The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

I enjoyed this very much, Colm. I like, as Phil said, that it doesn’t railroad thoughts at me, and I think having known funerals brings it home. A few comments: Gulp and gorge seem a bit repetitive   instead of gulping most of it  in surreal gorges Would “instead of consuming it in surreal gorges” ...

self-painted but the paint not dry, malleable as snow I’d run my fingers through the colours and watch them run this way and that  Your poem starts magically and I absolutely love this section. I'm less keen on what follows. Bringing cleaner-upper Mother into it kind of rubs me the wrong way althou...

Hi Linda, I wrote this draft in literal response to a photo I took that surprised me, but as I went on it became harder to stick to the literal because social issues came up that affected my word choice. For example, I have been frustrated for so long that the easiest way to build school library col...

Thanks, Trev, you've given me a lot to think about. I'll work on this after COVID's passed.

Hi Phil, The words roll off my tongue deliciously as I read this—I enjoy the rhythm of the first two lines and the sounds of L 5-8.  I had to look up "knot garden" and find they often used herbs, to connect the themes of aroma and deceit. Knot garden took me to traditional Welsh weaving, which I lea...

all the roads are closed

That could sound like a normal Michigan snow dump day to me...

Phil, With your Big Picture in mind (of Climate Change) I’m seeing the word puzzling as N wondering at his own behavior—what his instinct made him do. I had assumed on the first read that the songbirds were quiet because of the night, but thinking Climate Change, it’s the unexpected wintry weather?...

Colm, I hear you saying that the criterion was happiness. I wonder if during (presumably) all those years of thinking you, or N, kept that in mind. Later you say that what comes after is no longer your concern. Did that replace happiness as the criterion?  In what way, exactly, has deep thinking fai...

The ending, I read a reluctance to relinquish, and the act of storing the books darkens her...it's like a burial. I do like this, Colm. I wonder what conveys it for you? You both credit me with more philosophy than I deserve but somehow it's the emotional truth. I love discovering things from you a...

Phil, thank you for the poem you've written in response to my poem! So glad we're speaking the same language.

Jackie