Category: General
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The Caged Parrot Watches the Demons Dance
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This piece returns to a preoccupation of my own, concerning language. What is the point of writing, the point of taking a position and then articulating it ? And of course that leads to the question, why keep writing these stanzas, these mere words amid all the bizarre and frantic and disastrous political action going…
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A Poem Exhibition in Clifton Cathedral
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About three months ago, I organised an exhibition of poem-posters in Clifton Cathedral. This is a bold and wonderful Roman Catholic building in Bristol, designed and built in the 1960’s and 70’s. The exhibition took place on a balcony there, built above the font and overlooking the altar. As soon as I am able, I…
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The Parrot Glimpses Mr Toad
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It continues to look certain that our new Prime Minister will be a toad. In saying that, I am thinking partly of Mr Toad of “Wind in the Willows.” I am also mindful that the UK ambassador in Washington, Mr Kim Darroch, has just resigned, due to being betrayed by some colleague, and to the…
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Jez Has Trouble with Today
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In the press, the same phrases have kept coming up in relation to Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to take a clear position, or offer any real leadership, on Brexit. Almost on a weekly basis, there has been “new pressure” on him from one or another of his various supporter groupings, to “come off the fence.” “Crunch…
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The Parrot Returns to Talk of False Gods
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When I wrote this, Boris Johnson was entertaining the nation with the question of when a certain photograph was taken. It claimed to show that the nation’s prospective Prime Minister had now made up with his girl-friend after their row. It was therefore safe to vote for him. He was accused of lying (again). The…
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Speaking of the Worst
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The stanza above makes extensive reference to that extraordinary and justifiably famous poem by W.B. Yeats called “The Second Coming”. Yeats’ poem applies so closely to our own present time, of course. But might that be true of every present time ? Shakespeare too was gripped by the fear of breakdown in the order of…
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The Parrot on Maybot and the Minotaur
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This stanza is obviously about Trump’s State Visit to the UK, already started. It is astonishing the space we in this country continue to give to blatant felony and the lie and to the creatures thereof. The more space we give them, of course, the more they grow, like Tiddalick the frog. Is this visit…