Turlough
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A Right Pen and Ink
A job’s always a lot easier when you’ve got the right kit.
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- 180 reads
How to Make Money with a Broken Spirograph
Oh what a month! Late December back in ’25. My experiences of it described at the going rate of one hundred words per day.
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The Quest to Find the Sarashka Mosque
Oh what a month! Early December back in ’25. My experiences of it described at the going rate of one hundred words per day.
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On the Patch Where the Strawberries Grew
Remembering my own Angel of the North, my Sunderland grandmother Grace Erskine, on her special night of the year.
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Fête de Noël de Madame Priyatelkata
I’ve never been one for organising social gatherings so I tend to just run round the house with the hoover and leave the rest to Priyatelkata. I told her a five litre bottle of homemade distillate from Rakia Maria up the road and some cheese and pineapple on cocktail sticks would suffice, but she went overboard as usual.
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Verse Nine (for Jenny)
Posted on Sat, 27 Dec 2025
A poet plagued by Yuletide snot
Amidst great mounds of Kleenex grot
Observed proceedings from her cot
As soldiers danced with swords in kilts
To send some cheer to Swindon, Wilts
Read full commentPosted in Fête de Noël de Madame Priyatelkata
Gimme Shelter
Posted on Wed, 14 Jan 2026
I can feel it too Jane and it's drained every last drop of enthusiasm that I ever had for anything. The power-crazed lunatics (particularly the dayglow paedophile protector and his unruly mob) are coming very close to destroying everything we...
Read full commentPosted in Gloom and Doom (sorry)
Israel
Posted on Wed, 02 Jul 2025
I agree with you entirely Ed.
We are constantly being brainwashed by the media. It seems that a huge chunk of the population of the so-called 'developed world' agree with the governments that support Netanyahoo but they do so simply out of...
Read full commentPosted in Up to Their Ears in Tears
Fireflies and frogs
Posted on Sat, 21 Sep 2024
A couple of times in our garden, after a summer evening rainshower, I've seen small frogs that have swallowed fireflies. I only know this because I've seen the dull flashing from inside their throats.
This is a lovely poem Jenny. I really...
Read full commentPosted in Enchanted insects
Bernard Manning
Posted on Tue, 09 Jul 2024
The former existence of Bernard Manning pours doubt on the possibility that there has ever been a supreme being that's made us in their image.
Read full commentPosted in Imperfect Beauty
Kind words, Di. Thank you.
Posted on Fri, 21 Jul 2023
Kind words, Di. Thank you.
If it helps you keep the giggling under control I'll read something about my involvement with the bubonic plague on 12 August.
Read full commentPosted in Our Man in Golubac
Nuns
Posted on Sun, 18 Jan 2026
The lack of sex education is certainly a major contributing factor to the problem. As you say, it was good that the unmarried mothers at least had the likes of Nazareth House to go to, but that shouldn't have been necessary. Thankfully society...
Read full commentPosted in Letter to Ann Lovett (1968 - 1984)
Emotions
Posted on Sun, 18 Jan 2026
Thanks Kat.
The families, the authorities and the church pulled the raw emotions of these poor girls in all directions, and they were nearly always very young. With nobody to turn to it must have been absolute hell for them. There’s been a...
Read full commentPosted in Letter to Ann Lovett (1968 - 1984)
Out of Innocence
Posted on Sun, 18 Jan 2026
Such powerful words you have there Jane, and it’s a story the likes of which were repeated over and over again in Ireland. In the Catholic schools, young innocents (myself included) were told to love all those around them, but to teach them...
Read full commentPosted in Letter to Ann Lovett (1968 - 1984)
Vengeance
Posted on Fri, 09 Jan 2026
When I hear people talking about hatred and revenge I usually remind them of these words of Mahatma Gandhi's...
An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind.
And those people who cannot see this must already be...
Read full commentPosted in Oh, for Stirrings and Softenings!
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