I felt a Funeral in my Brain (280) – by Emily Dickinson I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,And Mourners to and froKept treading – treading – till it seemedThat Sense was breaking through – And when they all were seated,A Service, like a Drum –Kept beating – beating – till I thoughtMy mind was …
Let’s go with an old one today… Life by Charlotte Bronte LIFE, believe, is not a dreamSo dark as sages say;Oft a little morning rainForetells a pleasant day. Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,But these are transient all;If the shower will make the roses bloom,O why lament its fall ? Rapidly, merrily,Life’s sunny hours flit by,Gratefully, …
I Have Been a Stranger in a Strange Land (Rita Dove) Life’s spell is so exquisite, everything conspires to break it. Emily Dickinson It wasn’t bliss. What was bliss but the ordinary life? She’d spend hours in patter, moving through whole days touching, sniffing, tasting . . . exquisite housekeeping in a charmed world. And yet there was always more of …
What if the grass is greener (by Erin Hanson) What if grass is greener on the other side, Because it’s always raining there, Where the ones who never fail to give, Hardly have enough to spare, Where the people with the broadest smiles, Have pillows filled with tears, And the bravest ones you’ve ever known, …
“Four Quartets” Part II: East Coker (by T.S. Eliot) … Home is where one starts from. As we grow olderThe world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated Of dead and living. Not the intense momentIsolated, with no before and after,But a lifetime burning in every momentAnd not the lifetime of one man onlyBut of old …
Holding My Beads (by Grace Nicholls) Unforgiving as the course of justice In erasable as my scars and fate. i am here a woman…with all my lives strung out like beads before me It isn’t privilege or pity that I seek It isn’t reverence or safety quick happiness or purity but the power to be …
My mother in law passed away, suddenly but peacefully yesterday morning. Her death has left us all raw and slightly stunned. She was a beautiful woman and is already greatly missed. Nature’s first green is gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf’s a flower;But only so an hour.Then leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to …
Breaking all my rules here, which is always a liberating thing to do, and writing about poetry on a Saturday… The Cheltenham Festival of Literature is still on and today I attended a poetry event: Anthony Anaxagorou… absolutely brilliant. There is a really good article about his latest collection ‘After the Formalities’ here. He read …
with a little bit of literature thrown in… Did you know that ‘Abbey Road’, the Beatles’ final album was released today? I didn’t, someone just told me so I’m sharing. Growing up in Italy yes I knew who The Beatles were, of course, but I wasn’t really a major fan – unlike my mother who …
Yesterday we had a special service at Gloucester Cathedral for this year School Leavers. Aside from the fact that I can’t quite reconcile with the fact my first born has finished school… it was a wonderful service. Beautiful words, beautiful hymns… and I cried… managed to hold back the ugly crying… but I felt a …
while you're ahead... 