Day: June 4, 2018
Rosa’s lilies
Charlie Blogge had gone away to visit his aged parents for a few days down in Cornwall so Rosa Benchez was alone except for her three cats and four houseplants which she had just brought indoors.Though she could have writtena bit more in her book
Linguistics and Peace on Earth.
Can plants feel emotion? she asked her oldest cat, Lucy who was a pretty tortoiseshell
Definitely ,said Lucy.I have known plants to get depressed when in a dark corner.
Oh,dear,said Rosa,it’s the weekend so the surgery is shut.I hope these plants do not go into a downward spiral in their mood now that the days are shorter.I suppose I could ring 999 if they were desperate.
They won’t allow plants in the hospital,Lucy mewed.
Why not,asked Rosa angrily.That is sheer discrimination.We pay our contributions.
But the plants don’t pay ,do they.Lucy retorted cheerfully.Cats don’t get free healthcare either.
Socialism made a big mistake there, cried Rosa.Since the English prefer animals to people they would have won the Election if they proposed free pet care on the NHS
Imagine, it would have created more jobs as well, she continues academically.And plant care is needed as plants can feel ill at times.
Yes,we can, cried the Peace Lily.I feel ill knowing there is not much peace in the world.
Humans don’t realise they may win a war but the conflict makes their health suffer even if they are too old to fight.And within families it is just as bad.
You are so right,Peace,Rosa said thoughtfully.We always assume it is our inner conflicts that make us neurotic or physically ill,but it may be that at the back of our minds we are aware of all the wars, the refugees, the suffering.Outer conflict makes us all sick to some degree.And quarreling relatives and people who can’t apologise.
Do you have any rain water,Peace demanded.I feel thirsty.
Is that enough,Rosa cried.I can make you some weak tea if you like.
Oh,go on then, the plant told her.Give me a teacup full of tea with no sugar. nor milk How about you, she carried on turning to her sister Pax.
OK.Pax told her.Whither thou goest…
She’s Jewish,said Peace to Rosa.Her real name is Ruth.But nobody uses it as Pax is shorter.She won’t grow on the Sabbath,though.
Will you miss talking to the trees in the garden while you are indoors? Rosa asked, before any more Bible references were offered.
Yes,definitely.Can you buy a few tall,male looking plants like bamboo or even grape ivy?
We like a mixture.All living beings like a mixture of friends.
How about human friends or even cats,Rosa said tactlessly
Yes, as long as they talk in soft musical voices.And we don’t like to watch violent films on TV nor to see cats fighting on the sofa.,Peace informed her.Violence hurts our inner core
And so say all of us
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Reading list for the harried
The Walberswick Ferry by my husband about 1999
Death and menace
Death at tennis
Wrath and Denis
Rest in Venice
Oliver tossed
Oliver’s pissed
Tulliver’s cost
Rhyme and punishment
Time is punishment
Time for more nourishment
The four tarts let
The four hearts set
The chaste land
The paste and copy land
The chaste hand
The chaste wand
The last stand
The blasted band
Anna Darelina
Leaf Encounter
The thief encountered
Brighton sucks
Brighton sticks
Light now fixed
Light my wicks
Pause here. [ in French]
The candle ends
The Canterbury Whales
The sixty lies of Henry 8th
The Deformation of Europe
The world war has now finished but the trauma’s ne’er done
The good wife was loved
The good life and love
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Faversham in Kent
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What surprise, we find we’ve writers ‘block!
From the sea, we see the land anew
We see both cities and the mountain tops
Far away, we note a different view
We stick to our routine as if by glue
What surprise, we find we’ve writers ‘block!
Sail far from shore, to see this land anew
Sea air aids our minds when dead thoughts stew
From the ocean we can see no clocks
Far away, we have a timeless view
Then comes intuition with its clue
“Do not put your soul into the dock”
Glide far from shore, perceive the world anew
Then creative thoughts in longing queue
Or like the starling they will whirl in flocks
From far away, we have a gentler view
New ideas are rarely found in books
All we have to do is sense and look
From the distance we see wide and real
From far away, we see new worlds unveiled
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Paradoxical pays!
http://www.wisdompills.com/2017/03/07/10-paradoxical-traits-highly-creative-people/
“The most important quality among creative people, says Csikszentmilhalyi, is the ability to enjoy the process of creation for its own sake.
Ask yourself how you can create classrooms, workplaces, families, and healing environments that value and support the gifts that the creative people you know have to offer.”
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Poetry v prose in political speech writing
Extract
To fully appreciate just what speakers like Roosevelt and Churchill accomplished in their willingness to make the transition from podium speaking to broadcasting, let’s go back to a seminal event in the mid-19th century for one of the most dramatic lessons in speechwriting and speech-giving: the Gettysburg Addresses. Yes, Addresses. There were two major speeches given on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863.
The first speech was given by the Honorable Edward Everett, a well-known and respected political figure whose oratorical style was cast in the tradition of epic story-tellers. Everett’s Gettysburg remarks began with,
“Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet, it is with hesitation that I raise my poor voice to break the eloquent silence of God and Nature. But the duty to which you have called me must be performed;—grant me, I pray you, your indulgence and your sympathy.”
And continued on for another two hours, until he finally wrapped it up on this note:
“But they, I am sure, will join us in saying, as we bid farewell to the dust of these martyr-heroes, that wheresoever throughout the civilized world the accounts of this great warfare are read, and down to the latest period of recorded time, in the glorious annals of our common country, there will be no brighter page than that which relates the Battles of Gettysburg.”
How my heart sings 