a dictionary of spectral curiosities
I had almost forgotten that April is National Poetry Writing Month, and as a consequence I almost missed the start. Well then, this would be the second year in a row when I am challenging myself to write one poem a day. Wish me luck, please! (Also, I've been feeling really down for a while, …
Continue reading "Of Writing as Therapy, or How Poetry Just Made My Day Better"
[D]ead bodies can talk if you know how to listen to them, and they want to talk, and they want us to sit down beside them and hear their sad stories. [...] They don't want to be voiceless; they don't want to be pushed aside, obliterated. ~ Margaret Atwood, Negotiating with the Dead This is …
Please try to ignore my almost fetishistic love for abstract and/or metaphoric titles. This post is about a lovely little art exhibition at the Walker art gallery, Liverpool. I'm talking about The Living and the Dead, an exhibition of some of visual artist John Kirby's paintings and sculptures, which is on until the 15th April …
Continue reading "On the Margins of an Unspeakable “Something”"
Just another thing that I wrote in-between having self-doubts and doing so-called "real work". For me, poetry remains a way of getting rid of all worries. Someone very dear to me said that this particular poem was "very ugly". In fact, that is so true that I'd love to use it as a sort of …
A place that I can seldom shake off my mind... A road that leads to nowhere... A moon that only shyly peeks out from the clouds... A place of farewells... And tonight's huge and very pagan moon... Another year has gone by. I salute you all.
You will, I hope, forgive me, as in spite of our being in the midst of Christmas celebration, I will entirely ignore Christmas in this my blog update. It's not that I dislike Christmas - much to the contrary, in fact - but I won't just blog about it because it's "the season". Instead, I'll …
Continue reading "Not Here, Not There, Not Anywhere: Liminal Spaces"
That's the thing with the winter holidays: I never seem to be in the mood for "merry-making" when Christmas is just around the corner. Of course, that's explainable, as I'm mostly up half the night every single night doing random stuff. Mostly, I'm supposed to be "working" (whatever that means), but what I end up …
Continue reading "Productive Insomnia Is the Best Way to Celebrate Christmas"
I would like to start by assuring anyone who cares enough about the topic at hand that the following - rather random - blog update doesn't count as procrastination, it counts as inspiration. In fact, has it never happened to any of you to become so obsessed with linger so much on one subject that …
Continue reading "Please Define “Procrastination” Before Pointing the Finger"
Against all odds, this turned out to be a curiously productive day. So I've decided (although, admittedly, a bit half-heartedly) to share my newest poem with the world. For what it's worth. And look, I've even added a (not very creative) photo-illustration of my own devising! Nothing by yours truly Behind a maze of smiles …
So. I promised some comments on the recently posted photo-postcards. I've chosen to have a closer look at some that particularly picked my curiosity. The first would be the photograph showing the phantomatic silhouette of a woman, pasted onto a black carton "frame" with a postcard-style verso: The look of it - the silhouette fading …
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