Don’t Speak

I’ve got nobody to talk to.
Nobody to say, how you feel?
Nobody to say, you ok?
Nobody. You can’t talk.
I can only talk to you.
And you’re no frigging good, cos you can’t talk back.

It’s been really funny, cos in the stillness I’ve felt
you know
my goodness, you know,
this is me. It’s just
it’s just me now. I feel kinda stripped bare.
I can’t
the only way I can describe it is I feel
tetchy. I feel
every time it gets really quiet I think
I’m out of control.

With all the stillness
I really can look at myself.
I don’t know whether you can
whether that’s ever happened to you
where you’ve actually looked in the mirror and
you can kind of see past the eyes. And it’s like
meeting a new person.

Right now, right this minute
this is the loneliest I’ve felt since I was
was at the children’s home.

From the BBC’s The Big Silence, first broadcast 22 October 2010. By Marika Rose.

Cars parked on the pavement

Cars parked on the pavement in Benchill
1 minute ago

Theft of cash from a garage in Salford
1 minute ago

Theft from a car in Bolton
2 minutes ago

Fail to stop collision, two cars, damage only, no injuries, Salford
2 minutes ago

Abandoned car in south Manchester
2 minutes ago

Neighbour dispute in Wigan
2 minutes ago

Harassment by ex-partner in Stockport
2 minutes ago

Neighbour dispute in Rochdale
2 minutes ago

Report of man asleep in toilets in theatre when asked he left
3 minutes ago

Domestic issue in Oldham
3 minutes ago

Antisocial behaviour – youths throwing things at cars in Bolton
3 minutes ago

Report of abandoned animal in Salford
3 minutes ago

Customer refusing to leave shop, Bolton
3 minutes ago

Information regarding an annoying letter
4 minutes ago

From the Greater Manchester Police twitter feed, publishing every event it dealt with over a 24-hour period ending 15 October 2010. Submitted by Nick Asbury.

Not The Tiger

Begin by not thinking about a jungle
at dusk, then don’t think about a bush
rustling behind you though there is no wind.
Then don’t imagine turning too late, your
helpless shriek cut short by the rushing
onslaught of a powerful stripy carnivore
hurtling at you, its jaws agape. There
are about 3,000 tigers in the wild,
so if you follow this procedure once
every day in a little over 8 years
you’ll have not thought about all of them.

From Smoothies of Good and Evil, and Unconsidered Tigers, 31 October 2010. Submitted by Marika Rose.

Turn of the Century

Jim Higginson, Jeff Pullinger,
New tweet traffic, John Whittaker.
Jo_Bell, scribble mill,
J Willmoth, Stoo Gill,
Woodward (MW), Steph Walker.

M Suryadarma, Seymikins, Jason Davies,
Alastair Cook, Evans_above, Philosophicles;
Ani Dhorchaidhe, johan vdm_tweets, Bruntonspall,
Kiwi_j, Holmes Annie, Phil Harford, man birth control.

Saxicola, Elspeth Murray, Ambit magazine,
Ally Maughan, chris_emslie, TJ Cashman, Dex Brady;
Firebird Poetry, Phill_dolby, Alasdair North,
Stuart Durber, DK Scully, CA Whitworth.

Rocky
Rutherford, Dreich
Randall Snare, Marika
Rose, Mary Rose Lloyd, Rich Oster
robot

prior
Paul poetry
Perly gates, Joanna
Paterson, Parkers web, Qban
poet

Liz Plane
Lump in the throat
Len Bogorad, Alfrot
Lucie Shuker, Lisa Ansell
Leithing

Crafty green poet HaikuGirl_, handful of stones Adarro,
Elly green poetry ed snow, Beta Rish Ajodasso.
F green Amy Plenderleith, Bertielicious Jaduperreault.

Emily Hewson Daniel J John, Geoff De Geoff Geoff Stevenson,
Toyedi Shrewmaus N Schonken, Glendronach Ben Hodson.
Caroline crew Tolte C John, Scotbower Vicky Osullivan.

Kaslis_1, Pete Marshall 1
J Flamingo 2, Ninja Grrlz 6

Minute story:

Poetry found one night:
stanzas the poetry editor read.
Write, cook, by leaves we live, design tides,
graft poetry, write 0ut loud, muse…
Hunter, weaponizer, moondust writer,
idyllic poet, mark burdz eye view.

Anon, poetry.

Mknight.

The twitter handles of @verbatimpoem’s first 100 followers. Among the stanzas there are firsts on Verbatim for some poetic forms: the limerick, the Korean sijo and the Crapsey cinquain.

Grey on red

They didn’t want to come here.
They didn’t swim the Atlantic.
They were brought in, probably reluctantly,
by British gentlemen who thought they’d look cute
in their estate grounds, gardens and deer parks.

Is it their fault the smaller reds took one look,
turned tail, and fled somewhere safer?
Grey squirrels do not physically attack
red squirrels. They don’t even chase them.
They might frighten them a bit, who knows.

Bill Oddie, accompanying the BBC News article Black squirrels’ slow scamper to dominate.

On Utility

Philosophy is not
meant to be practical.
It is not meant
to have a use.

It does not exist to
make us more productive
girls and boys. It is a
diet of words to feed
our soul by way of
stimulating our mind.

It is not a roast-beef
sandwich, but more the
substance of an
ethereal longing.

Taken from a Lost in Technopolis post 13 May 2009. By Marika Rose.

Les Americains in Paris

N’avez-vous pas des griddle-cakes?
Quelle espèce de dump is this, anyhow?
Appelez-vous cela coffee?

Où est le N.Y. Times?


What’s the matter?
Don’t you understand English?


De tous les pays godams que j’ai vu.

Je n’ai pas vu une belle femme jusqu’à présent.
Ici est où nous used to come
quand j’étais ici pendant la guerre.


Say, ceci est de la bière vrai!

O boy! Deux semaines from tomorrow
nous sail for home. Sogleich wir zu hause sind,
geh ich zum Childs und eine tasse kaffee
und ein glass eiswasser kaufen.

Phrases most in demand by American visitors to Paris.

Fool’s Parsley

A sonnet

Hedge mustard, hairy tare, mouse-ear-hawkweed,
Long-headed poppy, evening primrose, pale
persicaria, volunteer oilseed
rape, common toadflax, flixweed, field horsetail.
Corn spurrey, coltsfoot, creeping soft-grass, cock’s-
foot, common ragwort, cleavers, cut-leaved crane’s-
bill, bracken, bramble, black-grass, broad-leaved dock,
black nightshade, dove, Canadian fleabane.
Procumbent pearlwort, prickly lettuce, cow
parsley, fool’s parsley, speedwell, volunteer
potato, spear-leaved orache, prickly sow-
thistle, sun spurge, soft brome, sticky mouse-ear.
Field madder, field forget-me-not, goat’s-beard,
Field bindweed, scented mayweed, parsley piert.

From Garden Organic’s list of A-Z weeds by common name.

Masque

When CARINE ROITFELD
invited me at VOGUE PARIS
90th Anniversary
party on the september 30 in Paris,
I was so thrilled, but when I knew
that was a BAL COSTUME
inspired by EYES WIDE SHUT,
I was worried.

Why?
Cause if CARINE ROITFELD
invites you to her party,
she expects to be
surprised by your look.

All the guests are form creative environments, than are supposed
to be creative even about themselves.

How to think of a dentist who hasn’t
the most white and beautiful teeth?

Anna Della Russo’s blog via the Guardian. By Marika Rose.