Category Archives: Poetry

NOT UNDERSTANDING

“I hold it true, whate’er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
‘Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.”

Tennyson

I’m not quite convinced Alfred was right, and more especially think that a blog is often a bit like talking to yourself, but it certainly unites all in the sometimes happy, more often sorrowful human condition. Perhaps there should be a Dislike key here too, though, now we’re all forced to turn to ratings pursuits, and Push Button Democracy. As for publishing damsels, over here, this poetic heart certainly loved and lost, but wasn’t that enough, and why did said party just stand around and watch an entire writing career being taken apart too? Is it because everyone in New York is so rigid in their bizarre fears, and levels of aggressive Ego Consciousness, they believe not in the great stories, only in bad episodes of Prison Break, and the violent defence of their ‘rights’? I admit, in the Christian suffering stakes, a writer approaching the question of real good and evil in a book might have touched a sacrificial core, but what is it people really believe in? I think I prefer a quote from Kipling, unfashionable priest of Mowgli, animals and empire, but fine storyteller, to add to the poetic Sweatshop of the Soul:

“Oh, the years we waste and the tears we waste,
And the work of our head and hand
Belong to the woman who did not know
(And now we know that she never could know)
And did not understand!”

DCD

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PHOENIX QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” Goethe

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YOUNG POETS COMPETITION

YOUNG POETS COMPETITION.

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PHOENIX ARK ‘YOUNG POETS COMPETITION’

PHOENIX ARK ‘YOUNG POETS COMPETITION’.

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Being Uncool and Writing Sonnets!

It’s probably labelled ‘uncool’ nowadays, but today Phoenix’s MD publishes a Shakespearean-style sonnet, in the Poet’s Sweatshop. Click

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PHOENIX ARK ‘YOUNG POETS COMPETITION’

ANNOUNCING THE 1ST PHOENIX ARK YOUNG POET’S COMPETITION

Yesterday saw the launch of a new poetry competition. The age range is 13 to 17, for original poetry on the subject of ‘Man and Nature’, with the general theme of expressing thoughts and feelings about Humanity, and the challenges of the modern world. Entries should be accompanied by your Full Name, Age, and Contact Mailing Address, preferably a School Address. The idea came out of a worrying chance comment on a British TV programme by a highly intelligent boy, which suggested how frightened or depressed he and many young people can be about growing up in today’s world, with all the weight and guilt of adult and media concerns about pollution, the environment, and Global Warming. Though we must be aware of our world, that’s a worrying trend in itself, because it seemed to block his own joy and confidence in being alive. Or maybe worrying is the wrong word, if it’s true of many younger people and is naturally expressed in their art. Don’t be dictated by a title too much though, because great poetry can be serious, funny, didactic, or anything you like. The key is using ‘Man and Nature’ as a guide to fire your imaginations, find ‘the right words, in the right order’ and your own original, poetic voice. We want to see your feeling for nature, and your thoughts on Mankind. The winner and runner up will be published online, here, in The Poets Sweatshop, with a chance for formal publication in any future anthology, though that is yet to be decided. They will also receive signed copies of one of the founder’s novels, and a Phoenix Ark personal letter of commendation. School classes are very welcome to contribute in groups and entries must be submitted direct to the blog, by the closing date of December 22nd 2010. The publisher regrets that no direct correspondence can be entered into regarding submitted work, and the decision of the judges is final. The authors retain full copyright in their material.

First published September 28th 2010

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Sherlock Holmes?

We owe an apology for not publishing a poem about Sherlock Holmes in Horrid Heroes and Crazy Crooks, but the author left it on a table in Scotland and hasn’t got it back yet!

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Filed under Childrens Books, Poetry

Whitman in The Poet’s Sweatshop

A friend, Dinah, suggested something beautiful from that most all encompassing of American poets, and since this is about reader’s voices too, it has found a welcome place in The Poet’s Sweatshop. Many thanks and click

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Poets and Polar Bears

Now we’re getting a little weirded out because, republishing a poem by George Herbert today, in The Poet’s Sweatshop, to praise the genius of the Metaphysical Poets, we looked him up on Wikipedia, to discover not only was he Welsh, and went to Westminster School, but he was also Member of Parliament for Montgomeryshire. So what, we’re all linked, as we travel in the world with two languages, side by side, brilliant science, and brilliant ‘spirit’. It may be for particular tastes, but it’s beautiful, a gift to life, and we’re convinced it’s from here the triumphant Phillip Pullman borrowed his idea for ‘Dust’ in Northern Lights, also a land of wounded then femininely rearmed Polar Bears, courtesy of Lyra’s brave heart and silver tongue. You can also read it

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Every day, apples fall onto heads…

Today Phoenix Ark Press publish a new poem in The Poet’s Sweatshop – Letter to A Queen, by Santiago Elordi. It is addressed directly to Queen Elizabeth herself, and we think he should win a prize alone for the line ‘Every day, apples fall onto heads, but nothing occurs to anyone’! Santiago is a prize-winning Chilean novelist, and recently appointed Chilean Cultural attaché to Rome. If its greatest theme is the pointlessness of poetry, in today’s world, or its vanishing voice, perhaps he is wrong, because, filled with the melancholia of cultural mis-translations, and the longing of strangers abroad, it slow-burns with a poet’s incandescent anguish for the turning world and vanishing civilisations, or even just a new voice for ‘the Poets of Nothing’. Click

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