The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

I'm happy you both found something to like in this poem.

Dave, what a magnificent idea! Definitely going to try it out.

Colm, thanks for letting me know the flow is off on that line.

Jackie

(to my mother-in-law)   “Me take lunch? I’d rather teach!” I’d say. So always Friday after school I knew you'd keep a plate for me. Of course it would  be greens and rice, your favorite, kept aside. You'd mock yourself: “It’s just the same old stuff spiced up today; in fact, most days this week.” S...

Thanks so much Linda, Phil and T, for taking the time to look at this poem, and T, what magnificent nesting egrets! The egrets we're familiar with here, though, ( Bubulcus ibis ) while also white are not prone to startling movements—they follow grazing livestock and ride their backs picking off inse...

Thanks, T, and Linda, I'll bring along all the female perspective I can muster.

Jackie

Thanks, Tracy and Phil, for your greetings! 

As poets we all work with language as much as any ESL teacher—today I learned cairn and tarn and sheiling from Phil. 

Happy to be here,
Jackie

Matty, I'm entirely drawn into this mystical narrative; I'd love to hear you read it aloud! Your word choice is so alive—as Dave mentioned, blister(s), broods. I especially liked the images of "no signpost but this cairn—a mocking finger" and "The stone I grasp listens, waits and weighs my purpose."...

White starched shirts  preen like egrets in branches  aloft from the fray.  In the 35 degree sun,  gray-shorts-clad boys scramble  dust-covered, cheering,  after the sweaty ball. At the bell dust swirls desist.  Players claim their shirts and launch departure taunts into the still air.  They hover ...

Greetings to all! I look forward to participating both in discussing and writing poems for this board. I live on two continents and teach English to speakers of other languages; you may sense that in my posts.