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 in category Historical
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/
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/
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/
By the Gate
BY THE GATE The cloaked man waiting by the gate Shivers in the warming day The planned arrival’s running late West wind drives the clouds away The cloaked man taps his booted feet Fumbles out a stained small case, Stares at a photo; fingers beat On holster; silence in his face A movement [...]
Posted by simon7banks on April 14, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/by-the-gate/
Selected Poems of Simon Banks
(Well, about half my poems don’t make it on to the word file. They may survive in a handwritten notebook, or they may have been scrawled on a piece of paper and then I don’t rate them. From the word file a selection gets posted here – and from that, some which most seem to [...]
Posted by simon7banks on April 13, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/04/13/selected-poems-of-simon-banks-24/
Wall
When the grey seas beat down on this low wall Remember us who built it high and died We knew the fish of the sea, we knew the soaring falcon, We tasted bread and wine and love and loss. This isn’t any one particular wall, but I’ve encountered many places that would fit. [...]
Posted by simon7banks on April 7, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/04/07/wall/
Well, among the multitude of possible interpretations of these obscure poems, these will do as well as any
and gain a modicum of credibility from originating with the writer. So here goes with some more old poems. TOMORROW After a month of night, a reddish moon Illuminates a new world, smoothes The slivers of metal, softens the swathes Of jagged concrete to A pebble beach. The clumps of bodies become [...]
Posted by simon7banks on April 5, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/well-among-the-multitude-of-possible-interpretations-of-these-obscure-poems-these-will-do-as-well-as-any/
Of course, no-one, not even the “writer”, can “know” what the poem “means”, but still…
…academics can tie themselves in some fascinating knots and, it is even rumoured, disappear up their own theories. Here’s some more commentary on poems I’ve already posted: EDEN The fruit slipped ripe into the hand The hunting hard, but always good, The trees made shade to sleep within That was the Eden we once knew [...]
Posted by simon7banks on March 30, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/of-course-no-one-not-even-the-writer-can-know-what-the-poem-means-but-still/
This probably isn’t what I meant, if I meant anything, but you never know
So I’ll go on disinterring old posted poems and suggesting some context and meaning. Soon I’ll go back to new postings. By the way, I have a blog (http://sibathehat.blogspot.com) for everything non-literary, and the leading countries people are visiting the blog from are: Joint 1: U.K. and U.S.A. Vying for third place: France, Germany [...]
Posted by simon7banks on March 24, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/this-probably-isnt-what-i-meant-if-i-meant-anything-but-you-never-know/
