Nowadays you have to be sensitive to others when telling jokes or making lighthearted conversation. Especially in the light of social media. I grew up enjoying the Goons; radio shows such as Round the Horne and The Navy Lark; and Hancock’s Half Hour; Harry Worth, and Michael Bentine’s Potty Time on television. It is noContinue reading “Think twice before you crack a joke”
Author Archives: Robin
Love In The Asylum
by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) A stranger has come To share my room in the house not quite right in the head, A girl mad as birds. Bolting the night of the door her arm her plume. Strait in the mazed bed She deludes the heaven-proof house with entering clouds Yet she deludes with walking theContinue reading “Love In The Asylum”
Brother I’ve Seen Some
by Kabir (1440-1518) Brother, I’ve seen some Astonishing sights: A lion keeping watch Over pasturing cows; A mother delivered After her son was; A guru prostrated Before his disciple; Fish spawning On tree-tops; A cat carrying away A dog; A gunny-sack Driving a bullock-cart; A buffalo going out to graze, Sitting on a horse; AContinue reading “Brother I’ve Seen Some”
My Best Friend (Children)
by C J Heck My best friend had lots of curls but wasn’t like the other girls who stayed dressed up and always clean My best friend wore old blue jeans. She loved to do things just like me, like building forts and climbing trees. She stubbed her toe, and to stop the blood, weContinue reading “My Best Friend (Children)”
Song Of Hope
by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) O sweet To-morrow! – After to-day There will away This sense of sorrow. Then let us borrow Hope, for a gleaming Soon will be streaming, Dimmed by no gray – No gray! While the winds wing us Sighs from The Gone, Nearer to dawn Minute-beats bring us; When there will singContinue reading “Song Of Hope”
Skulduggery at the crossroads
When I wrote about my great grandfather’s notebooks and said they cleared up the mystery of the family ghost story I didn’t mention that it possibly cleared up another family legend as well. The three things I had been brought up with were: a) my grandfather was almost born on the banks of the RiverContinue reading “Skulduggery at the crossroads”
Sonnet To Liberty
by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Not that I love thy children, whose dull eyes See nothing save their own unlovely woe, Whose minds know nothing, nothing care to know, — But that the roar of thy Democracies, Thy reigns of Terror, thy great Anarchies, Mirror my wildest passions like the sea, — And give my rageContinue reading “Sonnet To Liberty”
On Liberty and Slavery
by George Moses Horton (1797-1884/Northampton, North Carolina) Alas! and am I born for this, To wear this slavish chain? Deprived of all created bliss, Through hardship, toil and pain! How long in bondage have I lain, And languished to be free! Alas! and must I still complain – Deprived of liberty. Oh, Heaven! and isContinue reading “On Liberty and Slavery”
Accurs’d be he that first invented war
Christopher Marlowe (1564‐1593) Accurs’d be he that first invented war! They knew not, ah, they knew not, simple men, How those were hit by pelting cannonshot Stand staggering like a quivering aspen-leaf Fearing the force of Boreas’s boisterous blasts! In what a lamentable case where I, If nature had not given me wisdom’s lore! ForContinue reading “Accurs’d be he that first invented war”
A Ballad Maker
by Padraic Colum (1881 – 1972) Once I loved a maiden fair, Over the hills and far away, Land she had and lovers to spare, Over the hills and far away. And I was stooped and troubled sore, And my face was pale, and the coat I wore Was thin as my supper the nightContinue reading “A Ballad Maker”
Robin's Nest 