The Parrot Seeks a Cage
Here is that parrot again, bird of paradise, thundering from his cage in rhyme royal, claiming his liberty to speak his truth. He fears for his young and sees no true or worthy leaders anywhere, merely creatures of self-interest seeking their own gain from our flounderings… Continue reading The Parrot Seeks a Cage
I Send Greetings
The building pictured here is St Aldhelm’s Chapel. It is Norman, dark and damp and situated on the edge of a Dorset cliff, facing south. Sitting there, enclosed in those thick walls, you feel a bit like being in a deep cave, but placed up high… Continue reading I Send Greetings
Lying to a Sovereign People is a crime of High Treason.
https://youtu.be/37fYSM3FHXw
A few days ago, my partner pointed her rather basic smart phone in the direction of my aging mug and held the phone there, with amazing steadiness, while I talked at it for the next three minutes.
I argued that, if a holder of public office, or applicant for public… Continue reading Lying to a Sovereign People is a crime of High Treason.
A Larger Size of Time
(written for Sylvia, aged 90)
Does the moment ever shrink,
as if walls are closing in,
or skyline flattening
to some endless level of sea ?
As hour by hour the years accumulate
it might be thought that the high
moments of… Continue reading A Larger Size of Time
Parrot Addenda
Over the Summer and Autumn of 2018, I have written a series of stanzas in rhyme royal, mostly on the subject of Brexit. Here they are, as a collection.
Each has been written as a separate item, rather than as part of a longer poem. They were produced in response to, and often very… Continue reading Parrot Addenda
In Despite of White Horses
Who is Mr Corbyn ? Mr Corbyn is a mist, a mild man standing on a platform made of our storm, carrying our projections. How to disentangle the yearnings of the young audience and the nightmares of the old one, from this slight, ageing man on… Continue reading In Despite of White Horses
The Crier Frets
They keep coming, still in Rhyme Royal. Once it was the parrot who begged liberty to speak. But now he’s become the town crier, in a cage, caught in a storm. Today’s stanza was brought to mind by a good piece by Matthew d’Ancona. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/05/networked-far-right-tommy-robinson It… Continue reading The Crier Frets
…And Smash the Butterfly
Is this latest little necklace of words in the Rhyme Royal verse-form only a portrait of Mr Trump ?… Continue reading ...And Smash the Butterfly
Paradise Destroy
“Humankind cannot bear very much Reality” is a quote from the poem “Four Quartets” by TS Eliot. If humanity is ever to be buried in a graveyard, once our work is done, this quote will be writ large on our gravestone… Continue reading Paradise Destroy