Robin

Let’s start again

Day 2 The weather outside may be frightful but in the house it is more delightful. Not really that frightful, I must admit, more a bit dull, damp and cold, but definitely more delightful inside. This morning I was reading a tweet Michael Rosen sent out last night. Last year he was one of theContinue reading “Let’s start again”

So this is 2021

I woke feeling quite bright and cheerful this morning – after all it was not just a new day, it was also a New Year. This was 2021 – goodbye 2020. I wished my darling wife Marion and my dear son David “Blwyddyn Newydd Dda” (Happy New Year to those who don’t speak Welsh) andContinue reading “So this is 2021”

To the New Year

by Dr Tulsi Hamumanthu If Life be a Sea and you are a Wave, O kind New Year, will you not save Us from sinking, by letting us ride Atop your apex, taming the tide? If Life be a Book and a Page you are, O neat New Year, let us not mar With blotsContinue reading “To the New Year”

I’ll be back

December has not been the best of months but I intend to return to action in the New Year (tomorrow). It has been a difficult time for us all and many have found it harder because they have been separated from family and loved ones who would normally be there to offer support. Our sonContinue reading “I’ll be back”

Bright Star

by John Keats (1795-1821) Bright star, were I as stedfast as though art – Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart Like nature’s patient, sleepless Emerite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask OfContinue reading “Bright Star”

The Sound Collector

by Roger McGough (b 1937) A stranger called this morning Dressed all in black and grey Put every sound into a bag And carried them away The whistling of the kettle The turning of the lock The purring of the kitten The ticking of the clock The popping of the toaster The crunching of theContinue reading “The Sound Collector”

A Mind’s Journey to Diss

by John Betjamin (1906-1984) Dear Mary, Yes, it will be bliss To go with you by train to Diss, Your walking shoes upon your feet, We’ll meet, my sweet, at Liverpool Street. That levellers we may be reckoned Perhaps we’d better travel second; Or, lest reporters on us burst, Perhaps we’d better travel first. AboveContinue reading “A Mind’s Journey to Diss”

A Shropshire Lad

by John Betjeman (1906-1984) The gas was on in the institute, The flare was up in the gym, A man was running a mineral line, A lass was singing a hymn, When Captain Webb the Dawley man, Captain Webb from Dawley, Came swimming along the old canal That carried the bricks to Lawley. Swimming alongContinue reading “A Shropshire Lad”

A Bay in Anglesey

by John Betjeman (1906-1984) The sleepy sound of a tea-time tide Slaps at the rocks that the sun has dried, Too lazy, almost, to sink and lift Round low peninsulas pink with thrift. The water, enlarging shells and sands, Glows greener emerald out from land And brown over shadowy shelves below The waving forests ofContinue reading “A Bay in Anglesey”

A Memory of June

Claude McKay (1889-1948) When June comes dancing o’er the death of May, With scarlet roses tinting her green breast, And mating thrushes ushering in her day, And Earth on tiptoe for her golden guest, I always see the evening when we met – The first of June baptized in tender rain – And walked homeContinue reading “A Memory of June”