All Purls. No Swine.
One hundred six years ago today, on December 4, 1917, the Scottish psychiatrist W.H. Rivers first delivered his report titled The Repression of War Experience. It wasn't published until several months later, by which time the title had been "borrowed" by WWI poet Siegfried Sassoon, in his poem of the same name: Repression of War… Continue reading “These are the men whose minds the dead have ravished”
While this is a lovely little couplet, with nary a verb in sight, it’s not my favorite Ezra Pound poem. That one is his parody of the Medieval English round, “Sumer is Icumen In,” which starts out: Winter is Icumen In Lhudde sing Goddamm . . . And, indeed, I was singing away and giving… Continue reading These Poems No Verbs
One of the most delightful parts of my weekend is opening my email (yes, really, I know how sad that sounds) on Sunday sometime and discovering Douglas Murray’s latest “Things Worth Remembering” installment for The Free Press. I’m a basic (paid) subscriber to the site, so I get all the links and can read the… Continue reading “Seeing God in a Cat”
There are differing opinions in the academic world when it comes to one of Rudyard Kipling's best known poems, My Boy Jack, written in 1916. Here's the text: "Have you news of my boy Jack?” Not this tide. "When d'you think that he'll come back?" Not with this wind blowing, and this tide. "Has any… Continue reading My Boy Jack: In Memoriam, John Kipling. And Worlds That Are Gone.
LOL. Just listening to my boyfriend Willie Nelson's latest-but-one album (I Don't Know a Thing About Love) which is a compilation of the works of country music songwriter/genius Harlan Howard. It includes such gems as Streets of Baltimore (otherwhere recorded by Gram Parsons and featuring a very young Emmylou Harris): https://youtu.be/VjAMoU6es-8 and She Called Me… Continue reading Do I Really Want “A Tiger by the Tail?” Not At My Age 🙄
There have been a few. Always hard to live with. On occasion, totally worth it. Sometimes, not: I offer this magnificent poem, courtesy of Douglas Murray's weekly column--Things Worth Remembering--on The Free Press: You said: “I’ll go to another country, go to another shore, find another city better than this one. Whatever I try to… Continue reading To All The Bulls In My Life Who’ve Taken Their China Shop With Them, Wherever They Go
I’ve mentioned once or twice that I’m an avid fan of the novels of mystery writer Louise Penny. A friend of mine introduced me to them several years ago, and at first I was hesitant, wondering how I’d get along with a Francophone Chief Inspector of the Sûreté du Québec, and his adventures in and… Continue reading The Things We Love: In Memoriam, Rupert Brooke
I don't follow many podcasts, but I always check out Jordan Peterson's regular long-form interview effort, and I often listen to it as I'm working around the farm. He recently sat down with another favorite, Douglas Murray, for a wide-ranging discussion which Peterson starts out characterizing as: ...how a misguided purpose leads to abject misery… Continue reading Jordan Peterson and Douglas Murray: Soldiers for Truth
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan A stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran Through caverns measureless to man Down to a sunless sea. I hope it’s clear I’m not talking about that silly movie with Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck (whoever he is), and Gene Kelly in his embarrassingly awful final film role. (IIRC, this was… Continue reading Xanadu
When a friend calls to me from the road And slows his horse to a meaning walk, I don’t stand still and look around On all the hills I haven’t hoed, And shout from where I am, What is it? No, not as there is a time to talk. I thrust my hoe in the… Continue reading A Time To Talk–World Poetry Day, March 21, 2023