Aeschylus c525BC-c456BC Up and lead the dance of Fate! Lift the song that mortals hate! Tell what rights are ours on earth, Over all of human birth. Swift of foot to avenge are we! He whose hands are clean and pure, Naught our wrath to dread hath he; Calm his cloudless days endure. But theContinue reading “Song of Furies”
Category Archives: poetry
As if in a dream I hear the radio playing Ukranian patriotic songs
Michael Rosen born 1946 As if in a dream I hear the radio playing Ukranian patriotic songs and lovingly produced discussions about the history of Ukraine and admiration pouring out of my radio and TV for the brave people of Ukraine daring to stand up to this terrible invasion and I felt warm and sadContinue reading “As if in a dream I hear the radio playing Ukranian patriotic songs”
Television
by Roald Dahl 1916-1990 The most important thing we’ve learned, So far as children are concerned, Is never, NEVER, NEVER let Them near your television set – Or better still, just don’t install The idiotic thing at all. In almost every house we’ve been, We’ve watched them gaping at the screen. They loll and slopContinue reading “Television”
The Sun
by Mary Oliver born 1935, Cleveland, Ohio Have you ever seen anything in your life more wonderful than the way the sun, every evening, relaxed and easy, floats toward the horizon and into the clouds or the holls, or the rumpled sea, and is gone – and how it slides again out of the blackness,Continue reading “The Sun”
Durin
by JRR Tolkien 1892-1973 The world was young, the mountains green, No stain yet on the Moon was seen, No word was lain on streams or stone When Durin woke and walked alone. He named the nameless hills and dells; He drank from yet untasted wells; He stooped and looked in Mirrormere, And saw aContinue reading “Durin”
Life
Charlotte Brönte 1816-1855 Life, believe, is not a dream So dark as sages say; Oft a little morning rain Foretells a pleasant day. Sometimes there are clouds of gloom, But these are transient all; If the shower will make the roses bloom, O why lament its fall? Rapidly, merrily, Life’s sunny hours flit by, Gratefully,Continue reading “Life”
Who needs to run away to the circus I found my place in a puppet show
My father was a good man. He didn’t lay down the law when I was growing up, instead he led by example. He was gentle and considerate, I never heard him swear and he only shouted at me once – I deserved it. There is one piece of advice he gave me in my teensContinue reading “Who needs to run away to the circus I found my place in a puppet show”
A Subaltern’s Love Song
John Betjeman 1906-1984 Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Miss J. Hunter Dunn, Furnish’d and burnish’d by Aldershot sun, What strenuous singles we played after tea, We in the tournament – you against me! Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy, The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy, With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won, IContinue reading “A Subaltern’s Love Song”
Casualty
by Seamus Heaney 1939-2013 He would drink by himself And raise a weathered thumb Towards the high shelf, Calling another rum And blackcurrant, without Having to raise his voice, Or order a quick stout By a lifting of the eyes And a discreet dumb-show Of pulling off the top; At closing time would go InContinue reading “Casualty”
Fern Hill
by Dylan Thomas 1914-1953 Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green, The night above the dingle starry, Time let me hail and climb Golden in the heydays of his eyes, And honoured among wagons I was prince of the appleContinue reading “Fern Hill”
Robin's Nest 