This is very roughly based on thinking about the early evolution of Christianity, not the very early years of persecution, but the great meetings that defined doctrine. FATHERS A congress of the faithful ruled That heresy, this solid right The darkness was defined and named They drew the boundaries of light But in the dark [...]
All posts for the month February, 2012
Fathers
Posted by simon7banks on February 29, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/fathers-3/
Expedition
Another take on exploration – this time influenced by reading about early European explorers of Australia and their fixed belief that there was a huge inland sea. This is not, though, a poem about them, but something less rational and measurable. EXPEDITION It is a long way home from this last camp We [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 27, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/27/expedition/
The Immigrant
Back from a week in France and posting again! I think this poem needs little explanation. THE IMMIGRANT The immigrant adjusts his hat Squints at the unfamiliar words Tests the new land with his shoe Some casual abuse Is partly understood The hat is wrong but not the shirt. Wrapped in the now familiar streets [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 26, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/the-immigrant/
Night Vision
Dark shape of a man against the drifts of white The pale watching lights on concrete walls The crump of boots in the untrodden snow The short scream of an owl in the hidden wood. No lights show in the sky, but the steady throb Of a heavy heaving plane in the opaque [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 17, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/17/night-vision/
Disenchantment
The world is disenchanted We have walked in the dark places And found no ghosts or elves No dragons roam the forests The real fearsome beasts Of the forest we have shot And made a diagram of their bodily systems. But now the sabre-toothed beasts from the forest myths The giant wings, the [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 15, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/15/disenchantment/
Shop
I’ve gone to the shop With my card in my hand I’ve bought these fine clothes So you’ll understand What a fine, what a sensitive person I am. Now the wind has blown sharp And the clothes are all lost Neither fashion nor pattern Survive, not the cost And yellow and blue lie [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 13, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/shop/
Passport
Half down a long smooth corridor I turned to check Who I was supposed to be meeting, what I should plead As the purpose of my visit, length of stay, And my destination. But there was no-one to ask. So I just carried on Hoping someone would tell me, or I’d find a clue [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 12, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/passport/
Watershed
As a hill-walker and long-distance-trail walker, I’m familiar with interpreting landscape: “down there must be a large river” and so on. I find the idea of a watershed fascinating – the point at which streams flow and valleys begin on opposite sides, a few feet determining whether a raindrop will feed rivers going in one [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 10, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/watershed/
Woodpigeon
Waddling unevenly on the ground A heavy, blunt, ungainly thing By gawky gait and thick flesh bound It flaps and struggles to take wing Once up, a bolt of power and grace Twisting and gliding in the skies It revels in its secret race It will be earthbound when it dies A [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 8, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/woodpigeon/
Book reviews: “And Another Thing” and “The State Counsellor”
Thanks to Hannah, whose blog I follow, for giving me the idea of blogging book reviews, though I don’t expect to blog as many as she does (she’s a university student of English, so I have an excuse). I could post them on my blogspot blog (http://sibathehat.blogspot.com), which is meant for pretty well everything that [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 6, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/book-reviews-and-another-thing-and-the-state-counsellor/
