Metrophobia You have to do it. Teach poetry. It’s on the syllabus. Required. Everyone hates it. What did you think I meant— fear of public transit? As if that weren’t reasonable. Paris, Washington, D.C.— you’ve seen the crowds: tourists and politicians, sometimes both. No—this is worse. Verse played up, popped its tether, gone feral: contagious, … Read more
Beryl Goes to School Chapter Three: Beryl Meets Top Girl Beryl Goes to School: Chapter One: On the Train Beryl Goes to School: Chapter Two: A Most Dreadful Day Chapter Three: Beryl meets Top Girl “Beryl,” a sharp voice broke into Beryl’s daydream, “why have you not eaten your tapioca pudding?” Beryl looked down at … Read more
A Match Made in Mechanical Heaven LinkedIn Meets the Lyric McPoem On the Ever-Evolving Tapestry of Becoming: A Testament That’s a great question, the river said. You are right, said the moon. Let me reframe that. It’s important to recognise you have always been a scalable, resilient, rich tapestry. Unfold your wings, allow the ache … Read more
Beryl Goes to School Chapter Two Click to read Chapter One A Most Dreadful Day Beryl sat down by the trout stream and cried. She missed her mummy, and she missed her daddy, and she missed her pet sheep, Dolly. She had no friend, and everyone was quite horrid. She could not stop the hot … Read more
I Will Arise Now I will arise now, or not. There is no hurry. I can stroll, stare at the nasturtiums growing in the concrete planters on the sidewalk, or wander mid-morning, reading the backs of cans, comparing, at length, the astonishing quantities of salt in tomato and lentil soup. Once there was the evening … Read more
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? And it makes you feel excluded before you’ve even started on the poem? Well, no … Read more
Every generation deserves its own impossible school story. This one was written almost thirty years ago but is set in the 1950s — the decade when Lauden McVey, best known for her golden age crime fiction, published her first boarding school novel for girls under the pen name Darcy Andrews. Beryl had hoped to arrive … Read more
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 Young Einstein passed math with style, And Marie Antoinette, meanwhile – Never said this: “Let … Read more
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 his famous essay ‘Poetry and Ambition’, in which Hall introduced the term ‘McPoem’ to describe … Read more
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 Lonnie Donegan and his skiffle band on the radio as a child. You probably know … Read more
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 like the spice and the teapot: perfectly crafted and fragrant. With a tilt of the … Read more
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’ Advisory Committee, WAAC, in 1940. In spite of poor health, she travelled all over the … Read more
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 very poets who then published the story in the journal he edited – Penguin New … Read more
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 yet. Still, there was plenty to enjoy. The day was windy, and the foxgloves shivered … Read more
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 dread that I had foolishly packed the Swiss Army knife in the side pocket. You … Read more