This is Love? By Phil Pretheroe

Good life, nice life, smiles, a justifyingly uplifting, guilt free swagger. No care in the world, happiness, and content... Memories forever, moments never end. This is love. Bad times, dark times, misery, and soul destroying, heart tearing, life crushing sadness, jealousy, and bitterness ... Memories forever, moments never end. This is love.

Copyright ©2009  Phil Pretheroe

Poetry - Fun and Games By Mike Watts

1:07 am I'm battling the shits And an agony so intense I feel as though rats Are tearing their way Out of me I double over and clutch My shins Read more...

Poetry - Posh Girl By Jim Higo

Your faux civility knows no bounds, You smile at me like a Thai waitress, and for a second you almost persuade me that you are genuinely interested in what I'm saying. But then you nod when you shouldn't and I know you don't care; your mind is elsewhere, like when intelligent people are forced to sit through soap operas. Read more...

Poetry - Arts and Culture in Hull By Joe Hakim

it's about who your friends are and the circles you move in it's about the boxes you tick and the forms you fill out it's about being the same as everyone else and crushing individuality it's about appealing to the Read more...

Poetry - Metal Box By Dean Wilson

	Meet me in the long grass by what's left of the factory where our mothers worked and I will count the freckles on your back. Read more...

Poetry - Garbage By Terry Ireland

There was a memorial in the Cathedral Then one father took a stand, Refusing to grasp and shake The ex leaders bloodied hand. He was dragged up by his boot straps, on an inner city sink estate, from a family full of love, lived in a street full of hate. And he joined the British army Read more...

Poetry - Boxing The Compass By Carol Coiffait

You can stay in one place only long enough to find your way to the chip-shop, the bus-stop and back home Or longer to make a net Read more...

Poetry - Cider Barry By Mike Watts

My mate's a boozer Always smashed on cider Always lost in space Wind milling All over the place And it troubles me It's horrible Watching him drown In fermented apple Read more...

Poetry - Brough Haven By Carol Coiffait

Here, where they say the Romans crossed, the river is raw; a mangy dog chewing at its flank. Great gobs of grass and mud, slewing and shouldered, field by sly field off the northern bank. All that is left for the beleaguered sheep and lambs Read more...

Poetry - Ode to Sir John By Mark Walmsley
	A warm summer noon, for a game of bowls Lily white dresses on court, Fine cut grass with honeysuckle perfume A surely cocked boater Gin fizz and water Willow hooked seamer, red leather to be caught. Clattering carts, over cobbled cascade Read more...

Poetry - My Poem From 1979 By Ruth

I never wanted to paint by the numbers, and always had to do it myself - my way. When was it that I traded my blueprint canvas for a tabula rasa? Too long ago; can't remember. All around me, my peers going through someone else's predictated motions. Dancing: With painted footsteps Singing: With someone else's words Read more...

Poetry - A Right Kettle to Fix By Patrick Henry
	Protest at street demos, taken as free right, Frames you on mad fringes in duffle coats. Cordons of order close in the nation's thought, That terror looms more than fresh climates we need. Cops numberless strike, then hide in shadows. A newsvendor is hit by no sheer chance, But a target for their control at points of info. Read more...

Poetry - If Only You Knew By Joe Hakim

Put the tips of your fingers into my mouth while I trace the outline of your thigh. I could crawl into you, you could bury me - make me forget to set the alarm. I want to watch your throat as you Read more...

Poetry - Balloon Boy Saga By Belinda Barchard
	'Just go and hide in the attic' he said as he talked to his child on the end of the bed 'but why Daddy, do I have to hide?' his son of six questioned as he sat by his side 'Because you have to pretend that you're in my homemade balloon ... when it flies through the sky to your 'impending doom' 'But why do we have to pretend that it's me?' His Dad smiled 'because we'll be on TV!' Read more...

Poetry - Hyde and Seek By Bronwyn Ellis
	By the light of the day he is merely a shadow, A dark faceless echo pursuing my steps, He stalks through the mirrors to haunt my reflection, A secretive burden too long I have kept. A phantom of sins which denied my suppression, Laid dormant for years in the wells of my brain, But curious Henry with notions and potions, Awakened the slumbering evils again.Read more...

Poetry - Post Cod War Blues Part 2 - A Mouthful of Ashes By Terry Ireland

Blood money isn't paid in silver these days, just transferred straight to your account with a sheet of computerised data to inform you their agreed amount. Now I'm standing over the fish sheds to my front are near empty docks behind, the steady running Humber, to the left the gates and locks.Read more...

Poetry Larkin 25 - Returning to Paragon, St. Stephens By Julie Corbett

The harvest of sniper seeds Loaded to crevice and gutter Lesser yellowed urban bouquets Chlorophyll stems Renewing old lines and visions Seasonal planning of the green space Many striations and stipples Read more...

Poetry - Getting to Know Each Other By Jim Higo

We sat on the sofa and she stared deep into my eyes; pleading, searching, demanding, with a probing glare that looked for answers from deep within my soul, like a rape victim meeting her attacker (I should point out that that is purely a fictitious metaphor). She said, 'Tell me what it is. Read more...