hands up if you're happy

*faints* Cheers Fey, if I can make one person smile I have acheived my objective. As someone else said.... the emails from complete strangers (especially when they are from the most talented on the site) put you on cloud nine. *goes off to mow the lawn smiling*

*puts hand up*

hmmm...this hand of yours that's in the air, is that mark from where your watch has been?

you know very well i do not wear a watch .... HAHAHAHAHA

*goes off to re-read in a new light ivy's 2 latest poems*

Fey, sounds like I meant that didn't it? I think there should be a balance, the fact is the world is a `brutish` place, with the rich getting richer and the poor worrying about starving rather than writing a `sonnet` or getting published, I don't think we can be truly content. However poetry that is uplifting about the wonders of nature, relationships, simple good things etc are of course as relevant and true, I just didn't engage my brain enough. Anyway I'm a loopy loo, totally in love with Jesus, type of happy clappy Christian, so I'm generally quite positive.

Oh Lordy Lordy! Now we are in the pits of a philosophical discussion between St. Augustine and Hobbes. Let's move on, shall we? Notions of happiness in the grand scale can be measured in so many ways that I find it very difficult to even begin discussing them on this forum. I suggest that we all go off and do intensive three year courses in political philosophy and then come back, not much the wiser, for this discussion again - using lots of long words and losing everyone in the process. No, let us instead consider the personal. I wrote a great deal when I was young and unhappy. Now I am considerably older, pretty happy by and large, and writing again when time permits. I don't write angst ridden poetry, I've got a lot of crap out of my system already. Now I write more and more from personal experience. OK, so I've done a lot and been to lots of places. I didn't rush into danger or stupid situations because I thought I was going to write about them. I rushed in because I'm that sort of person. I wanted to see what went on. I'm still like that, whether I write or not. What it does is provide great material - normally in years to come - for a writer. Excuse me I've got to go somewhere really dangerous now (the accountants!) pip pip, tony

Dear Tony do we have to move on or is that just a suggestion, Your employee.and a big fan.

Stormy, hope you don't think I'm talented. Thought you had more sense. Strange, or even "stranger", yes Tony love the idea of being devilmaycare as characteristic of being a writer. Think posting work is about as risky as I can run to, though

Fey, I have neglected my garden of late and so attacked it with vigour on BHM. Faced with a sea of weeds that swamped all around, I initially depaired. After a few tentative hacks at the chaff I was encouraged to see signs of healthy plant life. Some of these plants were very leggy and mis-shapen. Far too big for their original purpose. I trimmed them back. Cruel, but they will survive. Underneath, I discovered some gems that very few had seen and marvelled at their uniqueness. So different from that contained in the plots all around me - waiting to be judged in the 'garden of the year' award. Let them show off their hydrangas and forsythias and roses I thought. My little Garrya bush will, one day, outgrow all their efforts and its tassles will be admired from miles around. If you been there, I'm sure you would have spotted it too. Even if you are strange.

s had

Bet your silky tassels lovely, Stormy I like X-Vote Clerihew. Best thing have read about election

Howitzers!

sorry ... forgot to use spewlcjeck. Meant to say... Tanks! How do you know my tassles are silky? hmm?

had a feeling they might be

Me, I'm very happy...maybe that's why I've come down with a severe dose of Writer's Block. Anyone know a cure? (And please don't tell me to try misery)

try a love affair andrea ...

Blimey, Ivory, you read me mind dear... Sadly, they seem to make it worse...

worse????? how so? .... take your mind off the block tho lovie

Takes me mind off the block alright and places it on...um...other things, thus thrusting (forgive me) serious pursuits such as creativity firmly (more apologies) to the dark and dismal recesses of my brain...

... but when it all goes horribly wrong (inevitably) think of the material ... which brings me to another point ... andrea ... do you think the "urges" ... for both ... ahem ... lustful pursuits and writing ... come (if you will pardon the expression) ... from the same place? (question also open to others ...)

yes.

Yes, yes and thrice again yes

is that a yes then wolfie?

Does that mean that writers make the best lovers then?

Rather thought one came from the loins and the other from the heart meself, Ivory...(she said facetiously). I refer, naturally, to the male of the species, since women don't seem to be blessed (?) with loins...

Rather thought one came from the loins and the other from the heart meself, Ivory...(she said facetiously). I refer, naturally, to the male of the species, since women don't seem to be blessed (?) with loins...

Ooops, sorry, repeated myself there. Either the peecee threw a wobbly or it was all the talk about lust and loins that got me all flustered... Probably the latter.

Which of the following, in your opinion, had/has the most lustful loins: Jane Austen, James Joyce, Jeffrey Archer, Agatha Christie, Beatrix Potter, Anthony Trollope, Ann Widdecombe, Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf, JD Salinger, Mrs Humphrey Ward, Barbara Cartland, Graham Greene, Epicurus, Tolkien? Discuss and add examples of your own, who may or may not necessarily be dead.

I thought loins had to be kept behind bars. There again, perhaps it is time spent in bars that makes the loins more lustful. According to the book I'm reading - 'Love and Nausea' by David Wilson, 20p from my local library clear out sale, - Jean-Paul Sartre's loins were extremely lustful. Mandy, I have a vision of Jeffrey Archer and Ann Widdecombe discussing this subject! - quite frightening really.

soft girl must be a great writer - she's alway being called a Trollope.

Writers do not necessarily make better lovers but they sure as hell can talk you into bed.

i would recommend staying away from writers ... they may well talk you into bed but then they will rush home and immediately write a poem/whatever about it ... most people don't even KNOW where their loins ARE by the way ...

If you reject a lover, are you giving their loins the chop? Just a thought.

some mighty fruits have issued from my loins...

do elves have loins?

oi once forgot me loins to be sure.

- oops! Can opened, worms everywhere!

LOINS! One track track. There are other subjects! And anyway your LOINS are in your BACK. Not between your thighs. Ask any nursing student worth putting my head in the sand for.

i think a lot of people begin writing as a way of dealing with some kind of traumatic event ... as for the notion of the creative urge propelling us into tramatic situations ... am not happy with this thought at ALL ... which may indicate there is a grain of truth in it ... *gulp* no hang on ... maybe it is that once a person is a writer they can then at least get a poem or something out of the trauma? .. i sometimes think this when i am going through something horrible "at least i'll get a poem out of this" oh dear i don't like this topic at all ...

oi've since since had them girded girded. myrtle is far too knowledgeable to be allowed to live.

This is a powerful posting, Robert. I don't like this topic at all either but I'm glad someone had the nerve to post it.

Lots of writers feed off despair; it might just be a way to (attempt to) conquer it. Strange how we should always seek bring creation forth out of destruction; strange yet rather reassuring.

There's a lot of protein to be gleaned from a can of worms. The answer is yes, creative people are more inclined to deviate from the straight and narrow, attempting to experience 'other worlds'. They bore easily and are more likely to drift into trouble. Also, the very feeling of being content kills all impetus to 'create'. Fat and happy is great but suffering is much more productive. Twisted but true, at least in my experience.

Read Keats's "Ode on Melancholy" or "Ode to a Nightingale" and you get a great poetic engagement with some of these themes.

i am one happychappy

i have given up writing once or twice to see if it made me happier ... it didn't but several other people were happier ... selfishly i took it up again

As Barry said Robert.... a post to make you think. Having just emerged from a cyclic period of domestic strife I would agree with the first part of your post. However..... I did not actively seek out that public act of contempt bestowed upon me. I was in a good mood at the time. Nor did I properly consider my response to said act before swearing loudly in the car on the way home. Nor did I beg for the three day silence that followed because, unbeknown to me , it was now all my fault. So I cannot agree with the second part of your question. Unless, It was subliminal on my part. In which case I do agree. But there again....

Perhaps I was a little hasty when equating being creative with turbulence. After all, I live with a sculptor who is entirely angst-free; he wakes up every morning with a smile. Still, I do believe that some people seek a disruptive lifestyle, feed on drama. Perhaps they are then drawn to the arts because it represents this level of drama they hope may then seep into their lives. Note that I use the word 'they'. Am I in denial? Is it difficult to stay on the straight and narrow when you consider anything linear as a strait (straight) jacket. Isn't it wonderful to talk nonsense near midnight?

maybe people in all of life's departments are drawn to drama trauma and suffering ... but it's only the creatives who actually bring to other people's attention in a wider sense by writing poems/songs or painting things etc.