From the category archives:
I heard this tonight, on the radio, for the first time ever. It’s wonderful. Ithaca When you set out on your journey to Ithaca, pray that the road is long, full of adventure, full of knowledge. The Lestrygonians and the Cyclops, the angry Poseidon — do not fear them: You will never find such as these on your path, if your thoughts [...]
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Clambering up the Cold Mountain path, The Cold Mountain trail goes on and on: The long gorge choked with scree and boulders, The wide creek, the mist-blurred grass. The moss is slippery, though there’s been no rain The pine sings, but there’s no wind. Who can leap the world’s ties And sit with me among the white clouds? – Han Shan (Poem 8, [...]
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Legge prints green paw prints on William Morris chairs – no sudden delight on Ate’s face as her new yellow cardigan copped it badly too – La Belle Femme, 2005
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The wintry haw is burning out of season, crab of the thorn, a small light for small people, wanting no more from them but that they keep the wick of self-respect from dying out, not having to blind them with illumination. But sometimes when your breath plumes in the frost it takes the roaming shape of Diogenes with his lantern, seeking one [...]
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Byrhtwold’s words on the death of his lord, Byrhtnoth, leader of the Saxons, at the Battle of Maldon: Thought must be the harder, heart be the keener, mind must be the greater, while our strength lessens.
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One of the best ancient poets, Archilochus, produced only some 500 lines that have survived to modern times. A new development in image recognition has now uncovered a further 30 lines of his work, insignificant in usual terms but, since it represents an almost 10% increase in his known works, is immensely important. Professor Richard [...]
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Do not, Leuconoe, seek to inquire what is forbidden, what End the gods have assigned to you or to me; nor do you meddle with Astrological numbers. What shall arise count to your balance if God marks down to you more winters – or perhaps this very one is the Last which now on the rocks wears out the [...]
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This is an extraordinarily atheistic passage from the Old Testament: The time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end of a man there is no remedy, and no man hath been known to have returned from hell: For we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had [...]
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Morehaiku from Alan Spence: a wee kickabout wi the kids in the street – the light nights – after Ryokan scratchin maself ach aye no deid yet – after Santoka
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smashed that fucking mosquito guess i’m no buddha – the haiku year, (soft skull 2nd ed. page 69)
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