a dictionary of spectral curiosities
‘Are you going home for Christmas?’ To ask someone that question, it must mean you are sure of a few things. First, that the person you’re speaking to is not currently at home, that home is somewhere they must return to, sooner or later. Secondly, by implication, that in one way or another you do …
A day late due to delays on trains travelling back from holiday, but I’m sure that you’ll find it worth the wait – a drop-in by Flight of the Dragonfly’s latest talent, Maria Cohut. A boring poem no one will want to readWrite me a poem about how it hurtshow you force a smilewhen talking …
"We don't do politics here.""Personally, I don't support any particular ideology." These are two phrases I've frequently heard when issues connected to discrimination have come up. Most recently, the first was shouted at me by a very irate building manager who affected not to understand why her migrant-background neighbours might feel upset by the Prime …
Continue reading "“You can’t post this here”: The story of a poem"
Today, I teared up in a bookstore. Today, I bought a book because the first two paragraphs of its final chapter made me feel like crying. I picked it up and leafed through it to kill time, and because the title, Borderlines, caught my eye. I picked it up with some cynicism, wondering what this …
Continue reading "Crying in bookstores, thinking of borders"
Eugène Carrière, Sleep (1897). Source: National Gallery of Art As a child, for many years, I used to have this experience at regular intervals: I'd wake up from a deep nightime sleep or a brief daytime nap, suddenly very alert, my heart racing, with a strong and unshakeable feeling that I had something very important …
A litle over two years ago I was writing about my struggle with people's assumptions about me in my adopted country. In that blog post, I was reflecting on the pitfalls of the not-so-innocent "where are you from?" question that many migrants like me face when they open their mouths to speak. The culprit? Doubtlessly …
I can't believe that I have almost reached the end of this year's poetry-writing challenge! Tomorrow, I'll have to find a way to celebrate, but for now, here's my next-to-last poem of the month! Once more, I followed the daily prompt, which suggested that we write a meditative poem. Mine is inspired by my uneasy …
Playing catch-up again, because this is my life. 😀 Sometimes it feels like a juggler walking a thin rope through fog. Anyway, here's my "debt" of four poems! For day 25, I wrote a poem about stained glass, for which I have a very healthy (I do assure you!) obsession. Stained Glass Whom do these …
Today, the optional prompt suggested that we get inspired by an encyclopaedia in writing our poems. And since this is the very Encyclopaedia Vanitatum – the encyclopaedia of worthless, transient things – the prompt fit like a glove. And so today's poem was written sub specie aeternitatis – considering timelessness. Sub Specie Aeternitatis Gromphadorhina portentosa Dionaea muscipula Achatina …
Today's prompt encouraged us to write a poem about an animal, which was an excellent excuse for me to to write about a cockroach for the first time! I dedicate this one to my patient hissers, Kafka and Rilke. The Cockroach He burrows, searching for the trail left him by his ancestors, alive with the warning …
Encyclopaedia Vanitatum 