Obsessed by devotion
and kissing the irons
and kneeling low before love
Gradually daylight
Intruding into the house of the dead
To be gathered up
Into the dream

Move mountains
Through the slit of a window
Evening in blood
Pain possessed
A key in the lock
No letter willing to stay written
And the door is a heart thrown open

And to tally the seasons
In the dark
Who can do that

The past of this morning
Put to flight
Future only in the lines of your hand
And there once and
Never again thus it is written

Marja in flames
The house of the dead in flames
Ice and key and mute
And now this minute
Never again –

Besessen von Hingabe
und küssend das Eisen
und auf den Knien vor der Liebe
Stückweise der Tag
eindringend in das Totenhaus
und ihn zu sammeln
zum Traum

Berge versetzen
durch…

Corstorphine Old Parish Church, Edinburgh

I stumbled across this lovely church just a couple of weeks or so ago as I walked on an errand. It became the subject of a watercolour painting that I decided to do that same weekend.

Inktober was created by Jake Parker in 2009 as a challenge to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. It has since grown into a worldwide endeavor with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year.

Endlich Freitag, ich gehe auch in die Kneipe…

Sohar Fort, Oman

I lived in Oman for a few years in the early 1970s at which time the old forts in the country had not yet been renovated. This one was at Sohar, little more than a fishing village, but strategically important for its position in the north of Oman.

Inktober was created by Jake Parker in 2009 as a challenge to improve his inking skills and develop positive drawing habits. It has since grown into a worldwide endeavor with thousands of artists taking on the challenge every year.

Fintan O’Toole, Judging Shaw:

The Radicalism of GBS (Royal Irish Academy, $40.00) 

            By 1920, theatergoers throughout the world recognized the three letters “GBS” as a shorthand reference to George Bernard Shaw, not only the era’s most prolific and successful English language playwright but also a prominent social and political commentator with radical left-wing views.  GBS in 1920 was Shaw’s self-created brand, which he cultivated carefully and marketed shamelessly.  In Judging Shaw: The Radicalism of GBS, prominent Irish journalist and cultural critic Fintan O’Toole explores how the brand GBS interacted with Shaw the man and evolved over the years.  O’Toole does so through eight thematic essays, each a section on a separate aspect of Shaw’s long life (1856-1950), but without adhering to a strict chronology.  His work is more appraisal than biography.

Author of over sixty plays, among them Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923), Shaw…