In Canterbury

It sure is much colder and chillier today, but at least it is dry. I'm currently in Canterbury as i write having done the second of two charity shop visits- the first being in Whitstable. I decided to stay in the warmth of the main library in the city, which has a very quiet reading and study room.Perfect for finishing off myreports and catching up with meilas, comments, and such like.

As usual, i have purchased books from these places,and one CD - a folk album by Kathryn Tickell and The Side. She plays the northumbrian pipes and performs Northumbrian traditional music. I shall be listening tothis album later tonight.


This is what these pipes look like -

Poems Of The Week

It seems that it is absolutely weeks on end since i last did a poetry post so here are some recent ones i have enjoyed. Both female poets and the first being self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” Audre Lorde dedicated both her life and her creative talent to confronting and addressing the injustices of racism, sexism, and homophobia.





Hanging Fire

BY AUDRE LORDE


I am fourteen
and my skin has betrayed me
the boy I cannot live without
still sucks his thumb
in secret
how come my knees are
always so ashy
what if I die
before morning
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.

I have to learn how to dance
in time for the next party
my room is too small for me
suppose I die before graduation
they will sing sad melodies
but finally
tell the truth about me
There is nothing I want to do
and too much
that has to be done
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.

Nobody even stops to think
about my side of it
I should have been on Math Team
my marks were better than his
why do I have to be
the one
wearing braces
I have nothing to wear tomorrow
will I live long enough
to grow up
and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed.

Audre Lorde, “Hanging Fire” from The Collected Poems of Audre Lorde.


Dawn

BY LOUISE GLÜCK


1

Child waking up in a dark room
screaming I want my duck back, I want my duck back

in a language nobody understands in the least —

There is no duck.

But the dog, all upholstered in white plush —
the dog is right there in the crib next to him.

Years and years — that’s how much time passes.
All in a dream. But the duck —
no one knows what happened to that.

2

They’ve  just met, now
they’re sleeping near an open window.

Partly to wake them, to assure them
that what they remember of  the night is correct,
now light needs to enter the room,

also to show them the context in which this occurred:
socks half  hidden under a dirty mat,
quilt decorated with green leaves —

the sunlight specifying
these but not other objects,
setting boundaries, sure of  itself, not arbitrary,

then lingering, describing
each thing in detail,
fastidious, like a composition in English,
even a little blood on the sheets —

3

Afterward, they separate for the day.
Even later, at a desk, in the market,
the manager not satisfied with the figures he’s given,
the berries moldy under the topmost layer —

so that one withdraws from the world
even as one continues to take action in it —

You get home, that’s when you notice the mold.
Too late, in other words.

As though the sun blinded you for a moment.

Source: Poetry (February 2008)

Suffragettes and Shelley

Today is another day to celebrate females as this day is the date that British women first got the vote a century ago. Apart from the well known suffragette movement , its militant wing, there was thousands of ordinary women, known as suffragists, who campaigned successfully to have their voices heard too.

The writer Mary Shelley was born into a politically radical family, with an anarchist father and her mother the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. And today is the 200th anniversary of her novel Frankenstein,Mary’s second novel that was published in 1818.

The reason for this is that there are two new books that will be on my wants list -

Hearts and Minds: Suffragettes, Suffragists and How Women Won the Vote
By Jane Robinson

And

In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein
By Fiona Sampson

Bro In Hospital

Here is an update on my brother's condition. He posted this on Facebook 22 hours ago -

!Attended out of hours clinic yesterday with severe back pain. The GP referred me to a vascular surgeon immediately and before I knew it I was being admitted - with a massive arterial embolism - the surgeon wanted to operate straightaway. He was blunt and clear. Without the op I could die if it burst, at the same time making it clear that this ranked in the top four ops in order of difficulty. Hobson’s Choice. Within four hours I was under the knife and to make matters worse I had suffered a severe bleed around the aneurism. Six units of blood were used.

Typing this is an indication that I survived, thanks to a brilliant Consultant Vascular Surgeon. But there is a long way to go with a number of possible complications. Don’t want to think about those too much - the post operative pain is enough for now...."


So thankfully it has been caught in time and thank goodness that surgeon moved so fast. I am so thankful for his experience. I love my bro too mucg to loose him now.

STD Episode 10

Just watched the latest Star Trek Discovery after the Xmas hols sleep mode. So episode 10 see them in a parallel universe and n ow the evil empire is the Terran Empire - oh please , this has been done before , xenophobic humans versus the rest of the universe. with Klingons, Vulcans and others as the resistance.

I was really hoping they had slipped into some other unknown part of the universe far away from what we have seen already in any Star Trek franchise.

Slight disappointment , but it was a good episode. I just want them to go back to their own universe at haste or at leas# somewhere elsewhere in this vast universe.

Non Person

The face i hate now - my fucking cousin - hope you are fine in your swill bin qith that trollop ... you are eviscerated from our lives – may yup rot in hell.



Photo from 2012

Books Found Today

These are the books i found today -




Just four but all interesting reads and two were hardbacks.