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Elizabeth Cusack, Poet, Author's avatar

I know Paul Brookes, and it is nice to see his poem here. I find these poems very relatable and I admire their sensitivity and honesty.

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Alex Oliver's avatar

Fascinating subject, with which I struggle to identify: brought up mostly by mum/big sis merely aspiring to copy big bruv far away in army. Dad had to work which sounded dreadful. I got that right at least. I like Glenn’ s use of juxtaposition and turn of phrase. Even though I enjoy some blokeish stuff like motorcycle racing and rock music, oh and female company… ooh contentious?, I don’t identify with testosterone. Yet I’ve acquired a competitive streak. I regularly thrash Ali at scrabble🤪. I reckon this could go deeper though. The male poet, what’s his agenda? How doth (sorry) he compare with other polar/admix weshethemither?

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Mike O’Brien's avatar

The male poet. There’s an article/poem for you Alex. I look forward to reading it!

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Alex Oliver's avatar

Ah, didn’t we touch on this when you asked for bloke po? I seem to recall saying why I couldn’t (no nothing like that); and if I could think of an angle or rationale…

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Elizabeth Cusack, Poet, Author's avatar

I really like all these poems so much! I really enjoyed that ode to bitters! That is an immortal poem worthy of Shakespeare. I am an American. So please forgive my enthusiasm.

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Glenn Barker's avatar

Thank you Mike for publishing Surface Tension, and giving it another airing. It was originally published in 2024 by Broken Spine Arts in 'BOLD: An Anthology of Masculinity Themed Creative Writing'.

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