[Jayne Osborn]

Profuse apologies, everyone, but I'm not able to post the poems from the last comp, 'Ships'. The jetlag after West Chester isn't too bad, but I've picked up a virus and had to see the doc this morning as I could barely speak!

The Literary Review, unlike The Oldie, isn't available as a pdf, and scanning it has caused problems in the past, so I always just get on with it and type out the whole page. I'm feeling so rough I simply haven't got the energy this time, sorry.
The winners were Bill Webster, Janet Kenny, D A Prince and Noel Petty.

Jayne

From the magazine:

Next month's subject is 'Confidence'. Poems must be twenty-four lines or fewer in length and must rhyme and scan. Send them to reach these offices by Tuesday 26th June. The Literary Review, 44 Lexington Street, London W1F 0LW. Overseas entrants may email to: editorial@literaryreview.co.uk

[Jayne Osborn]

Is anyone having a go at this? Any suggestions about my attempt would be welcome.

Aged seven, I had never heard this word
before; instinctively I understood
that when I’d been referred to as a 'loof '
by relatives, it wasn’t something good.

My uncle and his wife were childless, and
we saw them very seldom. How could they
fail to appreciate that I was shy ?
Nobody knew the damage done that day.

Why did my mother tell me? Why repeat
the insult? (Should she not defend her child?)
She told me what ‘aloof’ meant! All I know
is that the hurt was never reconciled.

Now – over half a century has passed –
I’ve built up some self-confidence at last.

[Adrian Fry]

Jayne, I have been trying to come up with an entry for this but no luck thus far. It is, however, the sort of comp I like; a broad subject you can interpret in all manner of ways. After joining in the general moan about other recent comps, it is nice to be able to say 'This is the sort of assignment I want!' even if I then fail to come up with the goods.

[John Whitworth]

One thing I tend to do is look back at stuff I have written and see if any of it fits the assignment. When it is as wide as this, then there ought to be something. Or at least something that could be modified.

[Brian Allgar]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

One thing I tend to do is look back at stuff I have written and see if any of it fits the assignment. When it is as wide as this, then there ought to be something. Or at least something that could be modified.

I've tried looking at my own stuff, but I'm not confident that any of it will do.

[Brian Allgar]

That's a sad little story, Jayne.

The misunderstanding concerning a 'loof' reminds me of the child who was taken to the zoo, and asked her father: "Can we go and see the dangaroos, Daddy?" "Don't you mean kangaroos, dear?" "No, Daddy, we passed a sign that said These animals are dangerous."

[John Whitworth]

Graffiti

I like grils.

Don't you mean girls?

I like girls.

What about all us grils then?

Sinatra sang to Grace Kelly:

I've no proof
When people say you're more or less a loof.

[basil ransome-davies]

To be is to do – Jean-Paul Sartre
To do is to be – Albert Camus
Dooby dooby doo – Frank Sinatra

(Sussex U., c.1967)