Just good poetry...

When on earth was the last time that Villa played Coventry in any meaningful competition?

Do I smell rancor on the ranker? I know it’s poemranker, not poetranker, but it’s hard to be objective on this one. First the easy stuff: why the “>” and the double space before “Jesus”? Then the logical stuff, like how can cataracts be silver and gold? And the grammar stuff like, “Israeli,” “Palestinian” and “Texan.” But what intrigues me about this is the prayer of David, a man after God’s own heart, who said, “Strike all my enemies in the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.” It’s taken a long time, maybe, and the answer isn’t as expected, and it makes it look a whole lot like something else, but who knows the ways of God. Anyway, you’ve well expressed an angst.

This is SO good, the voters should do this justice. It's fantastic.

This is quite possibly the best thing you've written. Stanza 5 made me fall off my chair laughing. Maybe 'tracksuit' would be more accurate as 'shellsuit'? You know, a lack of McDonald's nearby means that the gathering place for chavvage is the bench outside 7-11, or, latterly, the bike racks outside Tesco. A most shining nine -bow'ls-

First 3 stanzas are excellent.

It was reported that "Angola became the top source of crude imports to oil-hungry China last month, replacing Saudi Arabia as its main supplier" This is why GWB considers Iraq a success. The weapons of mass distruction are in China and Saudi Arabia is a main supplier of oil to them. Just in case you were wondering why we're really in the middle east.

Are you a poetry junkie?

ding dong old chap

My son Edgar Von Smythe the third has recently been dating a girl called Chelsea whom I suspect is 'Chavesque'. She has a potty mouth and last week I was about to enter his bedroom till he shouted 'Father do not come in, Chelsea is going down on me' I had a feeling she was depressed and made her some earl grey but the ungrateful girl at least was being comforted by Edgar. Edgar is my only child from my first wife Lai-Longtime from Thailand. Nice poem it reeled me in my boy.

Oooh--a new term! They didn't cover this in any of the Sophie Kinsella books I've read (I have appalling taste in 'literature,' and almost everything I know about British pop culture comes from terrible Brit-chick-lit novels). I've identified a few Chavs here at work, even (although the hip-hop wannabe element is lacking, so I guess they're not true Chavs). Wikipedia has way too much documentation on the phenomenon (all of which you've nailed): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav

So many images going on here! The first line leads us to God, the king, in a red mantle. The next three lines show the observer’s disgust with God, or with literature that falls as waste, or both. Verse 2 continues the diatribe or disgust. Verse 4 gets back to the “portrait” in the title, continuing the downward description. The last verse is the most intriguing, an interesting view of it.

Funny! Funny!

The first two verses are funny and lead me to want these "words" you speak of, and which the title is so elusive about. And though the following verses are funny, they fail to deliver what seems an incredibly possible punch.

Where the devil have you been all my life? -bow'ls-

Total over-punctuated bollocks.

from Mac, Enk, and D. to you, Edna, this comes with love.

Not bad, the last verse could be a little stronger, but i like the idea a lot.

I like this, especially the repetition of phrases in the indented lines and the intriguing ending. But the lie gets lost in here somewhere after a good beginning.

I'm not quite sure what I feel about this poem. It's not a bad poem, but it feels...empty, somehow. I think it's due to a lack of scenery (I crave the images) and a bit of triteness (eyes, broken road etc.) Even so, I'd say that with a certain amount of building upon, this will be a perfectly decent poem.