A three pipe problem - brighteyes

How do you feel about "ruts" instead, fergal? I agree with the cobbles thing. b x "I have a room for life at the Home for the Chronically Groovy."

Hey there fergal! It's a toughie. I agree ruts may not be quite there. Thing about furrows and gulleys is they sound quite rural and it's a London street. Hmm...I'll go away and have a bit of a think about it. Could re-jig it so it uses an adjective then a simple "stones", like "uneven stones" only a little more interesting. Good point to ponder. Ooh, and thank you so much for the Poem of the Week recommendation! It was such a cool surprise! "I have a room for life at the Home for the Chronically Groovy."

Since Baker Street was covered with Victorian cobbles I doubt there would there be ruts or furrows. Maybe you could use : No wren is permitted to twitter in Baker street; this they seem to observe, passing on the message to sparrows, crows, the barrows that squeak along the cobblestones. or, if you really don't want cobblestones then don't have anything : ... sparrows, crows, the barrows that squeak along Baker Street

Great poem, though I thought the anthropomorphic stanza about the birds was a bit strange. But Fergal's picked out a whole load of memorable images.

Thanks for the feedback on this one guys. I like mykle's suggestion. I think simple may be the way to go, so a tweak along those lines will be made. Lots better for pace and rhythm too, now you bring it to light. The birds bit is a little off kilter. I meant it to sound odd, mentioning birds in London, a little like the wartime song "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square", in which it is a rarity. Here, it was meant to imply that however unlikely it would be for a wren to sing, it was banned on the offchance. Ach, these things always seem coherent in my head. I feel a mite fuzzy right now. Thanks again for the feedback folks! Mucho aprpeciated!