If you call up a demon, don’t be surprised
When it does arise
As some monster from the deep
And into your heart creep.
We at our own creations weep
But can not keep
Our desire
To play with hell’s fire
Under control.
The devil we did create
And, he will our soul take.
—
Rhodes is in his grave
Long since.
Oxford students wince
And call
For his statue to fall,
Yet continue to take the cash
Of one they would consign to history’s trash.
We all have feet of clay.
How easy it is to judge
And bear a grudge
Towards those who have passed away,
For the dead can nothing say
To mitigate
The hate
Of callow youth,
So convinced are they of their own rectitude and truth.
It is easy to look back through an opaque
Glass and take
The high moral ground.
‘Tis a truth throughout history found
That yesterday’s hero
Will into the garbage go
For they were not “progressive” (although they thought themselves so).
Do those sitting in student bar
Congratulating themselves on how far
We have come, ever pause,
look beyond the self-applause
And ponder
On yonder
Setting sun.
—
I agree with the historian Mary Beard that the attempt to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes from Oxford is a dangerous attempt to erase the past, (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/mary-beard-says-drive-to-remove-cecil-rhodes-statue-from-oxford-university-is-a-dangerous-attempt-to-a6783306.html).
I will be spending part of the week preparing for my interview this coming Saturday (26 November, at 5:15 pm, on Croydon Radio). The interview will be streamed live on Croydon Radio’s website and will also be available as a podcast, (http://croydonradio.com/).
During the programme, I hope to read a couple of my poems. I have yet to determine which of them to recite. I am, however considering reading my poem “Owl”:
“I have lain awake listening for the owl’s cry.
A note that chills
Thrills
Then does die.
One day
This bird of prey
Will carry my soul away,
Or so the supersticious say.
Mice hide
While I, in my pride
Decide
The owl’s erie cry
Signifies that I will die.
The bird has no interest in me
So why can I not be free
From his cry
That to my window nigh
does rise, then, as suddenly, die?”
You can find “Owl” in my recently published collection of poetry, “Refractions“.
I hope you will join me on the evening of Saturday 26 November.
Kevin
If you would like to share one of your posts, please feel free to do so in the comments section below. Please also feel free to say a few words about you and/or your blog.
Kevin
My old clock I wind
And much philosophy therein find.
I can bring
The pendulum’s swing
To a stop With my hand,
Yet I can not command
Time to default
On his duty and halt
The passing of the years.
He has no ears
For our laughter and tears
And his sickle will swing on
Long after we are gone.
Foth is the Egyptian god of wisdom. I recently came across this wonderful retelling of the Egyptian myth, “The Book of Foth”, in which 2 royal personages go in search of Foth’s book. The book contains all the wisdom of the world and as one might expect the consequences for those who find and read Foth’s work are dire, (http://www.egyptianmyths.net/mythbookthoth.htm).
The site contains many other marvellous retellings of the myths of ancient Egypt, including “The Girl with the Rose-Red Slippers” which is, perhaps the earliest example of the “Cinderella” story, (http://www.egyptianmyths.net/mythslippers.htm).
For anyone interested in ancient Egypt or in mythology I recommend checking out this excellent site, (http://www.egyptianmyths.net/index.html).
“Tell me wolf, why do you howl
At the rising moon?
Is it that our little life is over oh too soon?”
“No, ‘tis the owl
Most foul.
He stole my favourite towel!”,
He replied with a growl …! …
It is a will-o’-the-wisp, followed by the frightened or blind,
Who themselves bind
To the delusion, that the mist does not forever close
Over mouth and nose.
There are few posies for the departed,
Just an idea started
In the mind
Of those who would salvation find
In a deep freeze,
Designed to please
The ego
Of people who fear to go
Down that dark track
From whence none come back
In order to save time, I often employ the facility to respond to posts (including comments left on my own site) using email. This morning, while responding by email, I have noticed that my comments are not being delivered. I’ve received the following automated response from WordPress in all instances:
“We ran into a problem with your recent comment reply by email. Specifically, we weren’t able to find your comment in the email.
We’ll do our best to get this fixed up. In the meantime, you may want to comment directly on the post”.
In all cases, my comment clearly appeared in the body of the email. While I have gone to all posts in question and commented directly on them, this is time consuming and it occurs to me that others may be having the same problem? Am I the only one plagued by WordPress gremlins this morning? Any feedback gratefully received!
Many thanks,
Kevin
A study shows that those who swear often are frequently highly intelligent:
“The overall finding of this set of studies, that taboo fluency is positively correlated with other measures of verbal
fluency, undermines the [normal] view of swearing”. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3949986/Is-swearing-sign-intelligence-People-curse-larger-vocabulary-don-t.html).
I am no plaster saint and will use the odd expletive from time to time. It is, however almost always under my breath and not something of which I am proud. In my (admittedly unscientific experience) those who employ profanity in their everyday interactions with others do, almost invariably possess a limited vocabulary which accounts for their inability to communicate without utilising swear words. In short I am unconvinced by the findings of this research.
