Category: Creativity

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble

These days I am up before dawn so I can get out on the bike at first light. There are several reasons for this. For one thing the temperature is beginning to creep up; we generally only get one week of spring in this neck of the woods. Last week I was still wearing thermals and a waterproof. Today I set off in t-shirt and shorts and the sweat was pouring off almost immediately.
Continue reading “Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble”

Ballad of Brave Monty Mouse: Part Three

Part Three: Strangers from afar

One sunny day in early spring
Monty heard his mobile ring.
Half asleep and still abed,
He answered, and a small voice said:

“Have you room for any more?
They’ve just arrived and very poor.
They came ashore not long ago;
They seem quite lost and spirits low:     beware, you have been warned->

‘Skinny Dipping’ and other swimming adventures *

Well, the last time I swam in the nude was many years ago BC** …

We were in Malawi and climbing Mount Mulanje – a group of six adults with a couple of porters, on a four day three night hike. Continue reading “‘Skinny Dipping’ and other swimming adventures *”

Hills

So I’ve got this mate who is as keen as they get when it comes to cycling. To them, the best start to a day is to get out on the bike and sneak in a few miles before work. Foul weather or fine, muddy trails and water crossings make no difference, as long as they are out and about on two wheels, that’s what matters. So, I was particularly taken aback to find they don’t do hills. Or rather, they do them because they have to, in the same way that you have to finish your Brussels sprouts before you can have dessert.
Continue reading “Hills”

Thought for the day!

So fair is Square and what’s her sin?
That Queen is also in the bin.
The dreaded Minotaur is out,
The rules they set, they now just flout.

I know I’m but a little voice,
But now we have a dreadful choice:
Do we take this and subside,
Or maybe fight and side by side.
We’ll make these fools eat humble pie

I say fight and do or die. Naught to lose
But lots to gain, and that is surely worth the pain.
A flood of prose could do the trick,
But poetry is much more slick

A round of verse is  what we need
Together we will all succeed.
In showing them we are a force
We will  defeat them in due course.

Whoever they are!

An Immodest Announcement

Anime, Animus, Anima
Cover of my new book

Well, it’s happened. My new book is out, published by the UK-based poetry publisher Shearsman Books. I’m quite excited about it. Being an artist and book artist, I usually produce my own books in different sizes and shapes. This time someone else is doing it, which helps enormously. I’ll be giving a reading in London on April 20, which is also a thrill. You’re all so far flung that I doubt that I’ll see any bloggers there, but it would be a delight. Some day I’d like to put real faces to the many words that have been tumbling out in cyberspace, here and at the Site that Must Remain Nameless. Info at the reading can be found at http://www.shearsman.com/pages/editorial/readings.html

The poetry is not at all like what I usually post at the Site that Will Remain Unnamed. I think that’s supposed to be a warning. There’s a description (sort of) on the site at Shearsman and there’s another on Amazon.

Enough of this brazen self promotion!