Author: Rogan Wolf
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What does “Advisor” mean in Toadland ?
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Semantics – the study of words and their meanings – is an important subject, after all. I used to hang back from it as being peripheral, academic, finickity, pedantic. But now, especially in this era when the Lie is so greatly in the ascendant, I see more clearly that being alert to how words are…
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Where the Hoodlums Are
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The stanza was written and uploaded on the day the UK left the EU, January 31st, 2020. The picture is of a tower built in Victorian times in belated tribute to the great William Tyndale. It stands on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment, overlooking the Severn estuary. The lovely photograph was taken by Derek…
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High Noon is Nearly Upon Us. Where’s the Sheriff ?
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Around the world, the hoodlums and outlaws are running amok, in their suits of armour made of lies. By contrast, the sheriffs seem downcast, overwhelmed and on the run. I feel downcast and overwhelmed, too. Might it mean that I’m a sheriff, in disguise ? But there is no star in my cupboard. The picture…
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Toad and the Bong
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Some of the more ardent Tory Brexiters seem very exercised that, after all, Big Ben will not be breaking into song when the UK vacates the EU and seeks alternative residence in their delinquent yet decrepit Brexit wonderland. And the lying Mr Toad, our bouncy new Prime Minister, is coming up with ingenious plans to…
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What is a Hyphen to do in 2020 ?
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There’s A and there’s B, but that’s not all. There’s also the connection between them. What is it ? They are sharing more than just the air. They were born to share more than just opposite sides of the same wall. A hyphen-line, a connecting scratch on the page, a fragile raft of some sort…
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Poems for Public Display
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I never stop yearning for good poetry to reach past its traditional catchment areas – those shelves in the bookshop marked “Poetry,” the university literature department, the dedicated arts festival, the shy, solitary and possibly eccentric brain – and find a valid place for itself in the public square, the waiting room where we all…
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A New Tale of Two Cities
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This is a fable. I wrote it some time ago but it still feels apt, perhaps more than ever. It comes from a set of essays called “Fables and Reflections.” For the full set, see the link in the right hand margin of this page. Under the heading “Poems and Prose Online or on Film”,…
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Parrot’s in his Tower – and That’s All, Folks
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This stanza was written on the day after Mr Johnson’s election victory on December 12th, 2019. It will be the last stanza of “Parrot Addenda,” rounding off this series of 164 stanzas. It does not mean the Brexit story is over, of course. There’s plenty more to come. It just means that the situation is…