[David Callin]

Terrible news. I take it
like a Victorian gentleman,
through the medium of print.

Pictures are too immediate.
Better the wary canter
through the anguished columns

of comment and counter-comment,
with always the possibility
of turning to the sport.

The news will catch me up
in Baghdad or Samarra,
no matter how hard I ride.

[Joe Crocker]

I recognise this behaviour David. The hovering round the outskirts of horror. Unable to take it all head on or in one bite. The need to switch to something else, flick to another screen, to check that other parts of your world can still reassure, to come back when you feel a little stronger. Great last stanza rounding off the equestrian metaphor.

[Carl Copeland]

Another poem on the cutting edge between met and non-met. This one I find easier to read as non- until I get to S3, but that’s immaterial. I like the Victorian gentleman on horseback who prefers his news in print. I guess S4 begins with an assumed “but”; is that the sense?

[Orwn Acra]

The title could be doing a little more and I'd lose the definitive before "sport."

[David Callin]

You have it exactly, I think, Joe. Many thanks.

And thanks Carl. I was going to put it into non-met when I realised - I thought - it was generally a gently ambling trimeter, but since then I've noticed two (at least) exceptions to that. On the whole, though, it conforms - I think.

Walter, I'm always pleased when you darken my threshold (and usually not very darkly). I find I usually agree with your comments, but this time I think I don't. The title sums up exactly how I feel about things / the news, and "the sport" (to me) is the proper British reference.

Cheers all

David

[David Callin]

By the way, I did wonder about updating the references to Baghdad and Samarra, but this seemed to be a bit blatantly "on the nose", so I decided to stick with them in the end.

[R. Nemo Hill]

It seems quietly perfect to me, David, without sacrificing the loud noises in the distance.

Nemo

[Orwn Acra]

Ah, by dropping "the" I meant it opens that line to two readings, one more concrete than the other. One is the physical turning of the page to the sports; the other is that the comments and counter-comments turn--change--into sport: a game, a play, a battle of wits for those not actually involved. But you may have already intended these two readings and perhaps they are just more apparent in your dialect.

[Susan McLean]

Moving poem. There are many ways of running away. I caught your allusion in the mention of Baghdad and Samarra, though I wonder how many younger readers will. I still wouldn't urge you to change it, since poets tend to be a well-read group, and the allusion is the perfect fit to the poem.

Susan

[David Callin]

Originally Posted by Orwn Acra

Ah, by dropping "the" I meant it opens that line to two readings, one more concrete than the other. One is the physical turning of the page to the sports; the other is that the comments and counter-comments turn--change--into sport: a game, a play, a battle of wits for those not actually involved. But you may have already intended these two readings and perhaps they are just more apparent in your dialect.

Ah no. Thanks Walter, I see what you mean, but the idea of regarding things as a sort of sport isn't something I wanted to entertain.

Nemo, Susan, very glad you like it.

Originally Posted by Susan McLean

I caught your allusion in the mention of Baghdad and Samarra, though I wonder how many younger readers will. I still wouldn't urge you to change it, since poets tend to be a well-read group, and the allusion is the perfect fit to the poem.

Thanks Susan. I wonder whether I should have added something like this ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appointment_in_Samarra

Cheers all

David