Author: Katherine

Poetry writer and author

The yachts by William Carlos Williams

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/terza-rima-poetic-term

ABOUT THE POET

William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) famously combined the two careers of doctor and writer,…

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The Yachts

contend in a sea which the land partly encloses
hielding them from the too heavy blows
of an ungoverned ocean which when it choosestortures the biggest hulls, the best man knows
to pit against its beatings, and sinks them pitilessly.
Mothlike in mists, scintillant in the minute

brilliance of cloudless days, with broad bellying sails
they glide to the wind tossing green water
from their sharp prows while over them the crew crawls

ant like, solicitously grooming them, releasing,
making fast as they turn, lean far over and having
caught the wind again, side by side, head for the mark.

In a well guarded arena of open water surrounded by
lesser and greater craft which, sycophant, lumbering
and flittering follow them, they appear youthful, rare

as the light of a happy eye, live with the grace
of all that in the mind is feckless, free and
naturally to be desired. Now the sea which holds them

is moody, lapping their glossy sides, as if feeling
for some slightest flaw but fails completely.
Today no race. Then the wind comes again. The yachts

move, jockeying for a start, the signal is set and they
are off. Now the waves strike at them but they are too
well made, they slip through, though they take in canvas.

Arms with hands grasping seek to clutch at the prows
Bodies thrown recklessly in the way are cut aside.
It is a sea of faces about them in agony, in despair

until the horror of the race dawns staggering the mind;
the whole sea become an entanglement of watery bodies
lost to the world bearing what they cannot hold. Broken,

beaten, desolate, reaching from the dead to be taken up
they cry out, failing, failing! their cries rising
in waves still as the skillful yachts pass over.

‘The Yachts’ from The Collected Poems: Volume I 1909-1939 (New Directions, 1986), used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation. The recording was made on May 5, 1945 at the Recording Laboratory, Library of Congress, Washington DC, and is used with permission of the Library of Congress.

 

 

Obdurate is still used quite frequently

Conservative Party Conference 2014
Chief Whip Michael Gove addresses delegates at the Conservative Party annual conference in the International Convention Centre, Birmingham.

I read a word I’ve not seen or heard before:Indurate.Oxford Dictionary

Definition of indurate in English:
indurate
 
Pronunciation: /ˈɪndjʊreɪt/
VERB
[WITH OBJECT] (usually as adjective indurated)
Harden:a bed of indurated clay
Derivatives

induration

Pronunciation: /ɪndjʊˈreɪʃ(ə)n/

 
NOUN

Example sentences

indurative

ADJECTIVE
 

Origin

Mid 16th century (earlier Middle English) as induration: from Latin indurat- ‘made hard’, from the verb indurare (based on durus ‘hard’).

How not to be popular

P1000046

1.Never listen to other people but keep talking non-stop.
2.Never speak when with others.
3.Always forget friends’ birthdays
4.Never  give visitors a drink, not even water
5 Fill your language with swear words and curses if you do speak
6 Go to A & E if you cut your finger and complain when kept waiting
7.Don’t go to A&E with chest pain as you can stay at home and have a heart attack instead which will upset everyone who knows you.
8.Never use a deodorant in the summer nor change your socks.
9.Always keep your seat in the train even when old frail or pregnant people are standing up
10. Boast about how good you are.
11 Never apologise ever.
12.Keep apologising for no reason.
13. Never read books,newspapers or watch  the News so you will not be able to talk to anyone except about yourself

 

Stop biting your males,please

The land of silken money is a daydream
You are my past participant
Last stitch efforts have failed to mend my heart.
Doctor, the lost cattarrh has arrived in my lungs
I’ll blow the maths up in a minute then laughs all the way to the bonk
My husband  played down his pauses.He was in denial.Now I am
I play with bards on the card table
I leave no stone unburned when I have cold knight in my arms
Men,please leave your bark here and just whisper sweet laughingsi n my ears.
He said to turn left at the altar and then walk up the knave and wait for more guidance.But then I’d never heard of naves in churches, it was trial and horror
He was a legend for his kindness alone.His cruelty raised his fame even more.He veered from sado to maso-chism like a bipolar wolf
A leopard doesn’t arrange its spots daily but then acne is rare in animals
He is the blesser of two weasels
I let sleeping dogs fly
If you let the cat shout from the bag.I’ll kill you
Let’s call our love over
Let’s split our wounds between us.You have half and so don’t I
I think flicking one’s wounds is a worry.Just bit your males instead
Lie down with Brian? Give me a breast!
Life is the howling of worries
My life as a witch led to a flight of knights all white
She was as quiet as a blathering witch on cocaine… until her corollary was unproved or possibly improved.. it’s my bad handwriting.Was it an art attack?

Nor lose a wisdom tooth

If my brain gets any bigger,
it won’t fit in my head
With logic and with rigor
I’ll prove that I am dead.

So I shan’t pay no taxes
Or vote for Donald Trump
I’ll never look up praxis
Nor   find a worrying lump

I’ll never see a medic
Nor  lose a wisdom tooth
No disease endemic
Will get me,that’s the truth.

I’ll never have to marry
I’ll sleep with whom I choose
I’ll never need to hurry
For I’ve no time to lose

When we think about it
We would be better off
Do not ever doubt it
There,that is enough

 

 

  Mary wants to throw out her furniture

Mary picked up her mobile phone to ring for a cab..On it,there was a message
.You have missed a call from home.Mary shivered.
Has Stan come back?
Then she recalled she had rung her own mobile before coming out.Her mind sagged like sheet of rubber suspended between four tall trees in the jungle..
Hello,It’s Mrs Tan.Can you do a me cab from the dental surgery to my home? It’s right by the doctor’s surgery.
She stepped outside into the warm air which felt like a caress on her poor numb face.
When she got home she found Annie in the kitchen looking at her collection of cookery books.
Do you want to get rid of any of these, her friend queried.
I am thinking of learning some new recipes so I can invite those awful therapists across the road for dinner.But I have to be sure that what I serve has no hidden meaning especially aggressive or sexual.
Well,Mary said,don’t you think that people differ in what they find sexual?
Beats me,said Annie meaningfully.I fancy doing beef in beer with French bread and mustard baked on the top.
I used to do that,Mary said.Why did we stop doing that cooking? Penguin brought a new book every month.I have most of them and ,at the weekend, I’d study them for ages looking for things like apple mousse and different stews.
When we first got married I used a kind of cheap women’s magazine approach and most often as a pudding I did tinned peaches with cinnamon sprinkled on grilled till hot and spicy.Eventually, Stan got fed up with it and so I got into cordon bleu and using real cream not Carnation milk
Her blue eyes gleamed in excitement and were rendered even more remarkable by the teal and turquoise eye shadow Annie had forced her to wear which matched the sea blue mascara she already had.Annie said.
it will be good for us both to meet new people especially educated ones
Mary disagreed.I like ordinary people because a certain amount of education makes some people very conceited and only real scholars or mystics realise that the more we know the more we realise our own ignorance.Will such folk like makeup?
Perhaps one of the psychoanalysts will be a mystic,Annie retorted loudly.
But would such a person want to visit us? Mary bleated childishly.
Why not? They have to eat and they may need a new love interest or someone sympathetic who will know how hard their job is.Someone like me,beautiful funny and willing to look after a man when he needs it.
How about a man who might look after you,Mary said brightly
Well,it’s not quite the same.I like looking after men whereas you prefer reading about Fourier series and infinite integrals.And knitting patterns,she added hastily as if omitting that interest would severely anger Mary.
I think we’ll invite two men and two women ,all single.They can bring their cats for Emile to play with if they want.And we’ll eat in the kitchen to make it more relaxed.
Thank God,said Mary as the dining room was full of paper and books.
Why don’t I have a study,she pondered.Or ,if I slept in the dining room, my bedroom has a lovely view and I have an old desk somewhere.
Mary ,in her younger days, had often moved the furniture around and had even slept on a camp bed on the lawn one summer but she no longer did this as looking after Stan had worn her down to a shred of her former self.
But beds do take up so much room.Without them ,the house would be quite spacious.And how about tables and chairs… her mind ran on as she quite fancied a new start without moving house.
With fewer clothes ,she could ditch a wardrobe… on the other hand ,she could not afford such quality clothes again on her widow’s pension.
To think she might have to stop wear Bowlands of Wrath was a rather painful thought.Still most of humanity have got hardly anything so maybe Mary will think more deeply about donating some to Oxfam.
Suddenly the doorbell rang.Dave the paramedic was outside
Are you both ok?I’ve not heard from you lately,he remarked as he powdered his nose.
Well,I do have an old desk that you can carry upstairs for me,Mary told him thoughtfully.Then we need the floor scrubbing.I’m sure the NHS will pay.After all dirt might make us ill!
And so pray all of us

  Snails with whorls

 

 

 

Inside my shell I dream of pearls,
Caterpillars,snails with whorls.
I dream contented, all enwrapped
With reverie and dream I’m lapped.
The inner seas will comfort me,
While gods allow my eyes to see

Oh,sweeter than confectionery
Is my worn old dictionary.
The words whirl round and fall to shape
The sentences, which my world drape.
This furnishing is rich and strange
Yet magically self arranged.

Oh,sweeter than the love of man
Is reading works of poets long gone.
And feeling deeply their dark tides .
Upon which our boat may glide.
The sea infinite we float on
Is the same warm sea where ancients swam.

Sweeter still is this spring air
And the blossom spreading fair.
We’ll drown ourselves in deep green field
To the gods of poetry yield.
We’ll rise again and spring up tall
To grow more rich until we fall.

 

Sweet it is to live and die
And to write my  poetry
Touch me with your ardent souls
My mind and yours shall all  be whole

For love’s sake

Inside my heart, this sacred place
Where freely mingle truth and grace
Where friends and enemies alike
Are viewed as equals for love’s sake

Inhabited by deeper self
In touch with all that in me dwells
I leave  my failures  gladly here
I will not live in morbid fear

I don’t insult the force divine
By pride in any good that’s mine
For willpower cannot birth virtue
But  can  attend to the eye’s  view

By trusting in   the vast unknown
We turn  attention from the known.
Our eyes relax and  gaze without
To  bring proportion  to our doubts

Trust, itself. will widen gaze
And enable us to find our ways.
With terror,fear or loss of pride
Constriction comes to human eyes.

Perception is the highest good
By what we see,we choose our road.
The blind rush like the swine to hell
In patient,watchfulness  let’s  dwell.

The danger of IQ tests

 

 

IMG_3052
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Although I only scored 73 which makes me almost mentally backwards,I know quite well that I am intelligent but suppose I didn’t?It was very harmful when these were used at 11 plus.Some of the questions had in fact more than one answer and also they are not culture free.The one I did was very visual which was not a good one for me to do.I found it tiring.
And of you did one and got a low score,ignore it and follow your bent.If you want to write then write.If you do it every day you will get better.A friend of mine wrote three villanelles last week after I put a post on Facebook.She said it was  like doing a jigsaw puzzle but, if she writes more, maybe she will  find herself in the writing and  it may not be just an exercise.She did  two by will power but the third was inspiration so I imagine she could write more but she’s writing up some historical work  and is behind on that.
I hope that anyone who’d like to draw or write will do it instead of watching some awful TV programmes which are repeated through the summer.Or grow plants,knit or bake bread.Let your mind roam free or muse over whatever is happening to you.

More proverbs

another insect bite 3

I made this from a photo of a bleeding insect bite on my leg a few years ago.Nothing has bitten me lately,thank goodness.

Malabar Proverbs

  • 1. Anger is a stone cast into a wasp’s nest. Anger is a stone cast into a wasp's nest.. Malabar Proverb.
  • 2. Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp’s nest. Anger is as a stone cast into a wasp's nest.. Malabar Proverb.
  • 3. Anger is more hurtful than the injury that caused it. Anger is more hurtful than the injury that caused it.. Malabar Proverb.

– See more at: http://www.special-dictionary.com/proverbs/source/m/malabar_proverb/#sthash.ht4IYTDI.dpuf
In proverbs we see ordinary people knew years ago what the  dangers of anger were
And like other pernicious emotions it is best allowed to die down naturally or by distraction or talking to a friend.But now we might  feel a lack of confidence and wonder if we should ask an expert.The experts’ views on anger change constantly but one might believe that moderation in all things is a wise path

Sentences which puzzle the mind

http://distractify.com/old-school/2015/04/13/the-19-most-mind-blowing-sentences-in-the-english-language-1197891759

Extract

5 . A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed

The letter combination “-ough” has nine possible pronunciations in English (depending on regional dialect), and this delightful sentence contains them all: “uff,” “oh,” “auh,” “ow,” “uh,” “oo,” “off,” and “uhp.” How’s that for a tongue-twister?

No poetry

I have to see the dentist today and it is hot too so my mind is not working.What do you expect with my IQ?If I had known it was so low I wouldn’t have bothered getting any maths qualifications.I’d have carried on working in the old people’s home…. or been a road sweeper!

When true love’s gone

 

When true love’s gone and doom hangs over head
When life runs like a river to the sea
Then shall I take new lovers to my bed?
And with their carnal touch consoled be?

When my love lies,so breaks my tender heart.
When life seems grey and rocks bestrew my path.
Then, shall I my life of evil start?
And on the world shall I bestow my wrath?

When true love lies and wrecks all loyalty.
When puzzlement makes all my world seem mad.
Then I shall upend causality
And let myself do deeds which make me glad.

For I have love’s sweet child inside my soul
And I shall tend her till at last she’s whole

How to annoy people

photo1137 hhhhyy

 

1.Never offer visitors a cup of tea or any other drink
2.Never look at people while you are listening to them
3.Always ask them why they go to the library  so often especially if their partner is present
4.Always ask why they don’t carry a camera all the time like you do
5.Always ask why they  do or don’t  have an i phone.
6.Always  ask if they use  he well known  cookery book  “Left over for tomorrow” by Marika Hanbury Tenison.
7.Take them to Mc Donalds for their dinner.
8.Wash up in between courses while entertaining.Sing as well.Feed the cat and go to the loo before offering pudding.Use the coffee set your in laws gave you.
9.At 9 pm go to bed.Ask them to shut the door when they leave then get up and write your first novel.Then go to bed again.
10.Take a lumia selfie and make it into a poster and ask all your friends  what they think.

Patient silence

The cause of sadness  also shows its end;

That we let go the loved one and remain.

Such comfort,aid and love we have from friends

Helps us bear the heart’s most dangerous pain.

 

But if our friends  fear their own  hidden  grief.

If sorrow is never let to touch their heart;

Then friendship’s stolen by a nervous thief;

As wishing to retain our self,we part.

 

The friends who sit in silent company

Who look for no reward yet love us true

Who show,  quite clear, desireless empathy;

They are friends who warmth and  hope imbue.

 

Patient silence may do more than  words

The utterance of the heart is not absurd.

Moros was Greek for foolish

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Goodbye,Stan whispered

 

Mary stood at the bus stop in her chocolate wool winter coat which Stan had always loved.
It hangs so well,he had told her.
The optional imitation fur collar had been removed as she preferred natural garments made from wool with no ostentation.As a matter of fact she has one of Stan’s woollen vests on under her gold silk top.Her hair fell in light blonde curls around her pensive face and her eyes looked as if she were seeing a dim vision of the Matterhorn in midwinter.
Suddenly she realised the bus was there and she put her card up to the machine before looking for a seat.The bus was rather full so she sat down next to a youth with an i phone hanging from his hand.Suddenly it rang.His chosen theme was, Please release me, sung by Tom Jones.Mary smiled as, if she were near Tom Jones she would need no invitation to free him.The youth began to speak rather louder than normal.
Mary tried not listen but it was impossible.She was too hot as well..Wearing Stan’s vest was a mistake as the bus was overheated.She turned pink like sunrise over ICI in Billingham as the pollution had a beautifying affect.
I’m sorry I wore your vest,she told Stan.
I should have given them away but I was trying to save money on heating.Still I will be home soon.
Where is your microphone, the youth demanded.It must be one of those new tiny ones.
A microphone? Mary said curiously.
Yeah, he cried.I assume your phone is in your pocket.
Actually it’s in a pocket in my knickers,she informed h m in a manner resembling that of a mildly dotty scientist.We used to wear these knickers in the gym at school.
Did you not wear a top? he enquired,his eyes running over her hourglass figure like water falling off High Force in Teesdale. in summer storms.
Well.I didn’t have a bra until I got my grant to attend university,she told him sensitively.
Well,that’s news to me,he said.So you had to wear a bra at University? That was before feminism,of course.Did you burn it later?
Certainly not,said Mary.I’d been longing for one but my mother didn’t seem to notice my development which was her way of coping with adolescent girls.Of course my brothers may have noticed but they were too nervous to tell Mother I needed anysupport.We were all so shy and afraid.Anyway be quiet now,I want to speak to my husband.
Have you had your phone on all this time? he asked anxiously.
No,I don’t need it to talk to him,she responded.
Why,where is he? the youth enquired sardonically.
He’s on my knee,Mary informed him.In this bag.She pointed to her hessian shopping bag.
I have just been to the Coop for him.I ought to have got a cab as he is quite heavy.
Jesus Christ,cried the youth,hastily pressing the bell before leaping off the bus into a small pond that had been created b Hurricane Desmond.He swam away into the cold night.
Well. that shut him up,Mary said to Stan.
Mary,don’t become less gentle and kind,Stan said in her ear.
I can’t be gentle now,she said.It’s a nasty tough world without you to help me and tell me what you think of Jeremy Corbyn.And do I need to have a roast dinner at Xmas or just some toad in the hole?
I am sorry,sweetheart he murmured.Maybe you need assertiveness training.
I’ll just get more aggressive,she replied.Micro-aggressive perhaps.
You’ll need more than micro in this era,he continued.Mary forgot to get off the bus and found herself in the Leisure Centre by the River Lee
What about the river,Stan, she asked.Would you like me to throw you in.A policeman standing near by ran over.
Madam, is it suicide or murder, he asked her.
No,it’s a life sentence,she said humorously as she put her hand up her skirt to get her phone.
That’s a silly place to keep your phone he said.Anyway don’t call a cab,I can run you home in my car.Have you got any China tea?I could kill for a hot drink.
I have some lapsang souchong,she told him.Do you fancy that? I do called Stan from the bag.The policeman passed out.
I told you not to get a boyfriend yet,he continued to Mary.
I’ll do whatever I feel like,she said rudely.I could use a comforting arm around me.
Stan sobbed.
She said,quickly
Don’t worry.I’ll get Emile to sit on my knee.Goodbye for now.
Goodbye whispered Stan faintly.
Good bye…. goodbye

Post modern fascism?

Nice Reacts After Truck Attack
NICE, FRANCE – JULY 15: A man reacts as people lay flowers at the site where a truck drove into a crowd on the Promenade des Anglais on July 15, 2016 in Nice, France. A French-Tunisian attacker killed 84 people as he drove a truck through crowds, gathered to watch a firework display during Bastille Day celebrations. The attacker then opened fire on people in the crowd before being shot dead by police. (Photo by Patrick Aventurier/Getty Images)

 

http://www.artblog.net/post/2014/03/nazi/