Book covers : Late Heaney by Nicholas Allen The Spirit Level by Seamus Heaney
You know that thing where you start reading the guide book and you then realise you'd better visit the place.
I am fascinated by the *furious* reaction to FT writing – amid dozens of pieces about the war – an article highlighting Dubai residents scrambling to get back to UAE. To avoid big tax bill.
Norman MacCaig on Philip Larkin “I used to judge his poetry very unfairly...I admired his wit, his brevity... But I couldn’t like it, because I’m a happier man than he was…” [adopts lugubrious deep voice] “ 'Life is a walk down Cemetery Road' - stuff and - think of all the pubs you pass on the way!”
A funny post, but slightly depressing that "And must this body die?" (Isaac Watts) and "And can it be?" (Charles Wesley) are apparently so unknown
Yes! You and I live on the same street, I reckon, and this is up it.
For example...https://youtu.be/iN8O3oy3UOk?si=DNNid_ezkBEQvWxa
Yuri's nose-to-brain ratio gets him into trouble sometimes but it also makes me laugh
That whole YouTube channel - Culture Vulture Rises - is great and has decent poetry content...
WB really trying with his spelling here - he has said to himself "i before e except after c" and congratulated himself on a rare success
Some say it's the origin of wonder (it isn't)
Very cool sweater for someone nearing 80!
Haha. Good look at QUB tonight!
Wow. Such a fantastic generation of poets. I hope ML talked to you about Fats Domino!
Did Longley or Mahon visit the school when you were there?
Wonderful to be taught by a practicing poet!
Thank you dear Kathryn
No, I've never even heard of her blog before
This is such a perceptive and thought-provoking close reading!
The "Bookish Beck" blog likes "Dirt Rich" - you might like it too...
Hurray!
All of those Rudge/Dicks songs have a tremendous period charm - sleight-of-hand lyrics and Escher staircase chord progressions: Winkle Picker Shoes Blues, The Bird On The Second Floor, Get Your Hair Cut, etc... Myles and Ted were hugely underrated, I think.
For much the same reason it was his one "record to save from the waves" when Noel Coward was on Desert Island Discs
Surely possible to find AJ somewhere! It has aged like a fine wine. And I recommend the relatively recent Gunn biog by Michael Nott. Nice that you're on here with the rest of us holier-than-thous, Andrew.
It's great, isn't it. I wonder how much of this he will be able to do before being submerged in Head of House business.
The Kaleidoscope To climb these stairs again, bearing a tray, Might be to find you pillowed with your books, Your inventories listing gowns and frocks As if preparing for a holiday. Or, turning from the landing, I might find My presence watched through your kaleidoscope, A symmetry of husbands, each redesigned In lovely forms of foresight, prayer and hope. I climb these stairs a dozen times a day And, by that open door, wait, looking in At where you died. My hands become a tray Offering me, my flesh, my soul, my skin. Grief wrongs us so. I stand, and wait, and cry For the absurd forgiveness, not knowing why.
"Grief wrongs us so". Poem for a Sunday, by Douglas Dunn.
Theo Dorgan here saying something really valuable and true...
From Graeme Richardson's recently published book Dirt Rich.
