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 [...]
All posts in category Light
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/
Empire
I usually find I can’t sustain a long poem unless I’m on holiday alone, able to get away from unusual distractions, even though there will be other things to think about. That’s what happened here on a holiday. I’d felt I had a poem in me about the collapse of a glorious and cultured [...]
Posted by simon7banks on April 4, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/empire/
Strange poems here. Perhaps the poet really meant…
On with a few more reblogged poems now with added explanation. Hmm… could try a “three poems for the price of two” offer or an extra-long poem for the same price as a short one. No? BRITISH NATIONALITY Nobody gave me a choice Of where I’d like to be born Nobody set me [...]
Posted by simon7banks on March 26, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/strange-poems-here-perhaps-the-poet-really-meant/
Gravity
The ship is falling into Jupiter The planet’s pull’s too strong for all our engines I cannot impress too strongly upon you The gravity of the situation. This very short poem (or maybe it’s just comic verse) allows me to do something I’ve been thinking about for a while – to re-feature some earlier [...]
Posted by simon7banks on March 15, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/03/15/gravity/
I think because I am not
Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” (“je pense, donc je suis”; “cogito, ergo sum”) is probably the most famous sentence ever written by a philosopher. Of course he meant it as a proof of his existence, but it’s very easy to adapt it to become a statement about the goal or rationale of human existence: [...]
Posted by simon7banks on March 8, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/i-think-because-i-am-not/
Glittering
The leaning tower pisser is abroad So is not here. The bugs are all in bed Recording everything the Inspector said The bet had strings, but we have one accord If I can pirouette around the fire My foil-flash clothes may glint like real gold Though I am spotted, I am not yet [...]
Posted by simon7banks on February 3, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/02/03/glittering/
Consumer Boom
If you are short of a principle Or two or three or more Principles for Men will fit you out They won’t be demanding You won’t have to shout Or break the law If you’re inclined to change your mind If the conclusions it has come to Aren’t for you Go to the [...]
Posted by simon7banks on January 29, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/consumer-boom/
Inquisition
INQUISITION “Are you, or have you ever been, A foreigner?” Thus spake the coroner And I replied, behind a screen, “Yes! When I went to see my Auntie Bess In Australia!” He hissed to his sidekick Damien: “Emergency! We’ve got an alien!” And died of heart failure. Perhaps there’s a degree of similarity [...]
Posted by simon7banks on January 1, 2012
http://simonsworlds13.wordpress.com/2012/01/01/inquisition/
