I like the ambush in a poem. I'm not keen on polemical poems. This poem takes an observation of a child/father interaction and delivers an extinction message. The title could have been more subtle, the label is the opposite of an ambush, and I may not have read the poem if I hadn't been checking-out the poet. It is called Greenhouse Denial by Mandy Haggith:
http://tclj.toasted-cheese.com/2018/18-4/five-poems-by-mandy-haggith/
A poem that I read today by Mac
These lines are from a poem by Deborah Ketai called Sanitized for Your Protection:the holes in the carpet where love
wiped the dirt off its feet, the closet
door I leave open so that
my clothes don't get scared
http://www.millerspondpoetry.com/index.php/current-issue/vol23web3
I like a poem with ambition, that rolls the dice on imagery, and though the ending falls flat, the journey is enough.
Poetry is written to be spoken was in my head when I went to Ledbury poetry festival a few years ago. I listened to Jane Hirshfield, never having read any of her poems, and didn't have a clue about what she was trying to convey.
This is a poem called A Chair in Snow and comes with a recording:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56174/a-chair-in-snow
In the intimacy of that recorded voice I'm listening, hooked, and pondering.
This is a poem called A Chair in Snow and comes with a recording:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56174/a-chair-in-snow
In the intimacy of that recorded voice I'm listening, hooked, and pondering.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45000/remember-56d224509b7aeRemember By Christina Rossetti
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
To indent or not to indent, why is that a question? See the original indentation of this poem on the link.
Sometimes pg'ers suggest spacing into stanzas makes a dense read easier to digest, but what does indentation achieve? Makes the poem look like a poem?
I've indented, an intuition on occasion, perhaps to escape that left side tyranny
These lines are from a poem called Pickpocket by Tim Vivian:The crowd murmured, and asked
one another what could nothing
possibly mean.
https://rabidoak.com/locally-sourced/pickpocket/
Like that old TV series...Tales of the Unexpected...with some referencing to Milton too.
Today's choice is a list poem. A list poem can be overloaded with adjectives, lack the dynamic of verbs, and become lifeless in forensic description (no matter how quirky the detail).
This is a poem by Paul Stephenson called On Pelmets.
https://atriumpoetry.com/2020/11/03/on-pelmets-paul-stephenson/
This is a poem by Paul Stephenson called On Pelmets.
https://atriumpoetry.com/2020/11/03/on-pelmets-paul-stephenson/
Sounds positive, but that approach opens a door to many a dark poem.Empathy is the ability to sense other people's emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling. ... “Cognitive empathy,” sometimes called “perspective taking,” refers to our ability to identify and understand other people's emotions.
Folktales often reflect dark realities.
This is a poem by Kim Moore called No.21:
https://wildcourt.co.uk/new-work/3091/
I've often been advised to edit a simile to a metaphor. More immediacy, less distance, being some of the reasoning.Night will break like a thousand year egg,
its yoke weighing heavy on his creaking frame.
This poem by Stella Wulf uses both...
http://www.inksweatandtears.co.uk/pages/?p=23085
It can be a bad habit using obscure words, making a poem even more opaque, but then it keeps those words 'alive'.
No obscure diction in this poem, but I like the use of gift/instinct in this context.
The poem is called Sunglasses by Anthony Costello:
https://threedropspoetry.co.uk/2015/02/04/sunglasses-by-anthony-costello/
No obscure diction in this poem, but I like the use of gift/instinct in this context.
The poem is called Sunglasses by Anthony Costello:
https://threedropspoetry.co.uk/2015/02/04/sunglasses-by-anthony-costello/
This is wrong, this is right. Assertion is endemic to a style of critique, often reflecting a mind blinkered and locked in a personal aesthetic or worse, an 'educated' one. Does this limit an understanding of a poem...I feel it does 
This poem is a reminder of what is lost...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/09/poem-of-the-week-on-a-pebbly-beach-by-john-birtwhistle
This poem is a reminder of what is lost...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/nov/09/poem-of-the-week-on-a-pebbly-beach-by-john-birtwhistle
A feature of watercolour painting is the 'happy accident'. It's the use of water.
This poem by Sarah Cave called out on the water reminded me of that:
http://stridemagazine.blogspot.com/2020/11/out-on-water.html?view=timeslide
On another issue:
This poem by Sarah Cave called out on the water reminded me of that:
http://stridemagazine.blogspot.com/2020/11/out-on-water.html?view=timeslide
On another issue:
The comment needs expanding, but I do recognise the narrative/epiphanic (probably because I have been reading The Dubliners). Personally, I like that style of writing.
There is some sort of correlation, it seems to me, between UK mainstream poetry and its presentation of longwinded narratives with an epiphanic ending, what I have previously classed as ‘smartarse’ poetry in the UK (in a KFS anthology of the same title which I edited), and the US hybrid of narrative and experimental poetry evidenced at its best by the poems of Dean Young and Josh Bell.
Whilst the first of these relies on a reader’s emotional empathy, ego and experiences of a similar nature, the other two are more interested in the possibilities of language and storytelling.
http://stridemagazine.blogspot.com/?view=magazine
This is from a poem by Ed Meek called Sympathy for the Vandals:Who hasn’t thought of throwing
the first stone when no-one’s around?
https://acrossthemargin.com/three-poems-by-ed-meek/
Of course, there are always consequences to behaviours, which seems the prompt to these poems...the moral of the story is...
I wonder why his first poem uses capitalised lines.
Metaphors are often challenging, but understood ones, are like waking up in a morning shower (to use a simile they clear the cobwebs - when not a cliche 
)
This is a poem by Ann Drysdale called Perfect Binding:
https://abegailmorley.wordpress.com/category/ann-drysdale/
they clear the cobwebs - when not a cliche )This is a poem by Ann Drysdale called Perfect Binding:
https://abegailmorley.wordpress.com/category/ann-drysdale/
Thanks for sharing that one, MacPhil; what a wonderful poem! I got quite lost in it, especially with such rich descriptions of the wildlife. Very much enjoyed
I've been reading the poetry in October's Snakeskin today and I really like both poems by Joe Crocker. I've found the archives page too; I think I could get quite lost in there for a while!
I've been reading the poetry in October's Snakeskin today and I really like both poems by Joe Crocker. I've found the archives page too; I think I could get quite lost in there for a while!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/atriumpoet ... nough/amp/
Of course, a Welshman can't resist a dragon poem.
Of course, a Welshman can't resist a dragon poem.