We called it the Leonardo cartoon. We visited it every week.

December 1, 2024

Leonardo da Vinci (about 1499-1500) The Burlington House Cartoon.Charcoal (and wash?) heightened with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm. Purchased with a special grant and contributions from the Art Fund, The Pilgrim Trust, and through a public appeal organised by the Art Fund, 1962. NG6337. Available at: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/NG6337 There were … More We called it the Leonardo cartoon. We visited it every week.

The silliest binary of them all is that between positive and negative life events.

November 29, 2024

A quotation from Balzac is worthless as a  proposition of a supposed truth as held and stated by that great soul, for these quotations are often, as this is, the stated view of a character in a novel, a thing up for debate. It is a good proposition to start with in  response to this … More The silliest binary of them all is that between positive and negative life events.

‘Stop saying words, my sister whispered back. I want to hear the story’. This is a blog  on Ali Smith (2024) ‘Gliff ‘.

November 26, 2024

‘Stop saying words, my sister whispered back. I want to hear the story’.[1] The paradox may be that we express our identity in words and names not in the process of telling and hearing our stories. I think Ali Smith thinks that may be true of the configuration of sex/gender too. This is a blog  … More ‘Stop saying words, my sister whispered back. I want to hear the story’. This is a blog  on Ali Smith (2024) ‘Gliff ‘.

If mine own self contains multiples then night does not follow day, they are simultaneous and not necessarily in contest.

November 24, 2024

The idea that the surest thing on earth is that night follows day in indubitable sequence is so often invoked that it is the stock-in-trade of politicians, especially those involved of the hubris of building and defending nation states within expanding imperial boundaries and in the belief that might is right: note the words of … More If mine own self contains multiples then night does not follow day, they are simultaneous and not necessarily in contest.

They say that it will snow tonight, my husband’s very ill, yet the Bishop’s Park will be AGLOW this very night too.

November 22, 2024

They say that it will snow tonight;Full sixteen centimetres cold in snow,And yet today it’s mild in morning, Insisting that it all continues, beatsOut the bells of continuum in changeLike Tennyson’s ‘wild bells’, ringing the oldOut to welcome the new into our lives.But slow down wild bells, immoderatelySwelling with pride too soon. Let me still … More They say that it will snow tonight, my husband’s very ill, yet the Bishop’s Park will be AGLOW this very night too.

From: (anon.) ‘Forgotten Cuisine: The Wild and Strange Tastes of the Bete-Sauvage Family: French emigrants in Boston during the early years of the American Revolution’ [1904].

November 21, 2024

What are your family’s top 3 favorite meals? I found this strange poem inside a copy of a bedraggled book entitled A Forgotten Cuisine: The Wild and Strange Tastes of the Bete-Sauvage Family’: French emigrants in Boston during the early years of the American Revolution by an anonymous author published in 1904 but appearing in … More From: (anon.) ‘Forgotten Cuisine: The Wild and Strange Tastes of the Bete-Sauvage Family: French emigrants in Boston during the early years of the American Revolution’ [1904].

A love poem to Geoff to get us through dark days of illness. Based on Geoff’s beloved poem by Walt Whitman [below]

November 20, 2024

My husband lies in bed, breathlessNot with excitement but wonderingFrom where the next breath will ariseTo quell his mortal fear.Thinking of him, I recall a poem he loves:Where dreaming stands for Whitman’s needTo believe in lawless love ‘tween boys.Boys who will be men pose momentlyTo model men who still desire toBe boys, who as they … More A love poem to Geoff to get us through dark days of illness. Based on Geoff’s beloved poem by Walt Whitman [below]