Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

Our discussion forum for topics related to writer's block, poetry, the literary arts in general, and anything else of cosmic import.
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Michael (MV)
Posts: 2154
Joined: 18 Apr 2005, 04:57

Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#1 Post by Michael (MV) » 28 Jul 2021, 23:01

 
Voice your recommendation(s) here, and

Please let us know ASAP if you are not going to be available to represent the Writer's Block -

then we will know not to consider your poems further for this month's IBPC.

I/we will be looking for consensus - in keeping with a communal workshop environment

Which 1-3 would we like to see represent the Writer's Block in the finals?

After the 3 are selected, then will each author post - in this thread - the poem as the poet would like it forwarded,

and ALL the needed info/statements

Ideally, the only poems that really need to appear here are the final 3, when announced, hopefully by the 1st of the month, if not sooner

^^ the intent is organizational - if poems appear here before the selection of the final 3, then there is a congestion -

Until the final 3 are announced, please maintain poems & workshopping to the Workshop Forum. Thanks.



************

any newcomers or returnees this month, Welcome!

and here is a home link to the IBPC rules: http://ibpc.webdelsol.com/rules


In this thread, from the poems posted in the workshop forum during the course of the month, recommend/nominate by title & author.

Nominated poets, please acknowledge the nomination here in this thread.
Please reply by accepting or declining the nomination - in this thread.

Please note & observe: This is not a workshopping thread.

In this thread, poems that are ultimately selected to represent the Block are then posted here
as the author would like for the poem to be forwarded
along with all IBPC required info.

When the 1-3 poems are decided upon, and permission granted by each author of the selected poems,

along with all the info needed by each author:


1/Your name

2/e-mail address

3/statement that the poem is your original

4/and unpublished work

5/and that you don't have a poem committed to represent another board in the current IBPC. One poet one poem one board
for each monthly,

6/and the poem as you would like it forwarded to the finals.

^^ All of the above is the usual needed info as part of the process.


I will then forward the 1-3 to the IBPC finals.


Thanks

Michael (MV)

 
 
 
 
  
 
 

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#2 Post by BobBradshaw » 01 Aug 2021, 20:59

I nominate Frank's "Portal at French Church..." and Ken's "Hospice".

Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#3 Post by Kenneth2816 » 01 Aug 2021, 22:31

Thanks Bob. I accept and second on Frank's poem.
I also nominate Idleness by Bob

Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#4 Post by Kenneth2816 » 02 Aug 2021, 14:33

Frank and Bob need to accept/decline

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#5 Post by BobBradshaw » 02 Aug 2021, 20:30

Thanks, Ken, for the nom. I accept.

Bob Bradshaw
email: bobbybradshw@yahoo.com
This is my original, unpublished poem. I am not representing at another forum.

Idleness, a Month into Retirement

For twenty five years everyone
complained that I was as lazy

as a sodden log. Finally the skills
of idleness that came naturally

are recognized for what
they always were:

a way to savor life. No one
criticizes the starling for singing,

when he could be working. So,
why should I turn my attention away

from that honey locust,
a yellow light washing through it?

The flowers aren't competing
to outdo each other. The poppy,

the delphinium, the tickweed
lift their faces to the same sun

as I do. We wait, and the world
comes to us.

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#6 Post by FranktheFrank » 03 Aug 2021, 01:51

Honoured to accept.

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#7 Post by FranktheFrank » 03 Aug 2021, 20:57

Not sure of the rules any more.
Nominated, accepted, when do I post if I am to post.
Well, here is the poem if it is to be chosen to represent the block.

This is my own poem.
ieuan ap Hywel
Ieuanaphywel@aol.com
I am not representing any other board but The Writer's Block.net
It has never been published.


Time Portal at Fenchurch St. Station

An autumn drizzle dampens
the station entrance
A ticket inspector
in silver buttons nods
me through the barrier

My first half-day free
of dead-reckoning in five weeks
I buy a return ticket to Chalk Farm
underground station
The long haul up Primrose Hill
Umbrellaed commuters stare
at my swagger
Heavy steps an’ little uns
Heavy steps and skipped ones

The cleaner answers my knock
She’s at Les Marécottes
A week in the Valais Valley
with her class

Pity, Julie loved to watch the antics
at the monkey house
Later, we’d chill listening
to the Beatles, down
a bottle of airén from a case
liberated by her father
at Córdoba in '36

Belay that outing
I've missed her, and that is that

A 2T engine blows superheated
steam from a water trap
Warm condensate envelops
me in a grey mist
I trot through
A hidden voice speaks through the fog
‘Plenty of time, Sir.’

The Tannoy bursts into life
A woman’s wooden voice annunciates
‘The train on platform four
is the 12:24 for Tilbury . . .’
her plummy accent reverberates
among the roof spaces

A courting couple squirm
on a bench
A bare thigh lifts
to pull my eye
A porter winks,
‘Young love hey, Sir’
"Yes, indeed."
I buy a paper at W. H. Smith’s

I ruminate on what could have been
Julie’s play-acting wearing my uniform
The scrambled egg on my cap
did something for her

A pigeon squawks underfoot
The train puffs, chugs and puffs out
of the station. Rat-a-tat-tat
rat-a-tat-tat.
The smell of coke hanging
on the engine's chuff
Rat-a-tat-tat
The rhythm changes over the points
te-te-dum, te-te-dum
nothing to be done

Down the embankment
a housewife happily beats
the life out of a carpet
A horse tosses
it’s feedbag for the last oats
Workmen congregate like rodents
The shriek of a factory hooter.

I lean back into an antimacassar
Five weeks to Woolloomooloo
Summer in the Antipodes
Helen's tanned torso
at Rushcutter Bay
scrumptious in her red silken
polka-dot bikini.

*****
p.s. I've taken Bob's advice and shortened a bit with the modifiers
Open to comments on the title.

Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#8 Post by Kenneth2816 » 03 Aug 2021, 21:44

Hospice

Show me how it all ends with
match-stick sailors in paper
boats on an origami sea.

Christ tamed a tempest
and danced upon the waves.
It is not the deep I fear.

It's pissing myself at 4 AM,
clicking the morphine button
and coming up empty, watching

them take my toes, one-by-one.
I want to believe in miracles.
I want a fat- bottomed nurse

who calls me Sugar makes
a sign of the cross on the
keel of my brow, tells me

"No more water. Ice chips.
Float with me now, Sugar.
Ain't got time for this."

Original unpublished poem. I'm not representing another forum ashworthken@yahoo.com

Michael (MV)
Posts: 2154
Joined: 18 Apr 2005, 04:57

Update 8/4 re Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#9 Post by Michael (MV) » 05 Aug 2021, 08:18

Although I have been preoccupied,
I have been reading, just not time for the usual workshopping.

1/ Yes, Ken's hospice poem is going forward.
Thanks, Ken for accepting.

2/ Bob, I don't find a 2nd on Idleness. Since Idleness has only have one nomination anyway, I invite you to consider if you might prefer Loon or Desire - award-winning poet's choice.

^^ That is: instead of 2nding a poem, I am 2nding that Bob represent with one of the 3 forementioned poems.

Bob, if you chose other than Idleness, then replace it with either Loon or Desire by the 6th; otherwise, I'll forward Idleness.

3/ Frank, Yes, I find your train poem has been 2nd. I can't honestly 3rd it, because Billy has a couple of poems I read as & believe to be IBPC contenders. But until now, there has not been even a mention of a Billy poem this time (maybe he's has other plans?)

However, since Frank's Fenchurch has a 2nd, it is our 3rd going forward to represent the Writer's Block in the August IBPC.

Frank, under the circumstances, I am mentioning here what I haven't had opportunity to share in the workshop forum:

1/ I don't see the need for the epigraph. It doesn't warrant the space it occupies. Not worth the way through.

2/

Frank, these suggestions are not conditional. If you might elect to make change #1 or #2 or both, please do so by the 6th.

Frank, Thank you for accepting to represent.

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#10 Post by FranktheFrank » 05 Aug 2021, 13:49

Okay, epigraph ditched. Thanks so much for input Michael.

Kenneth2816
Posts: 1619
Joined: 01 Jun 2008, 09:17

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#11 Post by Kenneth2816 » 05 Aug 2021, 16:31

Billy has been nominated elsewhere

Michael (MV)
Posts: 2154
Joined: 18 Apr 2005, 04:57

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#12 Post by Michael (MV) » 06 Aug 2021, 10:54

Thanks Ken for that info.

As I mention above: "maybe he's has other plans"

Michael (MV)
Kenneth2816 wrote:
05 Aug 2021, 16:31
Billy has been nominated elsewhere

Michael (MV)
Posts: 2154
Joined: 18 Apr 2005, 04:57

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#13 Post by Michael (MV) » 06 Aug 2021, 11:24

Hi Frank,

Please notice in my earlier there is a workshop suggestion #2, but there is nothing there because I became too drowsy to focus as I passed out. It wasn't until today that I realized the incompleteness.

Here's the 2nd workshop-share:

Please consider without "Dickensian gloom"
looming at large, standing in the first door of the poem.

Frank, as I said before "these suggestions are not conditional."

There is still time today, if you might choose to cut the poem loose from that literary allusion, yielding this opening:

An autumn drizzle dampens
the station entrance
A ticket inspector
in silver buttons nods
me through the barrier

😎

Michael (MV)

FranktheFrank wrote:
05 Aug 2021, 13:49
Okay, epigraph ditched. Thanks so much for input Michael.

FranktheFrank
Posts: 1983
Joined: 02 Mar 2016, 18:07
Location: Between the mountains and the sea

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#14 Post by FranktheFrank » 06 Aug 2021, 11:50

I had wondered about that missing suggestion, Michael.
I scratched my head and moved on.
You are the second person to dislike that literary allusion
so it has to go, even though I don't see why. It was
a very old station and Dickensian seemed to suit it somehow.
I will remove post haste.
Thank you so much for your input.

*****
Time Portal at Fenchurch St. Station

An autumn drizzle dampens
the station entrance
A ticket inspector
in silver buttons nods
me through the barrier

My first half-day free
of dead-reckoning in five weeks
I buy a return ticket to Chalk Farm
underground station
The long haul up Primrose Hill
Umbrellaed commuters stare
at my swagger
Heavy steps an’ little uns
Heavy steps and skipped ones

The cleaner answers my knock
She’s at Les Marécottes
A week in the Valais Valley
with her class

Pity, Julie loved to watch the antics
at the monkey house
Later, we’d chill listening
to the Beatles, down
a bottle of airén from a case
liberated by her father
at Córdoba in '36

Belay that outing
I've missed her, and that is that

A 2T engine blows superheated
steam from a water trap
Warm condensate envelops
me in a grey mist
I trot through
A hidden voice speaks through the fog
‘Plenty of time, Sir.’

The Tannoy bursts into life
A woman’s wooden voice annunciates
‘The train on platform four
is the 12:24 for Tilbury . . .’
her plummy accent reverberates
among the roof spaces

A courting couple squirm
on a bench
A bare thigh lifts
to pull my eye
A porter winks,
‘Young love hey, Sir’
"Yes, indeed."
I buy a paper at W. H. Smith’s

I ruminate on what could have been
Julie’s play-acting wearing my uniform
The scrambled egg on my cap
did something for her

A pigeon squawks underfoot
The train puffs, chugs and puffs out
of the station. Rat-a-tat-tat
rat-a-tat-tat.
The smell of coke hanging
on the engine's chuff
Rat-a-tat-tat
The rhythm changes over the points
te-te-dum, te-te-dum
nothing to be done

Down the embankment
a housewife happily beats
the life out of a carpet
A horse tosses
it’s feedbag for the last oats
Workmen congregate like rodents
The shriek of a factory hooter.

I lean back into an antimacassar
Five weeks to Woolloomooloo
Summer in the Antipodes
Helen's tanned torso
at Rushcutter Bay
scrumptious in her red silken
polka-dot bikini.

BobBradshaw
Posts: 2683
Joined: 03 Jun 2016, 21:03

Re: Upcoming August IBPC 2021:

#15 Post by BobBradshaw » 06 Aug 2021, 19:48

Thank you, Michael. Then if you haven't already forwarded the nominations, I'll go with Desire.

Desire

Walking through this park
seeing lovers on a bench
I’m like a taxi driver at a stop light,
smiling approvingly in his rear view mirror
at the couple entwined in a long kiss.

Desire. It sleeps more and more
like an aging cat. Still the urge
to fall in love again is there.

I look for carnations
and forget-me-nots
to bring home to my wife,
who will slice diagonally their stems,

their floating scents recalling
old memories when we drifted
against each other, our eyes
shining like creek water.

Michael (MV)
Posts: 2154
Joined: 18 Apr 2005, 04:57

The 3 were forwarded last week

#16 Post by Michael (MV) » 12 Aug 2021, 15:11

including Bob's Desire

Good luck, Frank, Kenneth, and Bob

😎

Michael (MV)

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