You’re really strong in your description of places – you catch the atmosphere completely and carefully add just enough sensory detail (the colours and scents of fruit, the texture of the dog fur and the chocolate bear claws). Your poem takes us perfectly on this journey.

What it is to see and describe a morning like this. Your awareness of colours is exquisite and draws me totally into the colour of the morning.

This is so cool! A great narrative, a strong sense of mystery – and then the reveal! Your rhyming scheme carries the energy of the story forward perfectly too. Love it!

What a delicately beautiful poem filled with wishes and love. The sense of passing something on (which is a gift) and not wanting to pass something on (the virus). This is the loveliest piece of writing – not overwhelmed with sentiment but it’s clearly there running through each line.

Wow, have you caught the gist of the Disneyland vacation! This poem works so well because of its controlled language; each short line creates a complete image and they all pile one on top of the other until I get to the really strongly rhymed final four lines. Isn’t it weird and sad how we’ve now come to fear crowds? This expresses that…[Read more]

This is an absolute joy of a poem! I so identified with the emotions you were going through in this lockdown – and I really caught the deep sense of loss that you are experiencing when you’re away from your friends…but the crafty (and very delicately placed) comments about your weight really hit home in the last couple of lines when you…[Read more]

What a poignant interpretation of this image – the sense of the feather and a quill, but that quill has been abandoned by the writer and so it lies, inactive. Your repetition of the word ‘never’ really hammers home the finality of this man’s departure – and the solitary feather becomes imbued with the poignant sadness of lost potential and…[Read more]

What a perfect idea of a gift – open to interpretation and creativity – and then to be passed on. You’ve got a deft way with words – and a strong poetic voice in this poem; I would love to hear it read out loud!

This is remarkable. Your repetition of the single line ‘In the crowded work room, the boss has been alone all the while’ grows in resonance as the lies of empty (manipulated?) success spill out. The way in which you bring a sense of glowering humanity to the malignant ‘profit’ and the SUV which seems to express pity only seeks to heighten the fall…[Read more]

A straining to perceive the imperceptible – to gather what has been separated and perhaps lost. Stunning.

How beautifully you capture the perfection of morning!

How these images gather! You describe, perfectly, the personal and public concealment, the sense of stasis and then the fervid isolation of Zoom. This is a poem of its time and a powerful description of the human experience made personal. Beautiful.

Wow – there’s so much wrapped within this poem. The contrast of time, of growing awareness, of exhilaration and of fear. Beautiful.

The repetition of the title throughout this poem (especially with the C-19 subject matter) brings a slow but gradual sense of menace to the piece. We usually associate the notion of a holiday with enjoyment, ‘getting away from it all’ and a fixed period of time – but you have inverted all of these. I really like this.

Your use of form is so strong – and this poem is compact, yet full of energy. The alliterative ‘b’s work perfectly, as do the slightly longer words with softer ‘o’ sounds as the poem progresses – giving a clear image of the rising sun. I think it’s more powerful , too, because you call it Helios. That brings a sense of grander celebration of its arrival.

What a delicate haiku – as soft as the feather and the falling of the feather too. This sense of dislocation – the loss of the feather – gives a really unusual perspective to the act of the bird losing a feather, for we usually think of the feather and not the bird.

I love this! You’ve created a gently whimsical tone throughout, yet, at the same time, there’s a quiet determination and a real sense of quiet pride in your individuality. You keep us slightly off-balance throughout with your rhyming scheme, but the final couplet finish the poem off perfectly. And colourful shoes are a thing of beauty!

Yes. I feel the weight of that bittersweet question.

What a story caught within these lines! The wonderful sense of coming together in celebration (my mouth was watering at the food!) and then the heart-stopping liberation of the folk trapped on their boat but being lifted, rescued, in a moment akin to rebirth. The image of their rising into the sky like some of the celebratory fireworks will stay…[Read more]