Author: Katherine

Poetry writer and author

My husband,ink and blood

photo1796_001-21

Made from a photo of an insect bite  on my leg. Katherine

My husband  was a very kind man ; he did used to like me in bright colours.
Sometimes I even wore clothes.He never mentioned that, of course.Nor ask about how I paid for them.Or if I paid for them.My secret is I am  a criminal.I stole the clothes.Do you believe me?
No,it’s no good.I can’t convince people of my utter depravity.What do I have to do?
I’ve eaten many apples but  not the sort to make God angry. I am too old to suffer childbirth, besides I am asexual or  some other new category like resexual
.I am  not interested in the physical side of life.I even get annoyed  that I have to eat food.Can’t they come up with a Tablet?
I   did love my husband but I have never fancied anyone else.Yet only a month ago a man pursued me down the street and up to my house declaring
“You are too beautiful and charming to live alone.” I think he was a  dotty
I don’t live alone.But why should I tell him?Sometimes I try to tell lies but I can’t disrespect the truth.Even write an alternative narrative.I suppose in mathematics you have to be a genius to do that and  even then some like Godel went mad.It’s not worth it,folk.Better to have fun, love your neighbour  and wear clothes in winter.
What is irritating is, you  have to wash your clothes.At night we should get into the bath with all our clothes on, get into a tumble dryer then go to bed dry and clean.It seems so simple but it would kill us trying to get into a tumble dryer.There’s always a flaw.So far.

Morning blong

On the rug beside my chair
I saw a crumb, that wasn’t  there
I’d been up half the day before
So I could polish and prepare
And now my  squalor’s evident
I think I’ll  move into a tent

My lover is a transient cat
Who likes to sleep upon a bat
He loves my smell and my bare skin
As he sniffs the soul within
I dream of failing/  passing tests
And men who have those tender wrists

I  found some Xmas cards last night
Is this a broader hint to write?
My father drew upon the wall
Before he ended in  his fall
I saw them through the wall paper
I looked again but they’re not there

I liked the humbler  kind of folk
I am modest,I  just quote
I like to guess what they will say
So sit beside them every day
But  now it’s late and I’m not here
You will only see  my tears

What we most fear

How like a monster is my fear of pain
Expanding to fill all my heart and mind
Swelling like a  giant sponge   in the rain,
This fear begets  new  feelings more unkind.

For humans being chased by lions fierce,
Fear gives us the strength to  dash away.
But when by inner turmoil we are pierced
We cannot run  yet need  not be its prey.

Most strange ,we need to do   what we most fear;
Walk towards the pain with curious calm.
As else we may be maddened like King Lear
With no Cordelia to bring us balm.

To  feel in proper ratio to our   pain.
We need perception,grace and all their gains.

Yet spacious in its arts to let me hope

My love was so elliptical it passed
Before the first one realised and grasped
But now I prefer the straight lines to connect
Or perhaps an obtuse angle I’ll bisect

In truth, I  married mental furniture
His mind was  parabolic in its shape
And filled it was by  study and nature
Yet spacious in its arts to let  me hope

He did not know of numbers  past belief
I enlightened him, yet he was filled with grief.
For as the caterpillar eats the very leaf
Learners  are depraved  like common thieves

I made an error beating him at chess
And when he died,  he left me no address.

Poetry and change

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/31/can-poetry-change-your-life

Extract

The disconnect between what people say about poetry and how people respond to poetry is probably as old as writing.

Illustration by Tamara Shopsin

The first eight pages of Michael Robbins’s new book, “Equipment for Living: On Poetry and Pop Music” (Simon & Schuster), make reference to Annie Dillard, Harold Bloom, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Kenneth Burke, Geoffrey Hill, Kenneth Koch, Adam Phillips, Frank O’Hara, Emerson, Boethius, Nietzsche, Freud, and Miley Cyrus. The book is a collection of mostly previously published pieces, some on poetry, some on pop music, some on both, written, as the names suggest, in a critical style that could be called advanced pop.

Advanced-pop criticism would be criticism premised on the belief that you can talk about cultural goods loved uncritically by millions in terms originally developed to talk about cultural goods known mainly to an overeducated few. Advanced pop is Boethius and Springsteen, Artaud and the Ramones, and it yields sentences like “I assume that what Burke”—the literary theorist Kenneth Burke—“says about poetry applies, mutatis mutandis, to the songs of Def Leppard.” It’s erudite but caj, geeky and hip, alienated and savvy—on the inside of the outside. Another word for the attitude might be “Brooklyn,” which is indeed where, as an author’s bio unnecessarily informs us, Michael Robbins lives.

“Equipment for Living” is funny and smart. It does feel a few bricks shy of a tome. The first and last chapters perform the same work: they unpack, uneasily, the claim stated in the title, which is that poems and songs can make a difference. Most of the chapters are essay-reviews, ranging in length from very brief to brief. Robbins has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and an excellent discussion of rhyme in the work of Paul Muldoon is apparently adapted from his dissertation.”

Strange that ” Peace on Earth” is lacking most in the place where civilisation began…. now there’s a thought….. back to the primitive life?

Photo0125Why did Macbeth not have a first name? And Hamlet has no surname
Hamlet McBeth… MP for Gomorrah, Sodom and Kensington North.Sirens a plently

King Lear, again Lear is an unusual name.It sounds like Fear.And then we have men who leer at women [ if only  that was all they did]
And Jesus  had a Spear in his side.I see plently of  rhymes here.

Of course Kings  don’t have surnames.Except William Wales
Since William  is in Israel maybe he should keep away from the sea.We don’t want him to be swallowed by a whale unless it  will produce peace in Palestine and all the Middle East.
Good Will,Good Will…… ?

My surname is Danish.But if I marry again I will choose  a man with a short name and I will change mine>Even though it’s 1,000 years since the Vikings even English people can’t spell it and as for poor Eastern European men delivering parcels…. it gives them the heebie jeebies

Basically I am a Nord on the outside but as for my skeleton… an orthopaedic surgeon tole me .You are only one step away from the treetops.My big toes  have rotated as if trying to be thumbs.If I lived in Africa I would be happy.I have Celtic feet so Celts are more lime monkeys than Angles and Saxons.Is it too late to climb a tree?

I wonder why some  of us are nearer to monkeys than others are?Still my mind is alright yet without a body what  use is it? Dualism again!

On Gaps

The Fighting TemeraireJoseph_Mallord_William_Turner_-_Norham_Castle,_Sunrise_-_WGA23182

http://www.janandcoragordon.co.uk/

I recall that I first came across  ideas about gaps when studying art. Jan and Cora Gordons’s writing  mentions this.Even the best artists must have the experience of completing a work and finding that it is not what they had hoped.Certainly for beginners it can be very depressing and may be the reason why many people who did poorly at art in school never try again… as they felt this gap very  painfully.But as with many of the painful aspects of life,it is better to accept and honour the  gap.Strangely when we look back at some of our work we may find it has much more in it than we saw at the time.But wanting some pre-conceived notion of perfection we fail to notice the value of what we did in reality.

Turner’s late work was thought by some to be a sign of madness.This doesn’t mean our daubs are the next great advance in Art or Writing…. but we may need to be more tolerant of ourselves and our productions whilst also being genuinely critical and accepting criticism.

Failed
Failed again
Fail better

Samuel Becket

Whose cliches ring like sand dropped on a beach

Oh,people whose dead words obscure our pain
Whose cliches ring like sand dropped on a beach
We  know well  your agenda’s not our aim

Cliches make your speech robotic ,maimed
Yet you cling to others  like a  leach
Oh,people whose dead words obscure our pain

As you are inattentive to the lame
So to the spies, dead letters you will teach
We  know well  your agenda’s not our aim

Wittgenstein said  that language is a game
We need not be imprisoned in a niche
Oh,people whose dead words obscure  again

Do not spread your fog on matters plain
We can use  expression to enrich
We  curse  your dark agenda and its aims

To  people their own language is a crutch
But self direction,instinct ,matter much
Oh,people whose dead words obscure,  defame
We  know well  your agenda, and its  crimes

My favourite crooks

A Tale of two Pities
Gulliver bevelled
A Christmas Barrel
Census and Sensibility,
My Shield Smarts
The Man’s Field Snarks
Whores of Humour with paper and scissors. [ voice acticated  typing]
Eight whores a day at work is wrong
The Oxford Roars
Minimum Rages Now!

Sodom,Gomorrah!

Photo0125

Sinning with my own husband in the  trees

I’ll go to Sodom Gomarrah
I’ll get  some prayers ; rite after death
I went to Confession;it’s  smashin’
I wish we could still buy “Indulgences”
Oh,God, be fair to aged present!
Give me oil for my lamp, keep me burning.
Is desire a sin ,and for” whom”?
We should meet others without memory or desire especially in  a “brothel”
He asked for a whore  more in bed.He’s; hard, to; please.
I am now a ” sinner” having committed more than 11,000 sins right here.They are called posts officially!But we all know about mass deception and wholly disunion.

How to seem well educated:Jesus was a foreigner!

Put as,many, commas and semi;colons in your sentences as you, can;.
Never, use; ” obscenities”; on a, “blog”
Always be polite to; your follower,your lover, your cat, especially if ;they are all the same “being”
Never ?!!! disagree with, anyone who;” loves” “you”
Write: about love, and hate
Write: about love and hate
Write about hate, and love!
People like to; hear, about “crimes of r

Fashion”
Always shock ,your, self; or “soul” or ;be ;” good for “nothing””
.Begin with a full stop!:.”””:)* and end with a lie.In.
Never mention your bed or your under;wear,parts,carriage,pants,neath
Never make men sin, on purpose
Never make men sin on purpose
Men like, to be “embedded” or is it “embodied”?l;……?
Never tell a “lady” she must have been “beautiful”#####, when she was Jung;young, or hung!?><*^(((
e pi i ,,,,,,,,. don’t you just love maths:***? foreigners;Jesus.?
Jesus was a foreigner!

Cables and cameras: the aliens keep moving them

jPhoto0131Photo0130
June in my so ;called “Garden”

I went through 5 bags of cables and cords looking for the charger for Canon batteries.No sign of it.So I put them back into the cupboard and stood back; there on the floor was a charger! I found part  of  another but I couldn’t see how to connect it to a power source.
I will never buy another Canon.They are the only ones which I have seen which can’t be charged via a usb cord.But I like them.

Well known authors

photo0104PG Woodlouse
Malcolm Flowery
Detective CUES Lewis,
Doris Blessing,
James Cog
William Smouldering,
Stella Ribbons,
John Bellsworthy,
Silky Lollings
Joyous Caring,
Elizabeth Shouting
Arnold Academic
Sybille Oxford,
Pet Barker,
Pat,Hark Her
Evelyn Awe
Anthony Wallop,
Paul Spotte
Barbara Gym
Barbara Win
Philip Pullperson
Willy Pull Larson
W Somersault Norm
DH Awed Sense
DH Passed Tense
Thomas Bawd
Jesus Said
George Belly Ache
Joseph Washbad
Where is   our Dock?
DH Torrents
George Delicate
Jane Lost-in
Lane Caution
John Bust In
Moses Noble Aim

We may as well try it:stop ruminating and keep stress intermittent.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140805002649-50578967-how-successful-people-stay-calm?trk=tod-posts-postall-ptlt&trk=tod-posts-postall-ptlt

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Mark Twain’s work space

 

Extract”Research from the University of California, Berkeley, reveals an upside to experiencing moderate levels of stress. But it also reinforces how important it is to keep stress under control. The study, led by post-doctoral fellow Elizabeth Kirby, found that the onset of stress entices the brain into growing new cells responsible for improved memory. However, this effect is only seen when stress is intermittent. As soon as the stress continues beyond a few moments into a prolonged state, it suppresses the brain’s ability to develop new cells.

“I think intermittent stressful events are probably what keeps the brain more alert, and you perform better when you are alert,” Kirby says. For animals, intermittent stress is the bulk of what they experience, in the form of physical threats in their immediate environment. Long ago, this was also the case for humans. As the human brain evolved and increased in complexity, we’ve developed the ability to worry and perseverate on events, which creates frequent experiences of prolonged stress.”

Gone away

Where are you, love?
I heard you in the  sea breeze
Where are you love?
Indifferent to me, to please
Gone away,death.
Going away tomorrow
Gone away death,
Gone away such sorrow
Where are you love?
Where, why’ve you left me?
Show the hand.I see
Show the hand in glove
Where  are you,love?
Why are the  trees crying?
Where are you love?
Why, your baby’s dying.
Come back,my love
I am still here trying
Gone away, gone away,gone,
A way, but which one?
The trodden or the new
Where love are you?
Love , where are you?
Love,oh my love
Gone away, gone away,gone away, away,away}
On your way,
I cannot stay
I cannot play
Gone away

What as hell is perfect; about grammar?

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Guardian news

What as hell is perfect; about grammar?
Can we learn; it while we “use” a scanner?
A semicolon; it is some;thing to for:get
On my oath;I never took a  cheque

What  is hot like? hell is your own structure.
Should I tell you at a formal;punctured…
Colon is a word , of double; meaning~
I don’t like  to see, men, when  have I been dreaming?

If you” love ” the English; language meets you
If you like the Celtic words,I do too.
If you prefer Hebrew;I will need glue
And mirrors to  reverse;the image blue.

Grammar rules to forget

photo01171https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/sep/30/10-grammar-rules-you-can-forget

Comment

“guy_montag 

56

As English is not my mother tongue I’ve a few questions about interjunctions.
What do all the following words actually mean?
1. Err
2. Ugh
3. Hm or Hmm
4. Ermm

And which other interjunctions are most commonly used in English? Thanking you in anticipation (Could I also say “Thank you very much in advance”?).”

He serves the grass with salads of wildflowers 

The sun a nuclear flame thrower so empowered
From which we have no safegauard and no shield
Burned the grass and bit the newborn flowers

In the sky for more than fifteen hours
The bare skinned Christian folkd to cancer yield
The sun a matchless flame thrower  empowered

Deprived of thunder,lightning and sharp showers
The trees are dying and the ground is seared
Now burns the grass festooned with frames of flowers

Underneath dead leaves  the frogs  now cower
The toad is bolder,oh,I see him peer
The sun a matchless flame thrower  empowered

The Xmas tree grown mighty will endure
At its peak a blackbird sings out clear
Well burns the grass  festooned with its wild flowers

At first  the heat was  glory ,now we fear
First snow and ice then Joan of Arc’s great pyre
The sun’s  no crime, the burning is desire.
He serves the grass with salads of wildflowers

 

Couples therapy and Eugenics [ and the Nazis

DgRsdJ5X4AA2eVQhttps://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/03/29/fixed

 

This is  very interesting article.I had no idea couples therapy had such a history

Extract:

” In 1933, he wrote to Bell, asking for photographs of Carrie Buck and her mother and daughter for his archive. He told him, “A hundred years from now you will still have a place in this history of which your descendants may well be proud.” Popenoe, in fact, had become something of a historian. Later that year, Grant published “The Conquest of a Continent; or, The Expansion of Races in America,” a “racial history” based on “scientific interpretation,” recommending “the absolute suspension of all immigration from all countries,” to be followed by the deportation of illegal aliens. Popenoe had spent four years conducting the research for Grant’s book; he had also compiled the bibliography. Unlike “The Passing of the Great Race,” Grant’s American pseudohistory met with a furious reception. Ruth Benedict said that the only difference between it and Nazi racial theory was that “in Germany they say Aryan in place of Nordic.” Franz Boas attacked Grant in The New Republic; Melville Herskovits did so in The Nation. The Anti-Defamation League said that “The Conquest of a Continent” was “even more destructive than Hitler’s Mein Kampf.”

In 1934, Popenoe wrote about “Mein Kampf” admiringly, and at length. “Hitler himself—though a bachelor—has long been a convinced advocate of race betterment through eugenic measures,” he observed. In 1937, L. C. Dunn, a geneticist at Columbia, delivered a radio address condemning American immigration restriction and Germany’s sterilization campaign, both of which he attributed to the quackery of eugenics. “What can science do for democracy?” Dunn asked. “It can tell the people the truth about such misuses of the prestige of science.” Not until the end of the Second World War did Popenoe stop publishing on racial purity, and then only begrudgingly, complaining in 1945, “When it comes to eugenics, the subject of ‘race’ sets off such tantrums in a lot of persons that one has to be very long-suffering!” The next year, at the Nuremberg trials, lawyers defending the Nazi doctors cited Madison Grant’s work. “My interest in eugenics . . . is as keen as ever,” Popenoe wrote, privately, in 1949, “although most of the work I am doing is in a slightly different field.” Four years later, Ladies’ Home Journal began publishing “Can This Marriage Be Saved?””

 

Alfred did not die

12299302_642095315930350_3587466114965928393_nMy hands  are hurting when I write but it  usually goes in 2 or 3 weeks.So let’s hope this will be the case.
Many hands make light work but mine are the exception,They turn out the lights
My mother’s hands were very lined blackened by coal and dirt that would not come off.Her hands were big and square.I loved them,Her nails were flat.Her little toe was flat.She used  to say an elephant trod on it.Then,curiousity killed the cat.But Alfred didn’t die.He was given to someone else