Re: a comment on Dirge by Nicholas Jones	16-Jun-03/1:31 AM
Something like that. It's about transcendence. See if you can spot the intertextual references.
Re: a comment on Dirge by Nicholas Jones	16-Jun-03/1:25 AM
I think I agree, I'm not really happy with the ending. In fact the whole thing is a work in progress. The best line is the first one, and I borrowed that from Gerard Manley Hopkins. It came into my head, and I thought I'd written it, but then I remembered it came from somewhere else. But then I used it anyway; it seemed to make sense.
Re: a comment on Library and Information Centre by Nicholas Jones	26-May-03/8:11 AM
I'm well aware of this part of the body. I've just bought a new bicycle saddle designed to stop compression of perineal tissue and instead distribute weight onto the pelvic bones.
Re: a comment on Mountain Ash, Mid Glamorgan by Nicholas Jones	23-May-03/6:01 AM
That's not actually what a slagheap is. Rather, it's a pile of all the rock and waste dug out of a coalmine; everything that's isn't coal and so isn't useful. But, you knew that already and were just joshing me in your wicked way.
Re: a comment on War Begins on Tuesday by Nicholas Jones	16-May-03/3:33 AM
Problem is, I was wrong. The war didn't begin on a Tuesday. It was a Friday in the end, I think.
Re: a comment on Cussedness by Nicholas Jones	14-May-03/7:26 AM
I'm glad I made you chuckle. A good chuckle is a beautiful thing.
Re: a comment on Homecomings by Nicholas Jones	14-May-03/7:23 AM
Hello again Mr. Christof. Yes, much of this poem is a bit rubbish. It needs a lot and more work, and should be about a quarter the length. Still, it was worth a try.
Re: a comment on News Values (some time last November) by Nicholas Jones	6-May-03/7:50 AM
Something freaky happened there, and cut a bit off my message. The poem goes: Sing for Wales or shut your trap All the rest's a load crap. Which is pretty succinct. No, I'm not Dr. Thomas Jones. But there was a Dr. Thomas Jones who inspired the following short poem: Where now he lies his own routine Will suffer scant disruption For none could say he'd ever been A stranger to corruption.
Re: a comment on News Values (some time last November) by Nicholas Jones	6-May-03/6:55 AM
Harri Webb wasn't actually a terrorist, he just designed the symbol. But he did write the mighty 'Advice to a Young Poet' which goes
Re: a comment on News Values (some time last November) by Nicholas Jones	6-May-03/6:46 AM
Yes, of course the bathos is the point. The end is meant to be laughably mundane. But perhaps I could express it better. But the point is, it does fucking matter that Princess Diana's ex-butler gets more coverage than, say, 966 people being massacred in the Congo last month. By the way, my PhD is on a poet called Harri Webb who was a hardcore Welsh Nationalist, and designed the symbol used by the Free Wales Army, one of the least competent terrorist groups in history.
Re: a comment on News Values (some time last November) by Nicholas Jones	6-May-03/6:15 AM
Thank you for your kind comment. I agree, the ending in retrospect is a bit weak. I came up with lots of different lines, but none of them quite worked - it has to convey the information and also fit the sonnet structure.
Re: Somme (A Horror Of War) by Mr Pig	3-Apr-03/2:26 AM
Hmmm. By the way, my comments aren't all that rare. I only commnent on things I like, rather than slagging people off.
Re: a comment on War Begins on Tuesday by Nicholas Jones	11-Mar-03/7:25 AM
Didn't work for Vietnam, though, did it? The people can stop an unpopular war. Why do you think Harold Wilson, despite repeated US pressure, never committed a single British troop to 'Nam? Gulf War One was about liberating a conquered country. Gulf War Two will be about reshaping the middle east in a way that suits the west. I think people are more aware than you give them credit for.
Re: a comment on War Begins on Tuesday by Nicholas Jones	10-Mar-03/8:49 AM
Actually, it's not going to be Tuesday anymore. The UN vote could now be Friday, and then as soon as the resolution is vetoed by three separate countries (France, Russia, China), Bush will begin raining fiery death all over the middle east.
Re: a comment on Cussedness by Nicholas Jones	10-Mar-03/8:47 AM
I agree with you. I used to hate them, but now I write them all the time because I can knock them off in two minutes. Just for you, here's a bumper crop of anti-war haikus:I have never been Bombed, but I don?t think I would Send thanks to the pilot. A liberation? Kind regards for killing my Brothers and sisters. Hiroshima: then Weapons of mass destruction Were Truman?s baby I stood in a crowd Protesting by a castle - Some of us were right. Iraqi summer Melts the UK issue boots ? But souls can burn too. Go, Clare ?Bomber? Short, Resign from Tony?s polished Cabinet of War Fourteen forty one ignored ? forget inspections, Launch B52s.
Re: a comment on Cussedness by Nicholas Jones	10-Mar-03/8:44 AM
This is dedicated to the great Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm, who joined the communist after the invasion of Hungary in 1956, just as everybody else was resigning. Fact.
Re: On Wanting to Know The Truth by dougsoderstrom	8-Mar-03/7:13 AM
This is excellent (although it isn't technically a haiku). We can only determine truth from within, but these means all truth is personal and subjective and so therefore not really truth.
Re: An Anthem for Peace by dougsoderstrom	8-Mar-03/7:09 AM
There may only be a few days left before it begins. These things need to be said. But poetically this isn't one of your best.
Re: Unholy War by marvelis	8-Mar-03/7:06 AM
The sentiment is excellent. War begins on Tuesday, so they say. It will be the most ironic war in history if America defies the UN to attack Iraq precisely because it is itself in breach of numerous UN resolutions. Regrettably, your versification isn't as impeccable as your politics.
Re: a comment on The Guardian, page nineteen by Nicholas Jones	5-Mar-03/7:05 AM
I missed a word out typing it in - I apologise for disrespecting the Japanese nation in this manner.