“He first deceased : she for a little tried
To live without him, liked it not, and died.”
There they stand,
those old antagonists,
posing at the head of the high-walled city,
that vast coronet of ruin.
Category General
The Lying Toad is Back, the Tousled Look, the Winning Smirk, Our Leader…
The prose piece that follows begins with the mismatch in the UK, between the present Prime Minister’s relative popularity on the one hand, and his long established disregard for the Nolan Principles of ethical conduct on the other. The piece provides a reminder that our Prime Minister has… Continue reading The Lying Toad is Back, the Tousled Look, the Winning Smirk, Our Leader...
Trace a Fraught Frontier
Where’s the fraught frontier between
Mercia and East Anglia ? Guards were stationed here
gazing out from within. And within
was somewhere to die for. And without
was someone to kill. I explored it once,
that fraught frontier, now footpath
between nettles. It was sunday
and Cambridge families were out walking there
after a good lunch.
And where’s
the fraught frontier between Wales
Making the Earth Whole
The voice of truth is bound to be a lonely one. That would seem to be a rule in human life. For a race in question, it spells disaster.
These three articles are worth reading, if you have not already read them :
The Establishing of Ground
The reference here is to a book and an image I keep referring to. It is called “I and Thou” and is by Martin Buber.
Buber compares two essential ways of reaching out beyond the Self to meet the world : one is I – It (my object) and the… Continue reading The Establishing of Ground
A Second Song of I and Thou
There are two themes at work is this series of “songs”. One is I and Thou. The other is I and My Shadow. I am alternating the themes each day, like plaiting a piece of string. So for this third song, here is I and Thou again.
Of course I… Continue reading A Second Song of I and Thou
Songs from our Seclusion (congratulations, Keir Starmer)
What can poetry offer our enforced Corona seclusion, this locked-in time of question, tension, upset and loss, this desert time ?
In some eras and cultures, poetry has played and still plays a major role in the community’s life. In others, barely… Continue reading Songs from our Seclusion (congratulations, Keir Starmer)