Signs.
‘That crow knows that you love me.’ Swiveller was sharpening her pen. Metaphorically of course. For this was the twentieth century after all. How did she know then? It was the angle… Read More »Signs.
English Resources
What the Dickens!
Oliver wanted more of more. And if Oliver was more woman than man (so Swiveller said celebrating) then all that lonesome wandering had to lead somewhere and that was to the Artful… Read More »What the Dickens!
Premonitions: Carol Ann Duffy
Dedicated with love to the memory of UA Fanthorpe We first met when your last breathcooled in my palm like an egg;you dead, and a thrush outsidesang it was morning.I… Read More »Premonitions: Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann Duffy: Colours by Someone Else
COLOURS BY SOMEONE ELSE Sweetheart, this evening your smell is all aroundDown by the fishing-boats, the sky trembling above the pier. Your tears have dried on my palms.Darling, we should… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy: Colours by Someone Else
Modern Love: Douglas Dunn
Modern Love It is summer, and we are in a houseThat is not ours, sitting at a tableEnjoying minutes of a rented silence,The upstairs people gone. The pigeons lullTo sleep the under-tens… Read More »Modern Love: Douglas Dunn
My favourite Carol Ann Duffy poem with Warming her pearls!
Anne Hathaway ‘Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed…’ (from Shakespeare’s will) The bed we loved in was a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas… Read More »My favourite Carol Ann Duffy poem with Warming her pearls!
Carol Ann Duffy is Poet Laureate!
I am delighted to hear the news this morning that Carol Ann Duffy will be the new Poet laureate. How fabulous for all those readers who have found so much… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy is Poet Laureate!
Wonder
Even the bluebells held their breath
NLP and Life Metaphor: Dickens and Bleak House
London. Michaelmas term lately over, and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln’s Inn Hall. Implacable November weather. As much mud in the streets as if the waters had but newly… Read More »NLP and Life Metaphor: Dickens and Bleak House
Flo again
Flo lifted her thumb over the golden script and shaped her perfect mouth around the letters produced out of the purple handkerchief: ‘I can choose to go why-ing, anytime …’ She lifted… Read More »Flo again
Flo finds her flow!
Flo was between floors and held her famous long thumb exactly three inches away from the bell. But she didn’t ring, there was no need , as the shadow of a smiling… Read More »Flo finds her flow!
A poem for April
If I have made, my lady, intricate If I have made, my lady, intricateimperfect various things chiefly which wrongyour eyes (frailer than most deep dreams are frail)songs less firm… Read More »A poem for April
clavicle
there…. tenderly uncovered angel wings breathing….
Frank O' Hara: For Grace, after a Party
For Grace, After A Party You do not always know what I am feeling.Last night in the warm spring air while I wasblazing my tirade against someone who doesn’tinterestme,… Read More »Frank O' Hara: For Grace, after a Party
Frank O Hara : Morning
Mathew Welton was thoughtful and entertainingly reflective last week at a research day at Bolton University. He was discussing the experience of writing an opera about Frank O Hara and… Read More »Frank O Hara : Morning
Millions.
Last week I attended a very enjoyable day course run by Jane Davis at the University of Bolton on the Get into Reading Project which has achieved moving and powerful… Read More »Millions.
Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita
The first time I read this helter-skelter of a novel I remember secretly crossing myself just in case….for Bulgakov’s masterpiece takes the reader to meet a very human Jesus in… Read More »Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita
Blood
She wanted to taste blood. There was a certainty about her mortality which consoled; no lie; no obfuscation; no false hopes. Just the simplicity of blood. And the strange thing… Read More »Blood
Steppes
The plants looked grey today and even the old crow seemed preoccupied. She had dressed carefully and wrapped a scarf about her throat and head. When she looked to the… Read More »Steppes
John Steinbeck : Of Mice and Men.( Chapter Two) Curley's Wife.
Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A girl was standing there looking in. She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes,… Read More »John Steinbeck : Of Mice and Men.( Chapter Two) Curley's Wife.
E.M.Forster A Room with a View: Opening Chapter
The Signora had no business to do it,” said Miss Bartlett, “no business at all. She promised us south rooms with a view close together, instead of which here are… Read More »E.M.Forster A Room with a View: Opening Chapter
Frank O'Hara: The Day Lady Died.
The Day Lady Died It is 12:20 in New York a Fridaythree days after Bastille day, yesit is 1959 and I go get a shoeshinebecause I will get off… Read More »Frank O'Hara: The Day Lady Died.
Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush
The Darkling Thrush I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-gray,And Winter’s dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day.The tangled bine-stems scored the sky Like strings of… Read More »Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush
Stig Larsson: The Girl Who played with Fire
Well I started the book last night and have thus been reunited with Lisbeth Salander, this time in the midst of Hurricane Matilda where she disposes of a potential… Read More »Stig Larsson: The Girl Who played with Fire
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Sometimes a day in bed with the aftermath of migraine can yield untold pleasure! This book had been recommended in the most positive terms and had sat by the side… Read More »The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations
Chapter 8 Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens Nicholas assisted his master to put on an old fustian shooting- jacket, which he took down from a peg in the passage; and… Read More »Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations
Carol Ann Duffy: Dark School
Dark School It is dusk when I enter the classroom, the last of the chalky Latin verbs going out on the board. I sit at a desk at the back… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy: Dark School
Carol Ann Duffy : Mrs Lazarus (again see rest of blog)
Mrs Lazarus I had grieved. I had wept for a night and a dayover my loss, ripped the cloth I was married infrom my breasts, howled, shrieked, clawedat the… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy : Mrs Lazarus (again see rest of blog)
Carol Ann Duffy: Mrs Tilscher's Class ( Three-see rest of blog!)
You could travel up the Blue Nilewith your finger, tracing the routewhile Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswan.That for an hour, then a skittle of milkand the chalky… Read More »Carol Ann Duffy: Mrs Tilscher's Class ( Three-see rest of blog!)
The Remains of the Day: Kazuo Ishiguro
“It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preoccupying my imagination now for some days. An expedition, I should say, which I will undertake… Read More »The Remains of the Day: Kazuo Ishiguro