by Samuel Johnson Long-expected one and twentyLing’ring year at last has flownPomp and pleasure, pride and plentyGreat Sir John, are all your own.Loosen’d from the minor’s tether,Free to mortgage or to sell,Wild as wind, light as featherBid the slaves of thrift farewell.Call the Bettys, Kates and JenneysEv’ry name that laughs at care.Lavish of your Grandsire’sContinue reading “One And Twenty”
Category Archives: My blog
Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Sorceress to Live
by Helen Ivory Exodus 7:11 For her neighbour’s sicknesswas more than merely unnatural;for he sang perfectly without moving his lips.For she is intemperate in her desiresand pilfers apples from the orchard;for she hitches her skirts to clamber the fence.For her womb is a wandering beast;for she is husbandless, and at candle timebrazenly trades with theContinue reading “Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Sorceress to Live”
The Man He Killed
by Thomas Hardy Had he and I but metBy some old ancient inn,We should have set us down to wetRight many a nipperkin!But ranged as infantry,And staring face to face,I shot at him as he at me,And killed him in his place.I shot him dead because -Because he was my foe,Just so my foe heContinue reading “The Man He Killed”
I’ve seen them at their best and at their worst but I still love Wales XV
It’s quarter to five, it’s Saturday, 3 February 2024, and I have just watched the kick-off in the third Six Nations championship of the weekend as my beloved Wales host my second favourite XV, Scotland. I have supported Wales as far back as I can remember and often sat with my father in our loungeContinue reading “I’ve seen them at their best and at their worst but I still love Wales XV”
First Memory
by Louise Gluck Long ago, I was wounded. I livedto revenge myselfagainst my father, notfor what he was -for what I was from the beginning of time,in childhood, I thoughtthat pain meantI was not loved.I was loved.
Give me a notepad and a typewriter and I’ll be as happy as a sandboy
Precisely four weeks after calling Tom Roberts, a director with newspaper publishers NWN, based at Oswestry but covering border counties and North Wales, I was sitting in a room which had a cupboard, desk and chair and on the desk was a typewriter, a telephone, – I could have been back in the Holywell office, aContinue reading “Give me a notepad and a typewriter and I’ll be as happy as a sandboy”
Hear, ye Ladies
by John Fletcher Hear, ye ladies that despiseWhat the mighty Love has done;Fear examples and be wise:Fair Callisto was a nun;Leda, sailing on the streamTo deceive the hopes of man,Love accounting but a dream,Doted on a silver swan;Danae, in a brazen tower,Where no love was, loved a shower.Hear, ye ladies that are coy,What the mightyContinue reading “Hear, ye Ladies”
Count That Day Lost
by George Eliot If you sit down at set of sunAnd count the acts that you have done,And counting, findOne self-denying deed, one wordThat eased the heart of him who heard,One glance most kindThat felt like sunshine where it wentThen you may count that day well spent.But if, through all the livelong day,You’ve cheered noContinue reading “Count That Day Lost”
Spring in my step as our little family goes back to my root
As I left for work the morning after Marion and I had made the decision that I would give up the cinema life and return to the one job that I had always been proud of – that of a journalist – I felt a new spring in my step. The previous day I couldContinue reading “Spring in my step as our little family goes back to my root”
The Knife
by Keith Douglas 1920-1944 Can I explain this to you? Your eyesare entrances the mouths of cavesI issue from wonderful interiorsupon a blessed sea and a fine day,from inside these caves I look and dream.Your hair as explicable as a waterfallin some black liquid cooled by legendfell across my thought in a momentbecame a garmentContinue reading “The Knife”
Robin's Nest 