Another Boris Akunin crime mystery, set in Imperial Russia, this time with the year given – 1900. Erast Fandorin investigates a series of suicides linked to a society of death-lovers, but all is not, of course, as it seems and the suicides are being helped on their way by anything from suggestion to murder – [...]
All posts by simon7banks
Book review: Boris Akunin, “She Lover of Death”
Posted by simon7banks on May 16, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/book-review-boris-akunin-she-lover-of-death-8-2/
We will not meet again, my love
Sometimes I like to write in ballad style. This is one such. WE WILL NOT MEET AGAIN, MY LOVE We will not meet again, my love, Till all the seas run dry You will not be alone, my love If only you should cry. The woods have grown high, my love, I cannot see the [...]
Posted by simon7banks on May 15, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/we-will-not-meet-again-my-love/
Apparently anything can be poetry, so it seems safe to say this is
So it’s important and you ought to look at it seriously. OK, I’m being ironic: putting something boring, uninspired, mannered or prancingly self-indulgent in short lines in a nice shape and calling it poetry and art doesn’t make it any more worthy of attention than anything else anyone writes or says. Still, you might [...]
Posted by simon7banks on May 12, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/05/12/apparently-anything-can-be-poetry-so-it-seems-safe-to-say-this-is/
Timer
In the dark tower at the top A single light, dull glowing red The tower is darker than the night The lower buildings round the edge Cluster in shadow from the red The hunting waver of an owl Behind the avenue of dead trees Wakens a movement in the sedge And slithering through the hidden [...]
Posted by simon7banks on May 10, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/timer/
I think these things are poems, though there’s a bit of damage and they’re of no great age. Start me at £20, anyone?
On to re-posting more poems with comments and expolanations of a sort. Here goes: GLASS The glass creation on the shelf In the early morning light refracts, transmutes The arriving light into changing colours and links That fade and reform with the slightest of gentle shifts. If you try to see through it the waving [...]
Posted by simon7banks on May 6, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/i-think-these-things-are-poems-though-thers-a-bit-of-damage-and-theyre-of-no-great-age-start-me-at-20-anyone/
The Herald of Free Enterprise
THE HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE On 6 March 1987 the car ferry “Herald of Free Enterprise”, owned by Townsend Thoresen (later P&O) capsized outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, causing 193 deaths. A number of safety measures that would have prevented the disaster had not been taken because they were seen as low priority or [...]
Posted by simon7banks on May 4, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/the-herald-of-free-enterprise/
Book Review: Brian Aldiss, “Greybeard”
Brian Aldiss is of course an eminent name in Science Fiction and this is one of his most admired books – but it left me vaguely dissatisfied. The premise is an original and interesting one. Many SF stories start with the premise that humanity has been nearly wiped out (bit difficult to make a book [...]
Posted by simon7banks on May 1, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/book-review-brian-aldiss-greybeard/
Gloomy. Obscure. Negative. Vague. This sounds good…
I’m carrying on commenting on some poems I’ve already posted. They aren’t necessarily the best in my opinion, as some poems seem to me to be fairly obvious in their meaning and technique, and they could just possibly be good. The first one here, though, seems to me to be one of my best. UNDERWATER [...]
Posted by simon7banks on April 29, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/04/29/gloomy-obscure-negative-vague-this-sounds-good/
The Last Problem
Sherlock Holmes is a figure who has developed mythic force and a life outside the writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. When Conan Doyle, wanting to move on, killed him off, he came back. He appears in countless cartoons, stories, film and TV adaptations. The struggle of Holmes against arch-villain and intellect of equal power [...]
Posted by simon7banks on April 26, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/04/26/the-last-problem/
Instead of poetry, I thought I’d talk about wheelchairs, and quarries, and Halloween masks, and ponds, and knights in armour, and wheelbarrows and rainstorms…
While poetry can be a subject, as in the academic study of poetry, it’s really a mode of communication that can be about anything. In the 18th century the opinion grew in Western Europe that there were subjects and words unsuitable for poetry, which should be genteel and uplifting. Uplifting maybe – via the depths [...]
Posted by simon7banks on April 23, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/instead-of-poetry-i-thought-id-talk-about-wheelchairs-and-quarries-and-halloween-masks-and-ponds-and-knights-in-armour-and-wheelbarrows-and-rainstorms/
