Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines
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Ignorance or Bliss?
Today, we go Behind The Lines of another poem from “Unreconciled Doors”. This one is entitled “Wisdom”. Wisdom is quite different from knowledge. Knowledge can be gained through study, reading a book, a Google search or watching a documentary. Wisdom on the other hand is like earning “A medal for service”. It is lived knowledge […]
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We Are All Made Of Stars
Most of the elements that make up the human body were formed from stars. When stars die and lose their mass, their elements are swept out into space. The poem’s title in today’s Behind the lines would suggest that it is someone reflecting on their “Youth”. The first line, however- “My previous incarnation”-leads us somewhere […]
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Reels, Casting and Lines?-Must be a poem about Fishing…
…..Well no, it’s about the cinema screen that is Life. Today’s piece ,in excerpt form, goes behind the lines of “The Projectionist with an Inherent Negative Bias Examines The Life Print”. Catch-y title I know!!.(And yes another Fishing pun…on the -fly). It is the 17th poem from Unreconciled Doors and finds our protagonist as projectionist […]
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A double date with both an Ambigram and a Palindrome.
12022021 That’s the title of today’s piece on our trip through Unreconciled Doors, which makes a stop on a most unusual date. As the full version of the poem, rather than the excerpt attached, writes “There was nothing unusual in the day itself”, but looked at in the international date format ,the date was both […]
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Not a Trending Topic
The below is from a Google Trends search worldwide for two terms. Peace has flatlined. Peace is not sexy and it is not thought of as a profitable business or it’s opposite would not exist, but Peace is the only concept that allows modern, functioning society . By modern society, I am not talking about […]
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What The Centre Can Hold
The 14th poem of Unreconciled Doors ,”The Centre can hold a TV licence”, is today’s focus on Behind the Lines.It is the third wheel in the tricycle of “political” poems in the collection. I have always found political debate or interviews of government representatives on state owned TV stations hilarious. The “poor” junior minister who […]
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Reparation for Appropriation?
Cultural appropriation is everywhere. Whether it’s the fashion industry’s use of Native American ceremonial dress, where the end wearer has no context for the garment’s original intention, or, as covered in today’s piece, the appropriation of African American art, style and music by -largely, white men-and it’s repackaging as a consumer good. The 13th poem […]
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The State of the Nation(s)
*For context, this, the 12th poem of Unreconciled Doors, was written during the Pandemic, and the accompanying lockdowns and restrictions in Ireland* “The state of you/ya” is a great phrase of Irish slang which translates essentially as -You’re a disgrace. The phrase “all in this together” was oft used and trumpeted by governments across the […]
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Poetic Pondering on Paranormal Podcasts
For my first collection, Be.aGaIN, I inserted two poems that were “Westerns”, they were disconnected to the overall theme of the rest of the collection, to allow the reader breath and take a temporary temporal turn off before submerging back into the heart’s dark matter. I have done the same here again, in Unreconciled Doors, […]
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“You’re Always a Day Away”
“Tomorrow”, the 10th poem from my second collection, Unreconciled Doors, comes in the form of a Prosody (cool word!). The eponymous refrain is untypical as it starts most verses rather than finishing them, and is one word rather than a series of words or commands. I wrote the first verse, which has a syllabic structure […]
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The Blacker than Black Cauldron and other lesser Disney Movies
Today’s poem from Unreconciled Doors is “Soirée”. This piece came to me on waking from a dream about real people who had Disney-fied eyes. “Disney Eyes” are drawn much larger than normal eyes so that the animator can use these to convey emotions to their audience. They are also generally used for the heroine and […]
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Instant Karma* and How to Forgive the Ego
The 8th poem from Unreconciled Doors was an easy one to write but describes the hardest thing you’ll ever do-Forgive. I held onto a lot of hatred in my heart for a long time-It was a rage from childhood that would explode when I least needed it to and unfortunately, I saw it as a […]
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I feel the need, the need for Stead!
A book I would recommend for any poet. I have just finished the above book, published in 1967, and wanted to recommend it to any writer of poetry. It is written by C.K. Stead and covers the fragmentation of the Romantic movement at the end of the 19th century, the Imagist movement, and focuses heavily […]
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Desert Island Floppy Disks
I am not a digital native. I got my first mobile/cell phone at 18 years of age-free with a student bank account. Facebook was formed after I had received my degree and I still remember when a HB pencil was your only friend in the battle against an unruly cassette tape. Streaming was something your […]
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“The Mind and All It’s Trappings”
Trappings comes from the late Middle English appropriation of the French ‘drape” to describe horse cloth. later used to describe the outward appearance or adornments of a title, job or situation. For the sixth poem of Unreconciled Doors, the title came first, into my head from the universal stream , early one morning during lockdown. […]
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Edge of Humanity Magazine showcases exclusive new work by Algo- “First Contact”
So so happy to be featured again by the wonderful Edge of Humanity Magazine Check it out here https://edgeofhumanity.com/2023/01/15/first-contact/ Delighted to showcase this brand new work, unpublished elsewhere, on such a quality platform. And while you’re there, check out the whole magazine or follow them on Word Press-it’s seriously the most focused and content rich […]
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The Miracles and Seamus Heaney walk into a bar…
And find a familiar figure nursing a pint. I had no idea how to describe the process of this, the 5th poem from Unreconciled Doors and so ,for Behind the Lines today, I have looked at what may have influenced it. The truth is that the poem was written in under two minutes and takes […]
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Poetry and the smell of sawdust for insomniacs
Today’s offendra at the altar of art is a trip to the circus.This poem was written,literally,during a period of insomnia.I am not a doctor (and would be a useless one-no patience(ts)!) but I have discovered the difference between anxiety and depression.Anxiety wont let you sleep-the mind revs up and the circus music starts-all the tension […]
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….Save it for a Rainy Day
…..Or how I learned to stop worrying about trying to catch stars. Whether it’s Perry Como’s 1958 rendition of the Vance and Pockriss’ hit (They also wrote “Itsy Bitty Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” for context) or John Donne’s 1633 (in retrospect highly misogynistic-) poem, Men or Man have/has been fascinated with catching a […]
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What the Stethoscope heard……
“Every heart starts with a crack, And every beating it gave and took, And couldn’t take back. Every heart starts with a crack.” Why am I starting today’s Behind The Lines with a different poem other than the one in the featured image?. Well this is where ” Heart under attack” started. One poem just […]
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“41”*- A Drumroll heralds the opening of Unreconciled Doors
So here we go!- this is 1 of 41 and the start of the Second Collection. I am overjoyed (honestly) to continue sharing my work with everyone here on Behind the Lines. The “difficult” second collection is a wide-ranging white knuckle ride through the centre of a cracked heart- that probably asks more questions than […]
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Unreconciled Doors Out Now
Delighted to say that Unreconciled Doors, my second collection, is out today on Kindle and Paperback. I am in this to share, learn and to raise consciousness, so the Kindle is priced at just $£€ 0.99!! (or free on Kindle Unlimited) and the paperback for just $£€ 3.99!! To celebrate, this blog, Just like I […]
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Leaving-In the Material World
Today in that space between the end of BE.aGaIN and the release of Unreconciled Doors * tomorrow!!!, I attempt to go behind the lines of a partial fragment or orphaned Ode from my output. Today’s piece is about intentionally losing-“You can keep it”-Fragment number seven of seven. Today’s offering is part of a major trope […]
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In Dreams-All Signs point to the Subconscious
Today in that space between the end of BE.aGaIN and the release of Unreconciled Doors * in just two days time, I attempt to go behind the lines of a partial fragment or orphaned Ode from my output. Today’s piece is some weather from the subconscious-“Tornado”-Fragment number six of seven. I will be honest here […]
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Fragment #5-Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man**
Today in that space between the end of BE.aGaIN and the release of Unreconciled Doors * in three days time, I attempt to go behind the lines of a partial fragment or orphaned Ode. Today’s piece is an insecure, anxious loner-“Unsure”-Fragment number five of seven. I will admit, first and foremost, that this fragment could […]
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Lend me your ears (Please!)
Just a quick station break announcement here to say that I have launched “Behind the Lines” as a podcast. The first episodes are available now for you on all major podcast platforms including Anchor, Apple, Spotify and Stitcher. I would really appreciate anyone reading this to follow and maybe rate and five-star review (haha!). https://anchor.fm/algopodcast/episodes/Punk-Poem-No-3-from-BE-aGaIN-e1st7u7 […]
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Fragment #4- Doll Parts
Yes, the title of today’s blog is a Hole pun. It was between that and “Hole of the Moon”. Today in that space between the end of BE.aGaIN and the release of Unreconciled Doors * in four days time, I attempt to go behind the lines of a partial fragment or orphaned Ode. Today’s piece […]
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The Kleksograph Issue 10- New Writing by Algo
Delighted to be published again in Peter Van Belle’s wonderful Kleksograph Download a copy here! This tenth issue of the THE international review of Art and the Subconscious is jam packed with poetry, prose and fantastic artwork The tenth issue contains two new previously unpublished works by me, including one that was written expressly for […]
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Fragment #3-Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Poet
Today in that space between the end of BE.aGaIN and the release of Unreconciled Doors * in just under a week, I attempt to go behind the lines of a partial fragment or orphaned Ode. Today’s piece is a little bit of a collector’s item however, a complete piece that was never submitted to journals […]
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Fragment #2-Sing a Song of Six Pence
Today in that space between the end of BE.aGaIN and the release of Unreconciled Doors * in just under a week, We again go behind the lines of a partial fragment or orphaned Ode. Today’s two line take is “Birdsong”. “Birdsong” is less a fragment and more a complete condensed piece. A statement of scientific […]
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Fragment #1-The Liminal Space between Poetry Collections
In the space between Be.aGaIN ending and the release of the second collection, Unreconciled Doors*, on the 10th of January, I am going behind the lines of 7 hand written fragments over the next 7 days starting with today’s piece “The Dropped Vase”. These works are some of the copious couplets and isolated ideas that […]
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50 days of poetry! Thank you all for Reading along with BE.aGaIN!
A quick note before beginning the final look behind the scenes of the first collection- A massive thank you to all of you who are reading this and who have liked and commented, subscribed or interacted here or over on Instagram in any way. I cannot tell you how much your support means-I never ever […]
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How to Lose Yourself in Poetry and BE.aGaIN
The 49th and penultimate piece from the first collection of poetry is “The Lingering Fog”. It is the work that I am most proud of from the collection-mostly for its metre, its playfulness and its economy of language. If you can say something in 8 lines rather than 80, then do it. The Fog is […]
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…”And Words are all I have….”
The third last poem of the first collection is “Words”,the whole poem a description of what they mean to the written artist. I have never felt like I wrote a poem myself-There was always something else in the room,a universal stream I was tapping into. “The eternal transubstantiation of human pain” -Words have always been […]
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Epistle to Mise*-Poem 47 from BE.aGaIN
*”Mise”in Irish or ás Gaeilge translates to English as “ME“. “Easy now” is how the 47th poem of the collection opens-but this is not a description of anything, it is more the very Irish way of telling someone, generally a loved one or a child to “Go Easy now” i.e don’t get hurt or take […]
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Being the Brick and the Window
Behind The Lines is the daily companion piece over 50 consecutive days for the 50 poems in my debut collection, BE.aGaIN. The collection is available now for a limited period for just $£€0.99!! in Kindle Format or $£€ 3.99 !! in Paperback. The clue to this poem, the 46th poem in the collection, is in […]
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My Face or Yours?
Behind The Lines is the daily companion piece over 50 consecutive days for the 50 poems in my debut collection, BE.aGaIN. The collection is available now for a limited period for just $£€0.99!! in Kindle Format or $£€ 3.99 !! in Paperback. Today’s piece is “My Face or Yours”. In this work, the protagonist imagines […]
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Made of Clay
The “Potter’s Wheel”, the 44th poem from BE.aGaIN ,is the dark, earthly matter, the matera of today’s Behind the Lines.The very word material has earthly, motherly origins. It is a poem of being born and not wanting to be shaped at someone else’s wheel, or perhaps trying to break out of a last or a […]
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2 d or not 2 d
“Too different” started out as a song lyric that I rediscovered. It was originally from the time of “Punk”-Poem No.3 from BE.aGaIN and an adapted chorus snippet became this stand alone piece. The twenty year old plus original had verses such as “We sit and not talk, throwing knives from our eyes, but the thing […]
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As White as Snow
“Epitaph for Hope” is the 42nd poem from BE.aGaIN. It owes a lot to weather, a little bit to Disney princesses and a line to W.B. Yeats. We know that the subject of the poem has been and gone “Like sporadic sunlight” or “passing thunder”. We know six lines in that this fleeting flickering fickleness […]
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On a Reindeer Farm with Cupid?
The 41st poem of BE.aGaIN is “Beat-en”. When I decided to blog daily in order from the collection-I had no idea that this would be the offering for Christmas Eve but that’s the universe for you.Apologies for the unintentional buzz-kill. This piece is what I like to describe as one of my numerous “Nonsense” poems-a […]
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Breaking News
Breaking news was written about two and a bit years ago. I had heard about someone I knew breaking a bone and they couldn’t even explain how it had happened, one of those freak accidents. So I started playing around with words connecting to fractured or broken and this led to “cast” and the theatre […]
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Instinct
The 39th poem from BE.aGaIN is Instinct. “Everything will be ok”, “these things happen”, “everything happens for a reason”, etc. are all truisms generally found in one a day wellness books or positive affirmations posted on Instagram. “All things shall pass” could be added to that list. They are truisms for a reason, in that, […]
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“There is no other colour that is better than black,
There are many others that are appropriate and happy but those colours belong on flowers”-Words attributed to Massimo Vignelli- famed Italian designer and all the more startling, considering that they come from the creator of the colourful NY subway map and the very blue and red American Airlines logo. Black, whether a heart or the […]
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Alarmist in Residence
The 37th poem of BE.aGaIN is “Dread”. There are the butterflies brought on by excited expectation and the adrenaline of anticipated adventure ,but the damned destructive drama that dread brings is a different unwanted sensation entirely. I chose to paint Dread as an artist in residence in your head who has also taken out a […]
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New Build (Unfinished)
Today on Behind The Lines, earth is front and centre.I had the idea for this piece when thinking that if you don’t like where you live, you move. Then I thought ,well, that’s all very well if you are a person of means in a relatively free first world society but the chances are globally […]
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Veneer Vidi Vici
Having just watched the 35 year old Lionel Messi lift the World Cup at his fifth attempt, the 35th poem from Be.aGaIN seems all the more apt. We can never see the disappointments, the hard work, the resilience, the trauma behind a winning world conquering smile. We can never really see in any human , […]
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Emptied Vessel
Emptied Vessel starts in a personified past tense- “I was electricity” and pretty soon it is apparent to the reader that the speaker is in fact dead and telling their story from an “unmarked tomb”. I also couldn’t resist the word play of “static” referring to the electricity but also the nature of the narrator […]
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Shutter
The 33rd poem from my debut collection is probably the simplest in both conception and language. I wanted to link something finite and concrete like two people who have stopped talking to each other -“A mouth that only mutters”- with something as light ,limited and delicate as a butterfly that “Only lives for one day”. […]
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Ashes looking for an Urn
The 32nd poem of BE.aGAIN opens with comparing the human body at end of life to that of a body of work of a banned author- “Like Unwanted words in Unwanted works”.-being burned by a group frightened of difference, intelligence or new ways of thinking. The men in “hoods or uniforms” were images that flashed […]
Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines 