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I never read the same book twice, but this is my third, or fourth, reading of Lucy Grealy, Autobiography of a Face . Joyce Carol Oates may yammer on, in fictional terms, about her characters finding their one true thing, but for every David Bowie there’s millions of Davie Bowieless strumming a guitar and never making anything of their life or art. There’s more writers than people with cancer. One reading of these books (and there are many ways...

Yesterday was a very emotional day. In the morning OH and I attended a full Civic ceremony of remembrance for the seven local people killed in the tram crash a year ago on 9.11.16. Our very own nine-eleven. Children from the primary school my kids attended and my grandson still attends led the singing, for the youngest victim, Dane Chinnery, was a former pupil and often a soloist himself. Dignitaries such as the MP, councillors, Croiydon Mayor,...

On the 6 th November – two men proved to me.... that they were still trying to play out their game. Isn't it a shame? Yesterday morning I went out to work, and spent some time first looking for card plastic envolopes – the kind you put around the finished craft cards to keep them clean and displayable. The shop had sold me the craft card pack, yet didn't have the corresponding size plastic envolope. I was a bit miffed and was about to go out to...

Story and Poem for the Month of October very kindly chosen by VeraClark: The most recent of Lille Dante’s Blue Books Restored Fragments gets Poem of the Month. It is a thoroughly accomplished series of fragmentation that straddles narrative poetry and prose-poetry. I love that this is work that refuses to conform to generic boxes. These are allegorical beads which colour memory and the taste of emotions. Each sequence stands alone as a fusion of...

Books don’t usually have corners. But (I guess) this one does. That’s one of the things that (kinda) annoyed me, Joyce Carol Oates has a tended to add extra bits of information in brackets. Her writing style didn’t (really) annoy me. What annoyed me was I felt the book was too long. War and Peace and the rebirth of the Russian nation as a leading European power in 1815 took less of a word count than it took for Soldier of God, Luther Amos Dunphy...

to-hunter-gatherers-evolutionary-success Kalahari Bushmen have lived in southern Africa for over 150 000 years, perhaps longer, no one was counting, but, roughly, almost as long as Scotsmen have lived in Scotland. Like the Scotsmen they are in exile in their own land. Marginalised they have managed to eke out an existence and survive and prosper ‘working’ as little as fifteen hours a week hunting and gathering. They adapted and made a good...

Poem of the Week goes to what one commenter rightly called a tour de force - Ralph's wonderful 'If I Could Take A Day'. Heartbreaking, uplifting and defiant, it really is a fantastic piece of writing: https://www.abctales.com/story/ralph/if-i-could-take-day Story of the Week is Jane Hyphen's 'Silva in Lisbon'. Part travel writing, part memoir, part meditation, it's a masterclass on how to weave a story together: https://www.abctales.com/story/...

Robert Burn’s poem Halloween was in many ways a sidelong glance at many of the rites, ritual and superstitions of an Ayrshire lad and farmer’s son in a Christian community of 1785 rural Scotland. Some merry friendly country folks Together they convene, To burn their nits and pon their stocks, And haud their Halloween. Of course you could tell a lot about a person by the type of lice they had. And in his poem To A Louse it showed that the wee...

We all know how it works. The diddy team, in this case, Celtic, need to play at the top of their game, if they get a chance they’ve got to take it and our goalkeeper has got to play a blinder for us to win. We all know how it turned out. Stuart Armstrong missed a sitter in front of goal in the first five minutes, Kieran Tiernay had skipped past a few Bayern players and a great bending pass from James Forrest set it up. Craig Gordon wandered...

Poetry Monthly – November Hello all, Well, autumn is truly on us! But that’s a good opportunity to snuggle up or take brisk walks (or both) in order to get your creativity buzzing. October’s Poetry Monthly (Sincere Thanks and Farewell to Sentimental Items) had less posts than some months have had, but it still produced some impressive writing. Here are three poems to go back to: https://www.abctales.com/story/pencilflake/sincere-thanks-farewell-...