John Looker

“Pale, marmoreal Eliot was there last week, like a chapped office boy on a high stool …”

- Virginia Woolf, Feb 16, 2021

Just dive in at the fourth chapter which introduces Leopold Bloom. You might find you’re hooked.

The English nursery rhyme: Ride a cock-horse to Banbury Cross To see a fine lady upon a white horse. With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes She shall have music wherever she goes.

You are right! The town is Banbury.

Congratulations, and you shall have a prize: here (just for you of course) is the old English rhyme which explains the statue and which is written around the base:

There are some very readable poems in this book. Written by proper poets, not feline fanatics. Would make a good gift as well as a self-indulgence.

Street scene with equestrian statue, market cross and church tower in the background.

Finally a photo pulling the clues together:

An ornamental market cross on a traffic island.

And the final clue. Which town were we passing through?

#England #history

Bronze statue of a woman on a horse.

Where were we? Here’s the second clue:

#England #history #sculpture

An historic church of unusual design.

Would anyone who knows historic English towns care to guess where we were yesterday?

Here’s the first of three clues:

#England #history #churches

Some years we have wrens (here in the Surrey Hills) but not always and not so far this Spring. They are a treat aren’t they!

Literature and landscape. What's not to love?

Southword can be purchased through our website. Click on the link in our bio
#southword #poetry

Poem by Fanny Howe 'I won't be able to write from the grave'

This is essentially one extended sentence. After the colon it opens into a list, an inventory of affection that feels spiritual in tone

It directly contradicts the Romantic idea of poetic immortality

I also love short northern nights, when darkness never fully settles

#poetry
#poemoftheday

Yes, 7 beautiful lines from Fanny Howe. Her penultimate line is a lovely change of direction but it’s her final line that sings: the ‘short northern nights’? As there’s a fireplace in the poem this could be winter when nights are very long – they just seem too short if you’re in bed with a friend.

Lineation Survey This survey is designed to understand writers’ attitudes about and use of lineation. Survey responses are anonymous unless you provide contact information at the end . You are not required to answer a...

Poets and poetry lovers, do you have a few minutes to complete a survey on line breaks? It’s part of a research project led by one of my graduate students. Please feel free to share. Thanks for considering.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Poem by Marianne Moore 'Poetry'

Marianne Moore's ultimate lesson in redrafting. Several versions published over 50 years. The final cutting the original 31 lines to 3.

I think, rather than lines lost or meaning changed, they all speak to each other.

The 3 line version, though, is my favourite.

#poetry
#poemoftheday
#amediting

I was reading Marianne Moore’s poetry again myself recently. These 3 lines are so succinct they almost function as an Executive Summary to her original poem. I like them, but I miss the toads.

Time I reread them!

I find this photo (from the other side of the world from me) just lifts the spirits! It’s the sense of peace or harmony, I suspect.

In today’s post

Who’s averse to a bit of satirical verse?

“They’d been at it since eight
But they could not agree
And their overalls told of the long hours of debate.”

Here’s the full poem again:

#poem #poetry #AI

The text of the full poem: The Car and the Philosophers It was a long hot day and three philosophers emerged from the workshop for a cool beer in the shade. Three moral philosophers: the deontologist, the consequentialist and the modern virtue ethicist. They'd been at it since eight but they could not agree and their overalls told of the long hours of debate. (The driverless car was raised and gripped like a patient undergoing surgery, its electronic nervous system comprehensively stripped. There were questions one should not duck: the baby in the stroller or the elderly group on the curb, or straight in the path of the oncoming truck?) We’ve done all we promised said the first, but so much unresolved said the second, while the third considered at least they had earned their thirst. The owner could be back at six; the police might return in the morning. They could do no more; the car remained unfixed.

There’s something about driverless cars that really bothers me. Who decides what they should do in an emergency?

This thought took form in a poem.

“It was a long hot day
And three philosophers emerged from the workshop
For a cool beer in the shade.”

Here’s the full poem:

#poem #AI

It's formidable, I agree: Auden at his most skilful and powerful. A poem for our appalling times.

LS Lowry in his own words — ‘Painting is like a disease. You can’t stop’ Fifty years after his death, a documentary reveals hours of never-before-heard interviews with the artist that were left for years in an attic

LS Lowry in his own words — ‘Painting is like a disease. You can’t stop’

www.thetimes.com/article/bd15...

Interesting thread showing how an AI search assistant makes things up.
The final post reveals the underlying problem: its programming is biased towards seeming to be helpful & conclusive.
And because it can’t see source videos it understands them only through the text of comments.

Poem “Because You Asked about the Line Between Poetry and Prose” by Howard Nemerov

This poem by Howard Nemerov poses a question often asked and answers it by allowing form and imagery to make the case

That there is an indistinguishable point when one becomes the other

What is clear though is he believes, when defined, poetry flies and prose falls

#poetry
#poemoftheday

They seem to be everywhere!

#poetry #haiku #snowdrops

There's a Grim New Expression: "AI;DR" The slang is a sign of how overrun the internet is with AI slop — and how the real humans using it are fed up.

AI;DR = books that are AI slop are being tagged AI;Don’t Read. It’s trending and has been noted already on BlueSky. But in case you haven’t seen it. futurism.com/artificial-i... #Author #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #BlueSky #BookSky #WritersNetwork #AI #AI;DR #IndieAuthor #SelfPublished

Bizarre!

My photo. Spezia, Liguria

How long will we stay, asks the wind, circling the striped carousel by the winter sea. The horses rear at nothing, bridles stiff with salt. Empty chairs face the tide like patient ghosts. Even the gulls keep their distance. The ticket booth blinks once, then forgets us.

#FromOneLine 406

Oh those sky-taps (great metaphor!). And you can never find a plumber when you need one.