Are you worried about being indecisive? Have you ever tried to read a poem and then found yourself mystified by bits of French or references to Sisyphus or Keats or some dead Greek myth or whatnot that you never learned? …
Every generation deserves its own impossible school story. This one was written almost thirty years ago but is set in 1956 — the year Lauden McVey, best known for her golden age crime fiction, published her first boarding school novel…
W3 by Nancy Richy via The Skeptics Kaddish. Take a look. Join in. And while I’m at it – – a silly ditty – a Quadrille – in exactly 44 words on the topic of myth for dVerse Poets’ Pub Myths…
This week I’ve been arguing with Donald Hall, reveling in Letters from Iceland (W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice), and reading some rather good poetry. Hall died in 2018, so my debate with him has been entirely academic. My focus was…
We are all John Henry at the rock face battling with the steam-driven drill. I’m certain this is not an original thought, but it was new to me, so it felt that way. My introduction to John Henry was via…
Tasting Notes She was reading the tasting notes on a turmeric jar – melted butter, jasmine, honey. She gazed at the Brown Betty teapot on the shelf and felt how lucky she was to live this life, grateful to be…
Just a few pics from a recent trip. Here’s just one painting from the excellent exhibit at The Imperial War Museum Beauty and Destruction: Wartime London in Art It’s by Ethel Léontine Gabain, who was commissioned by the War Artists’…
In 1943, George Stonier – using one of his many fishy pen names – wrote a gleeful burlesque about a trainload of male poets, both living and dead, journeying west out of Paddington station. He even skewered one of the…
Before the rain settled in for the weekend, we strolled over to the Central Park Conservatory Garden. The spring bulbs had already been dug up and were being given away last time we visited, and the new plantings weren’t in…
Coming through the security check at Heathrow recently, my carry-on bag triggered an alert and was pulled aside for inspection. At the request of the agent, I opened the bag. “Anything sharp?” she asked. I suddenly had a moment of…
There are moments in literary culture when one senses, however faintly, that something is about to remain exactly as it is, but with unusual significance. Such a moment may now be upon us, as C. Langley Dunwood’s newest work, The…
I am his Highness’ dog at Kew; Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you? Evening traffic homeward burns Swift and even on the turns. Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though;…
“Sweet, bland commendations fall everywhere upon the scene; a universal, if somewhat lobotomized, accommodation reigns.” — Elizabeth Hardwick, 1959 One of my online routines is reading The Book Jotter each week. It’s a reliable way to keep up with what’s…
The Scattering At the beige bungalow the apple tree held its white breath— petals loosening. “It needs a prop,” she said, holding the small trunk to centre as blossoms drifted below the clothesline. “I told…
The Dragon, the Princess, and St. George: One Story, Three Paintings, One Poem, Three Perspectives. First the Legend Behind the Paintings The most famous tale associated with St. George, as patron saint of England and champion for Christianity, is of…