There are lots of comments around the web referring to Elizabeth Alexander’s poem composed for Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration.
This article, written by Jim Fisher before the ceremony, makes interesting reading, as it includes information about previous inaugural poems and US background that helps put things a little more in perspective.
Continue reading “occasional poetry”
So yesterday was “Blue Monday“. And I missed it.
Well, I didn’t exactly miss it. I was certainly here, and feeling fairly blue, too, but I didn’t realise till I read the news this morning that it was officially the most depressing day of the year.
We had the weather for it here, all right, with the cold accompanied by the kind of fine rain that gets into everything. Continue reading “blue monday; hopeful tuesday”
…and a headline from today’s Público which makes the Spanish sound even more xenophobic than they really are:
Continue reading “lies, damned lies…”
A story on the BBC website this morning – Councils ‘unprepared’ for elderly – has me a little worried. Not simply because most English councils are unprepared for the impact of a rapidly aging population, though that in itself is cause for concern.
Firstly, the phrase “rapidly ageing population” makes me do a double take. Surely we are all getting older at the same rate – taking it a day at a time? What steps can I take to I avoid being one of those who is ageing more rapidly?
Continue reading “old wounds”
The Spanish press has been full of politicians making comments about poetry recently.
Or perhaps not. More exactly, Esperanza Aguirre (Partido Popular, presidenta de la Comunidad de Madrid) picked up on something I think Gallardón (her closest rival, also from the PP) said a while back, and referred to herself as el verso suelto dentro del poema.
“The unconnected line in the poem.”
What exactly does that mean?
Continue reading “political poets”
don't confuse the narrator 