Book Reviews: Aravind Adiga: Between the Assassinations; Laurence Sterne: Tristram Shandy

So time to rest from posting poems and do some reviewing of books I’ve just read again. ARAVIND ADIGA: BETWEEN THE ASSASSINATIONS Adiga is well-known as the author of “The White Tiger”, but he was new to me. Here he invents a town in south-west India – Kittur – and strings together a series of [...]

The Coming of Peace

In the parched land Peace falls like a shower of rain Seeps through the waiting and reviving soil Farmers go hunting it with pump and spade And fight over the holes they’ve made.

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 [...]

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 [...]

Skills for Death

  Welcome to the Skills for Death Development Centre. Here’s a pamphlet with a web address. Click on it and you will encounter The usual warning. If you carry on, we guarantee That you will be enlightened. We can offer courses In falling gracefully: it’s most embarrassing After a lifetime of unbroken bones To break [...]

Frog

FROG   If you dissect the frog, you will discover Endless information about its muscles The mechanisms of digestion and The interior structure of its eye and brain.   You will encounter limitations, though: Some aspects of behaviour will be hidden The frog being dead.

The Promised Land

In the USA and Canada until the late 19th century, ambitious, restless or lawless people often headed west towards the Frontier. In modern Britain, people who have lived in poor areas and made a bit of money move to prosperous areas of  countryside and small towns – from Manchester and Liverpool into Cheshire, from Birmingham [...]

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 [...]

Special Offer

SPECIAL OFFER   On special offer: free range organic rabbits Only 5% flat. Forget your iPOD, we have now in stock The cepHALopod. There was no winner on the super scoop Last night, the prize is now a million pounds THE WINNER COULD BE YOU. Outside a deep red sunset shades to purple That you [...]

Harvest

HARVEST   I heard the tree of life was broken But the sun still shone The payslip still arrived each month Football teams lost and won So I carried on.   I dreamt the leaves were withering Buzzing and grind of saws Put the giant trunk to use I obeyed the law Others get caught. [...]

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