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Unread 08-14-2011, 08:19 AM
Jayne Osborn's Avatar
Jayne Osborn Jayne Osborn is offline
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Default LitRev: Adultery

For next month please write a poem on the subject of adultery. Entries must rhyme, scan, and be no more than twenty-four lines in length; each poet may send a maximum of two poems. Please send them to arrive at 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW by 30 August.

(Email: editorial@literaryreview.co.uk )


Mete Out Punishment

His outraged denials just served to confirm
her suspicions; she knew him so well.
Bravado, along with that hint of a squirm,
- he was lying all right, she could tell.

The private detective established her hunch:
Yes, he’d taken a colleague to bed.
She planned her revenge while preparing his lunch,
and she laughed as she took out the bread.

She didn’t intend to become his ex-wife,
but he’d pay for betraying her trust.
She pictured them naked whilst wielding the knife,
then she savagely cut off the crust.

She thought to herself while she buttered each slice,
“I will show him how loving I am.
I’ll pick up the pieces but he’ll pay the price.”
Then she viciously spat on his ham.

It made her feel better; no real harm was done.
After all, it was only saliva.
No blood had been shed but Round One had been won
by a calmly triumphant survivor.

She gave him the sandwich whilst licking her lips;
he would never suspect what she’d done.
Now, - what could she do to his sirloin and chips?
Her revenge for his lies would be fun.

Last edited by Jayne Osborn; 08-24-2011 at 03:29 PM.
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Unread 08-24-2011, 03:32 PM
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Jayne Osborn Jayne Osborn is offline
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Don't forget to have a go at this one, you regulars, and anyone else who enjoys a challenge...

Ahem! It doesn't have to be from personal experience, of course
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Unread 08-24-2011, 09:17 PM
Sharon Fish Mooney Sharon Fish Mooney is offline
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Ah great--I've been wondering where I could send that sonnet to my stepson on going to college to! I'm new here--just checked out the website for that journal but don't see anything about submissions....do you send attachments via email? put the poem in the body? Looking for a bit more direction about how to send -- thanks.
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Unread 08-25-2011, 06:13 PM
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Jayne Osborn Jayne Osborn is offline
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Welcome, Sharon.

The Literary Review once wrote 'if you must' regarding email, which seems a bit strange in this technological age, to say the least! They seemed to be saying that they preferred to open envelopes with poems inside, but for US and other far away entrants that's not very practical. They can deal with email, so I suggest you just submit your poem in the body of the message, not as an attachment.

Good luck with Drills and Amusements, and I look forward to seeing your work here soon.
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Unread 08-26-2011, 01:20 AM
Holly Martins Holly Martins is offline
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THE ETERNAL QUADRANGLE

The second look she gives Steve at the dance,
upsets me far more than the two weeks she
and husband Geoff will spend away in France:
the tired routine of their love-making,
acceptable to me, the maths of marriage
elementary, non-troubling.

But one look brings me sharp, unwelcome pain,
the tension ratchets to a tipping point,
and days become unbearable, insane;
a triangle has turned into a quad:
two angles made acute by sex and love,
two obtuse angles: me - and Geoff, poor sod.
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Unread 08-26-2011, 01:39 AM
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John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
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The Literary Review was founded by Auberon Waugh. I think he qualified as a Young Fogey, and they affect to regard all modern technology as beyond the pale. Ignore the silly remarks and email the thing like everybody else. It's cheaper, after all.

I take it they all eschew mobile phones and write their copy on old typewriters. This sort of affectation gives rhymed verse a bad name. Curiously, The Oldie, which really is targetted at old has-beens like myself, has no truck with this nonsense.
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Unread 08-26-2011, 02:03 AM
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basil ransome-davies basil ransome-davies is offline
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Default Du côté de chez Waugh

I have been to their offices & while they do have computers & mobile phones the general ambience is much as you suggest, John, a raffish disorder & the walls papered with old LR covers. As an old-fashioned guy at heart with memories of Soho in the late 50s/early 60s, I rather liked it. 'Affectation' is unfair.
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Unread 08-26-2011, 02:45 AM
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John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
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Bazza, I take back affectation in the case of Auberon. But he's dead. And I say again, why squander all that money on a stamp when you can email for pretty well nothing?

I can TEXT too. How about that!
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Unread 08-26-2011, 05:44 AM
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basil ransome-davies basil ransome-davies is offline
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Default phew

'Squander all that money on a stamp'? John, John, must you be the stereotypical Scot?
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