose walled garden worlds I could not see inside woul...

"retracing the footsteps of last night's fingers"...mmmm. haven't been so excited since.....well....last night. like this a lot, it's almost cloying in its deliciousness but that just makes it even more real.

A man went into a bar dressed as a rabbit and the rabbit behind the bar said “sorry no rabbits allowed” and the man said “but you’re a rabbit” and the rabbit said “no im not im just dressed like one.” And the man said “well me too” and the rabbit said “what you doing coming in here dressed like a ra...

thanks a.s. i know what you mean. sometimes things come out right first time. any body else got an opinion? here's the first version again: Furtive like tigers We shift position in the darkened room Noises from outside give us leave to do whatever We please and yet we skirt the issue politely Until ...