On opening my mum’s back door
I hear the rain pour.
I shall not romanticise
Rain or death.
Man dies
And some are left bereft
Listening to the rain.
I Shall Not Romanticise
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Tag Archives: culture
An Afternoon of Poetry with Poet Kevin Morris at Croydon’s Ashburton Library on Saturday 8 November
I am delighted to announce that I will be reading my poetry at Ashburton Library in Croydon on Saturday 8 November at 2 pm. For anyone who is in the vicinity and would like to attend please follow this link for further information and to book https://croydon.events.mylibrary.digital/event?id=247174
I look forward to seeing you on Saturday 8 November.
Too Much Latin
There once was a great lover of Latin
Who had a job as a professional assassin.
Whilst reading great Virgil
He became very ill.
That’s what comes of reading too much Latin!
Tennyson’s the Lady of Shalott Sung by Lorena Mckennitt
A couple of days ago, I came across this beautiful musical rendering by Lorena Mckennitt of Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott. I am not, generally a fan of musical renderings of poetry. However, Mckennitt’s singing of the poem moved me
Culture
I am culture.
A vulture
In love with poetry.
A man
Of passing lusts
Who will be free
In dust.
What it means to be human in an age of intelligent machines of
An insightful article entitled “what it means to be human in an age of intelligent machines”, https://thepoetspeace.wordpress.com/2025/06/24/what-it-means-to-be-human-in-an-age-of-intelligent-machines/.
I think the author makes some excellent points. However, whilst artificial intelligences (AIS) can vacuum up vast amounts of data (the poetry of John Keats, William Shakespeare Etc) and produce a “poem” from that data, it does not comprehend what it is doing. Nor does it feel real emotion.
In contrast, the poet on hearing the song of the blackbird as the dusk comes down is profoundly moved. He feels sadness mingled with joy and the overflowing of his emotions leads to the composition of poetry. Whilst an AI may vacuum up the poet’s work and produce a poem based on it, the poem (and the other poems utilised by the AI in the composition of it’s poem) have, for want of a better word, been stolen. The AI feels nothing and comprehends nothing.
A Poem by Walter Savage Landor
I am a fan of the short poem. Below is a brief untitled poem by Walter Savage Landor, 1775-1864 Walter Savage Landor – Wikipedia.
—
I strove with none, for none was worth my strife.
Nature I loved and, and next to nature, art:
I warmed both hands before the fire of life;
It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
Seashells
In the library I would look at books
And seashells, so near to shelves
Drowning in books.
At the time this seemed incongruous to me.
But now I see no incongruity
For the sea
Will, one day, sweep all this culture away
Leaving only shells.
How to Revive Our Reading Habits
An interesting article on how to revive our reading culture, in which the author argues that it is all to easy to blame technology when other factors are at work. To read the article please visit https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/how-to-revive-our-reading-culture/
Will I Always be?
Will I always be
The man who recites poetry
To young women,
My mind half on poetry,
And half on sinning.
They may admire my poetry,
But I am told
I grow old
And girls who have time
For my rhyme
Will never love me.
Yet they love my poetry
And is not poetry
Part of me?
K Morris - Poet 