When they excavated the library at Herculaneum they found hundreds of scrolls. Mostly stoical philosophy, but to have a library and a country estate two thousand years ago meant the owner had wealth. You can see them looking at the scrolls and after years of collecting knowing where to look for what they wanted to…
Month: April 2010
Henry 5th and Barbarella
They don’t go together do they. When I was twelve and reaching what the Catholics euphemistically (and ironically) call ‘the age of reason’ we had a small black and white Bush TV and Olivier’s Henry 5th was on one side and Barbarella was on the other. They crossed over and I wanted to see this…
Enjoyment
I have heard people say ‘x takes enjoyment from the little things’ and I have begun to wonder if ‘things’ give joy, are there any that are little? We are very wrapped up in what we as humans consider to be minor and major elements of our society and most of them have to do…
File And Memo
The human brain is an amazing thing. Just when you think you have forgotten something it comes back to you. Just when you wish you had forgotten something is swings into your mind in full colour. And all those childhood memories that lay dormant throughout one’s career grow back with stronger ties as one ages….
People Ask Me
Where my poems come from. I don;t deign my work with the title poetry, I think of them as thoughts I idly write down. I am not a natural poet I was brought up by a natural poet and her work has always filled my mind. So, for those of you who want to know,…
Love Sonnet
Only when I am with you do I have A sense of everything: of possession And possessed, of the liberty in love, Of the frank and easy conversation Dovetailed with the intensity of your Eyes,of the waterfall of your ideas Growing closeness like crystals in the pores Of my skin, of the shadow which appears…
If Blue Skies Are Not Enough
My uncle once looked into the distance from a road and pointed to a hill on top of which grew eight large trees. He looked at their shape their crowns made and said, “Only god could make that.” I was a teenager and felt it churlish to point out that the trees had been planted…
King Arthur
I used to love reading about Camelot which is really strange when you think what the knights were really like; I didn’t find reading about the Crusades half as appealing not did I take to reading about Charlemagne and Roland. And it wasn’t the dragons, evil witches, or eventful love-stories I enjoyed most. It was…
Travelling With Four Legs
The first dog I ever remember was a Labrador/Boxer cross who lived with us until I was nine years old. She had two puppies and the father visited to see how they were the day they were born. The fastest dog I ever knew was Bella a terrier cross who outran a Whippet in our…
How To Make Wisdom
The first thing you have to understand, and it is not easy, is that you do not have to be human to be wise. Some people, of course, find that perverse and strange but the reason it is important is because we often say ‘nature is wise’, and many other times we say ‘it happened…