“With me
Its not just
A desire
For fire,
Its company
Also, for lust
Is fleeting as a girl’s forced smile,
There for a while,
Turned on
For me,
Then gone
With she
Who cares not for me,
Nor for my company”.
The Customer
2 Replies
Monthly Archives: October 2019
What is Art?
A thought provoking post on “What is Art?”, followed on by an interesting discussion in the comments section, https://irevuo.art/2019/10/04/tmm-what-is-art/.
Sometimes I think that those who lop and chop
Sometimes I think that those
Who lop
And chop
At that which organically grows,
And think they do good
No not the wood
As a whole
Is possessed of a soul,
And that sometimes one should let be
Both wood
And tree,
For who
Are you
And I
To quantify variety?
A Case of Mistaken Identity
A few days back, I received an email from a lady saying how nice it had been to meet me, expressing thanks for looking at her poems and asking if I could please provide her with the telephone number of a MS S. We had, she said met in a pub called The Bull.
All of this was delightful. However, I have no recollection whatsoever of having met the lady in question. I don’t frequent a pub called The Bull and I am not acquainted with MS s!
On receving the email, I had a moment of doubt. Had I, suffered a memory loss, or been in some third dimention! A few seconds thought led to the obvious conclusion that the lady had emailed me in error. She had, I assume met with another poet and wishing to ascertain Ms S’s number had searched online for the poet in question. However, rather than finding her acquaintence she had found one K Morris Poet online, namely myself!
I sent a polite response to my correspondent saying that she had emailed me by mistake and wishing her well with her poems, and that was the end of the matter save for a brief email from the lady apologising for her mistake.
This is not the first time that I have been mistaken for someone other than myself. I have been asked whether I played the piano in a pub I have never drunk in, and been asked if I used to live in an area with which I am unfamiliar. Perhaps I have a long lost twin of whom I am wholly unaware!
Whilst I have never propped up the bar in The Bull, I have, for many years enjoyed the convivial atmosphere in The Railway Bell, https://www.rampubcompany.co.uk/visit-pubs/railway-bell. The Bell has an unofficial lending library where customers can leave books and borrow those left by others. I am delighted that several of my books are on the shelves (you can see my “selected Poems” in the photograph below).
Kevin
A Young Lady Who Calls Herself Intellectual
A young lady who calls herself intellectual
Swears that she’s not at all sexual.
I’ve never seen her flirt
In her very short skirt,
As she’s pure and a true intellectual!
I Remember The Skirt
I remember the skirt
(Although you and I know
That there was not much of that).
There was no need to flirt.
Being sensible, I wore a hat.
And that
Would have been that,
Save for my desire
To remember the gas fire
And the carpet burns
On legs,
For we had no use for beds.
Oh how the clock’s hands turn
And man, he never learns.
When A Young Lady Named Louise
When a young lady named Louise
Suggested we walk in the autumn leaves,
And I asked, “will Claire be there?”,
She gave me a pearcing glare,
She’s a jealous young lady is Louise!
(The above was inspired by Lorraine’s beautiful poem, https://blindwilderness.wordpress.com/2019/10/04/shenanigans/).
A Young Lady Named Claire
A young lady named Claire
Invited me into her lair,
Where we ate chocolate cake
But, when I tried to partake,
She threw me out of there!
Is your blog accessible to blind computer users?
My thanks to Chris Graham (AKA The Story Reading Ape) https://thestoryreadingapeblog.com, for drawing this article on why much of the internet is inaccessible to blind people to my attention, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49694453.
As many of you who follow my blog will know, I lost the majority of my eyesight at 18-months-old. I am unable to read print and use software called Job Access with Speech (JAWS), which converts text into speech and braille enabling me to use a Windows computer or laptop. For anyone interested in finding out about JAWS, please follow this link, https://www.freedomscientific.com/products/software/jaws/.
The article linked to above, details a number of problems faced by blind users of the internet, many of which I have experienced whilst navigating the World Wide Web. For example, the piece explains how blind computer users can be faced with unlabelled links on a webpage meaning that what is heard is next to useless. I have myself been faced with a page where JAWS reads “link, link, link”, meaning that the only way in which I can ascertain what the content of a particular link may be is by clicking on said link. This is, obviously a very tedious undertaking and, in many instances I have given up on the site in question and visited a more accessible alternative.
Turning specifically to sites hosted directly on WordPress (such as my own blog), these are, on the whole accessible. For example all the social media sharing buttons on kmorrispoet.com are labelled so anyone using a screen reader such as JAWS will hear “Twitter, Facebook” etc voiced by JAWS. Likewise the comments form is clearly labelled as such meaning that anyone logged into a WordPress account can easily post a comment.
In contrast I have found that many of the self-hosted WordPress sites are not as accessible as those hosted directly on WordPress. For example I often come across unlabelled sharing buttons on self-hosted sites so the only way in which I can determine what the button in question may be, is by actually clicking on it.
Whilst some comments forms on self-hosted sites are labelled with fields such as “comment”, “your name”, “email address”, others are not. In the latter instance the JAWS (or other screen reader user) is forced to guess what each field is or, more often simply to give up on their intention of posting a comment and navigate away from the site/blog in question.
In my experience the vast majority of bloggers care about their readers and wish to ensure that everyone is able to access their sites equally and enjoy the same ability to participate in discussions. However, unless a blogger is themselves blind (or knows a blind screen reader user), its perfectly possible that they have little (if any idea) as to how blind web users access their site/blog.
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) has links to useful guidance explaining how webmasters can ensure that their sites are accessible to those with site loss. For anyone who is unsure whether their blog and/or website is accessible, you may find it helpful to visit here, https://www.sightadvicefaq.org.uk/independent-living/accessible-website.
Kevin
Brass Tack
You left your shoes behind
And it still occupies my mind.
You were neither white nor black,
And there is no turning back
For those shoes you left behind,
Which still occupy my mind.
Your accent was upper class
But, somewhere along the line
Fine
Metal
Did settle
For brass.
You left your shoes behind
And they still occupy my mind.
It is rarely white or black.
And the way
To a brass tack
Is easier than some say.
K Morris - Poet 