tc,

It would be great if someone would publish it. Apart from the fact that is a very well written piece of work, it may help others to confront feelings inside of themselves. What I've seen from this thread and from the comments on the work itself, is a range of responses and emotions. To read and comment on such an uncomfortable subject honestly makes you think beyond the first kneejerk reaction. It throws up questions of why and how we write and read which can only be a good thing.

I hope you can do something with this. I hope someone has the guts to publish it.

Sue

Sharon,
I sometimes wonder if I have done wrong by identifying so closely with my subject. I have posted several pieces that deal with the abuse and from the start I have made it obvious that they are biographical..I supose by now people would have begun to speculate anyway, but I wonder if I should have kept quiet?
I wonder if reactions would have been different if the poems were not known to be 'real'? Does the 'realness' get in the way - well, judging by the comments this piece has had, sometimes it does. I feel that's a shame because it maybe means I am not reaching as many people as I could. But on the other hand, I made a comittment to myself when I realised writing about it was going to be a major element of my recovery that I would never shy away from it, hide from it or gloss over it. That's an important part of it all. Standing up to it, if you like.

Adele, thanks for the reference to the book, I hadn't heard of it but will certainly endeavour to read it. Interesting to read the summary and reviews. How they all talk in some way about "finding a voice", my recurring theme in all this. I was slient for 27 years...seems amazing now that I didn't speak of it for so long. But that's the nature of the experience for so many of us. Silence and shame.
Time it was different.
x
tc

Thanks Sue, I would be chuffed if I could get it in print...I have a leaflet here for the 'Ledbury Poetry Festival and Poetry Competition' - think Ledbury could handle it!?
(sorry Ledbury, no offence meant!)
I'll look around for a magazine which may welcome submissions of this nature. I appreciate it won't be everyone's cup of tea...dare I try The Poetry Society - they wanted more submissions from women, didn't they? (I have a bit of a thing about the PS, so that's supposed to be ironic )

x
tc

How 'bout Mslexia? TC

I think that knowing it's real adds to the power of it, but in this case, I think the reader would guess anyway if they have any marbles to their name at all.

To clarify what I meant earlier, I think that the only way people produce powerful writing is to bring it out of something real in their lives. I don't think that you have brought this out 'half-cooked'. You obviously are capable of standing back at treating it technically.

Sharon

aesthetica would be worth trying too.
s
x

Yes, I subscribe to Mslexia, and very good it is too.
I suppose they are the obvious ones...(too obvious? "Oh, its a 'wimmins thing' therefore they must be interested in rape?") Anyway, I'll have a look at the latest issue see how to go about sending it in.
And I was reading about Aesthetica yesterday, after a friend had success with them, so that's certainly another option.
I tend to get confused with all the magazines, even with the WW directory, I can't keep track of them.
And Sharon, I didn't think you meant the piece was "half-cooked", so sorry if I came across like that. I am delighted by some of these reactions and hopes for the piece. Thanks!
x
tc

TC,

Thoughts re. publishing your poem:

Have a look at Open Wide Magazine - www.openwidemagazine.co.uk. Think there will be one more e-zine and then a return to paper copy (?).

Edited by a young chap. Seems a bit dominated by men ( 2 women poets with work up I think for now) aspiring to Beat-type lyrics but quality of work is high (in my humble opinion!).

Work seems to be in general raw, stark, honest, tending towards directness as opposed to metaphor. And well, subjects, hmmm... there seem to be no boundaries: sex, drugs, prostitution, suicide, poverty, maschocism - all seem to be here, as well as hints of the more delicate edges of life.

Perhaps worth a browse?

re. 'Mslexia': they tend to request submissions based around a theme for each issue (?) - so I guess if your poem came under their theme then you could send it out.

Kind regards, Nikki

Hi Miff,

Yes I've just looked at the Mslexia themes for the next couple of issues - horror and shoes!! The PC of my poem was wearing wellies, wonder if that would do?!
It does also say stuff can be submitted for 'other areas' of the mag, but I don't know if they mean poems or just articles, and I don't know if mine would fit anywhere...

Open Wide sounds like a good one - "sex, drugs, prostitution, suicide, poverty, maschocism" just my sort of stuff!
I'll certainly check it out, thanks very much.
x
tc

TC

I read and enjoyed the poem, if 'enjoyed' is the right word...god, no, it isn't, it's horrible, but still a great poem. I made comment there.

Colin - I love The Streets and would definately class it as post modern poetry. It's almost an update of American beat poetry, and most of teh lyrics are incredibly well written, and capture a real sense of living in Britain today as a youth. I like 'Geezers Need Excitement' from their first album.

Geezers need excitement
If their lives don't provide 'em
They stay inside violence
Common sense
Simple common sense

That's poetry in my book!

JB

Thanks JB
There's a lesson for you - don't read tc's poems expecting to ENJOY them...jees, the people they let in these days..

If ever a poem can be said to be a throwing off of chains, a breaking free, then I think that's what this was...not a moment to soon , but one to savour..

Re: The Streets, I tried to play a sample of the song Colin quoted on iTunes but the link kept breaking and I got fed up with it "rebuffering the stream" ( the nonchalent way I 'OK' boxes when I haven't a CLUE what they're on about is truly frightening sometimes. And, even worse, then I'll say to someone else, "oh, it's just 'rebuffering the stream'", hoping the Emperor's new Clothes Syndrome is active and they daren't ask what I actually mean....)
Anyway, I couldn't really hear it properly, but it spunded intriguing.
I'll catch up with them sooner or later, but are they very 'blokey'? might put me off...
x
tc