| Guts and Glory at 28
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2024-04-07
What Larry said. That's a last line worthy of the greats. The whole poem gains our gladly proffered respect, but wowzers, that conclusion!
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| summit
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2024-04-03
Yes. I think I might try something similar. Bravo on both variations!
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| REPEATING ONE SELF
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2024-04-03
I like your style: winsome, direct, genial. Always a joy to read what you write, Alan.
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| efforts always fruitless
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2024-03-30
"If there was a golden gate waiting ahead, it'd be pyrite." --- Masterful.
Thank you for posting!
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| FORGIVE ME (a personal view)
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2024-03-01
Oh, Alan. So poignant. And so simply and beautifully made.
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| will you watch telly with me, please ?
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2024-02-21
Wow! I generally flinch from poems that have "that word" in them, but I admire this one. It is forthright and strong throughout. There's an immediacy, a physicality. The poem grabs you! And I marvel that you wrote a whole poem using mostly monosyllables: only two words are disyllables, and two more are tri-. Sorry, geeking on technique! As an old song says, "Your technique, it leaves me weak"!
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| bit brash
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2024-02-19
Line seven, though. Life, the universe, and everything in that line.
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| Nostalgia
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2024-02-19
Vivid and affecting. Thank you for sharing it here.
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| your body betrays you
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2024-02-15
This poem is an achievement and a half --- the first stanza alone, the "copper rose"! Such immediacy, such clarity. And "the crescent moon itself wrapped in sunset-colored silk."
Wow, so grateful that you shared it here.
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| the filth keeps me grounded
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2024-02-14
the happy precision of "unkempt"
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| Ashtray Girl
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2024-02-09
Compelling and disturbing (I intend praise) at once. Also, the Eliot-echo at the end of stanza one is a nice, understated touch.
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| am i still a poet
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2024-01-21
This is brilliant. Yes, you are still and always a poet.
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| I WANTED YOU!
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2024-01-21
I permitted myself a chuckle at your description/summary! A well-made poem about a theme that never grows old.
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| talk about a sound
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2024-01-21
Your writing is always compelling, vivid, alive.
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| Sally Brin (pt1)
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2024-01-21
Alan, this is a fine poem indeed. Thank you.
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| Conversations no 3
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2024-01-21
This is all kinds of wunderbar. I love it! Thanks for sharing this vignette!
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| Our Beloved Abbey
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2024-01-09
FM, so sorry. Sending compassion and a hug.
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| HOW TO FLY A KITE
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2024-01-08
Vivid and winsome. As Marianne Moore might have said, the reader is happily implicated.
Or as I would say (!!!), this is a poem in whose language we would like to linger awhile.
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| THE DAY AHEAD
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2024-01-08
Marvellous, Alan. The roasting coffee sounded especially appealing.
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| always
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2023-12-25
This might be phrasing it weirdly, but I trust and cherish the voice of this poem.
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| PARTY AT THE FLOWER MILL
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2023-12-25
Alan, a joy always to enter your world of words and gentle humour. Happy Christmas to you and yours.
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| Ramblings 641
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2023-12-25
FM, thank you for sharing your innermost thoughts. I concur with those who urge you not to think so little of yourself! You perform an amazing service here at the 'bay, and I'm sure you have touched lives of those closer to home. Please know that this message comes with warmest Christmas wishes, and the invitation to write to me at any time. Peace and light.
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| Interim
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2023-12-25
There's a certain grace to the poem. Small scale, but a valid poem with just claim to endurance.
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| Nativity
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2023-12-24
A poem worthy of its noble theme. Happy Christmas, Dougie.
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| Before me
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2023-12-17
Compelling. It merits close and attentive re-reading!
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| ANOTHER GLORIOUS NIGHT
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2023-12-13
So winsome, so companionable, the sentences simple but luminous with exactitude. Sharp as winter, one might say!
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| Grateful
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2023-12-10
I very much enjoyed this poem, for all the reasons cited by others. Vivid, immediate, congenial, surprising! Well done!
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| Hospice
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2023-12-08
Joseph, wow. I honour your words and I honour your journey. Be assured of my most ardent prayers. Thank you for your consistent kindness here at poetbay. You have brightened many a moment by your poems and comments. I hope I don't sound prematurely eulogistic, but thank you, thank you, thank you.
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| The Novice
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2023-11-27
The situation (or should it be called a predicament?) is one in which we gladly proffer our sympathies to the speaker of the poem. The poem is ably executed, especially when one considers that it was the poet's first!
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| Cheap Imitations to Court Inspiration
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2023-11-24
Bravo! I love UM's slant rhymes.
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| i propose
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2023-11-23
my favourite part is the description of marketa's contraction-less idiomatic english
i enjoyed reading these 30 lines
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| Writing
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2023-11-21
This is both unusual and philosophical (I intend both words as praise). It reminds me of Wislawa Szymborska in some ways.
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| Writing tanka
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2023-11-21
I echo Sameen. This is perfectly admirable!
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| HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANKA
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2023-11-20
Happy 70th birthday, Alan!
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| tanka
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2023-11-16
excellent!
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| THE WRITTEN WORD
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2023-11-15
Alan, I believe that you do. I believe that we all do. Life and writing feed each other.
Not many writers can "earn their daily keep" through writing. Very few indeed. But writing (as poet Marianne Moore observed) helps us live. And living helps us write!
That's basically all. I value your perceptive poem!
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| STRANGE FRUITS
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2023-11-12
Horny melon! That's great.
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| I learnt to dream
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2023-11-12
Vivid and of a vigorous cadence, well rendered.
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| IN A FREEZE MENTALY
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2023-11-12
The fluent rhythms anchor the poem, and accentuate the poignancy of the theme. While I obviously wish for a less distressing circumstance, I like the poem very much.
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| Down time no up sign
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2023-11-09
"My life's a speckled piece of sand"
--- it was William Blake who led us "To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower" ...
Your grain of sand shines, Alan, in this beautiful and poignant poem.
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| MEANDERING THOUGHTS
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2023-10-30
Affecting. And the cadence is sure. Thank you for sharing this poem.
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| HOW AM I
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2023-10-29
Alan, thank you not only for the poem, which is a gem, but also for sharing the more serious news of your diagnosis. I shall hold compassionate space for you as you navigate the coming days, and I hope that you'll still be posting poems when they come to you.
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| value
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2023-10-20
Well, I for one enjoy reading what you offer. Consistently.
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| INQUISITIVE CHILD
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2023-10-20
Oh, Alan. So poignant, even heart-rending. But beautifully depicted.
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| late afternoon
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2023-10-15
Keenly observed and beautifully conveyed.
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| DON'T LET US (Addishans) (Change Of Title)
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2023-10-13
I'm thinking of the old song:
I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh, lord, please don't let me be misunderstood
Enjoyable read, Ken!
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| THE REASON WHY?
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2023-10-12
Allen, the poem is poignant and potent. One laments the circumstances you describe; one praises how well you've described it.
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| Elegy for Philip Sidney
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2023-10-09
For those interested in the prosody: it is poulter's measure, couplets composed of a hexameter and a heptameter.
In most English poems since the 19th century, the couplets in poulter's measure have been "broken down" into quatrains:
I never saw a Moor —
I never saw the Sea —
Yet know I how the Heather looks
And what a Billow be.
I never spoke with God
Nor visited in Heaven —
Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the Checks were given —
... but this metre derives from poulter's measure (first half of the quatrain having six iambs, and the second half seven).
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| Web
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2023-10-09
I cherish the exactitude of presentation, the careful cadence, and the humour embedded in "architect"!
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| For the Warmth
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2023-10-09
Poignant. (A word I can type, if I have a bit more coffee.)
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from USA