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Forest Path, Smokey Mountains, Tennessee

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Japanese Garden, Portland, Oregon

Gorgeous colour combinations!

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Die Physiker

A fascinating play whose subject matter bears painfully close to the current Weltanschauung

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Favourite Irish women writers

Lisa Hill's avatarANZ LitLovers LitBlog

Cathy at 746 Books is hosting Reading Ireland Month, and since I’m the lucky one who won the giveaway for Nora by Nuala O’Connor, it seems only appropriate for me to whip up a post about my favourite Irish women writers. I haven’t yet read anything by Nuala O’Connor, but I feel confident that she will join my other favourites because her novel Nora is the fictionalised love story of of Nora Barnacle, wife and muse of my favourite male Irish writer, James Joyce…

However, these are the Irish women writers who are my favourites so far.  Links are to my reviews:

Elizabeth Bowen 

The Heat of the Day, and a Sensational Snippet: The Heat of the Day

Mary Costello

The River Capture

The China Factory, Guest Review by Karenlee Thompson 

Evelyn Conlon

Not the Same Sky, and on the wishlist Skin of Dreams, Stars in the Daytime…

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Stephen Romer, the warmth of Spring and Lentern Thoughts

The lines above come from Stephen Romer’s title poem in his 2008 collection Yellow Studio. This poetry book (Oxford Poetry Series ISBN978 1 90303985 4)I purchased having read some of his critical writings in the TLS (or was it the LRB?) Getting to understand a new poet inevitably takes time and I find that I have reached the point where actually I want to reassess my favourites; Auden, MacNeice, Yeats and Mahon). However, my interest in French Poetry remains strong and Romer is perhaps the leading translator. Incidentally, Romer keeps reminding me of the corresponding poetry and translations from German by Michael Hofmann. Here is a clip finding Romer reading at Worcester College, Oxford in 2019 about the warmth of the South,the approach of Spring, Air BnB and other matters.

Perusing the collection my eye was caught by the poems about returning to Paris.:-

Returning here

under the cold blue

the rue des Saules

is absurdly tender

with its pink house

on the corner

and the château des Brouillards

with its ruined vineyard

and secret trees

still a world on its own

(For more information on the misty castle opposite Renoir’s house see

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_des_Brouillards )

Rue des Saules

Another section of Yellow Studio deals with the poets relaxation and remembering a friend/lover recently lost ;an elegy conceived in the garden and about the house. It is called Pottering About.

any sign of neglect or decay

weighs on my conscience

when you were always the one

somewhere at work among the birdsong

and the appleboughs, the place marked

by a stupendous oath

as the Allen Scythe choked

or where the odd chainsaw

was hurled into the undergrowth

and I dreaming on

among my books

in the yellow attic room.

Here is Stephen Romer in more sombre mood reading at Trinity College, Cambridge in 2018

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Des Winters Geist ist davon…

Wolfregen & Constanze's avatarDas poetische Zimmer

Foto: ©Wolfregen

Vorfrühlingstag

Der Himmel ist blau,
Die Erde noch grau,
Doch wach schon und emsig dabei,
Der Fluss liegt offen und frei;
Sein Wasser strömt kräftig dahin,
Es spiegelt sich Aufbruch darin.

Kein Zweig mehr bereift,
Ein Vogel hier pfeift
Mit wehmütig lieblichem Ton,
Des Winters Geist ist davon;
Die Sonne scheint golden und warm
Und doch ist der Boden noch arm.

Noch wenig bis nichts,
An Farbe gebricht‘s,
An Grün und lebendigem Rot,
Noch wirkt‘s gespenstisch und tot;
Ein Blümlein entdeckt ich im Wald,
Es folgen ihm viele schon bald.

©Wolfregen

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The Boston Arms – monoprint

Really cool, interesting and effective.

Jane's avatarJane Sketching

The Boston Arms is in Tufnell Park, London, 178 Junction Road N19. I love the way this building presides over the junction.

Boston Arms, packaging print, paper size 21″ x 17″, on Shiramine Select Japanese paper

This is one of five prints I made with this plate made from a cardboard box of biscuits, experimenting with the “packaging print” technique.

The technique produces a twilight atmosphere, which I like very much, and seems suitable for a pub in winter. Here is a different print using the same plate.

Boston Arms, packaging print, paper size 14″ x 10″ Awagami Washi Masa Japanese paper

The Boston Arms is a Grade II listed building. The listing says “Dated 1899 in a panel on the Junction Road front. Designed by Thorpe and Furniss”, and goes on to describe its “Corinthian pilasters to the flat frontages, engaged Corinthian columns to the bow, all…

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Schattenschein

Wirklich voll mit Sehnsucht- Danke.

Lyrix's avatarKlapperhorn

Was ich weiß, liegt im Dunkel,

die Erinnerung verborgen unter Schatten.

Wie erinnern die anderen, die lauten,

die Hinausposauner und Alleswisser?

Ich weiß es nicht,

doch meide ich das strahlende Licht,

in dem sie sich sonnen.

Dann und wann tarne ich mich aber darin,

verstecke mich im hellsten leuchten,

und scheine als einer der Ihren.

Dabei lerne ich, das Scheine trügen

und Worte von ihren Hülsen getragen werden.

Oft sind sie hohl, dienen dem Moment

und der schnellen Befriedigung des Ich und der Triebe.

Zurück im Schatten erhole ich mich, poliere mein Ich

und flicke mein angekratztes Bild.

Durch die Kratzer sehe ich ein Stück Wahrheit,

doch ich verstehe sie nicht.

Auch die Schatten bergen Schein.

©2022 Lyrix
Picture: Black Ink

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Mel Brooks

A.O.'s avatarThe Annotated Gilmore Girls

LORELAI: What do you mean, why? The 2000 Year Old Man, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie – you don’t think Mel has earned the right to have his face on my butt?

Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky in 1926), actor, comedian, and film-maker, with a career spanning over seven decades. He is known as the creator of broad farces and parodies, considered some of the greatest comedy films ever made, and was one of the most successful film directors of the 1970s. As well as winning an Emmy, a Grammy, and an Oscar, in 2001 he won a Tony Award for The Producers, previously discussed. He has been awarded a Kennedy Center Honor, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award, a British Film Institute Fellowship, a National Medal of Arts, and a BAFTA Fellowship.

The 2000 Year Old Man is a comedy sketch…

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Resilience: A Health Update

Great- a vigorous pleasing sketch!

writingatlarge's avatarWriting at Large

While I was taking a walk a few days ago I saw this tree branch grow out of a tiny crack in a solid stone wall and I was impressed enough by its tenacity and resilience to draw it. By chance this drawing is on the opposite page of the one I made for my last health update, which seems appropriate.

I underwent a PET CT on the 9th of September, and thankfully the results were good. The treatment is working, kicking my cancer’s ass and not just making me feel bad. I went through another round of Chemo on the 12th, my fifth round so far, and the side effects are stronger and taking longer to fade away between sessions. This is to be expected, as the Chemo’s effects are cumulative, but I’ve decided to be like that tree: resilient. I’m making minor adjustments to get me through…

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