February 10th, 2008 Comments Off
One of my obsessions over the past few years has been to try and reduce my travel technology down to a couple of items — namely a smart phone (Treo 680) and a digital camera (Panasonic FZ5).
The Treo 680 contains all my travel information and contact details and on the road I also use it to browse the Internet and to send and receive emails. I also write stuff and send it out in MSWord format with the help of Documents to Go and my Palm Wireless Keyboard.
With a program called CallRec I can record anything from a phone conversation to the sound of a Indian Sitar. And with an 8GB SD-card full of ebooks and music and a video or two it also helps keep me occupied.
I’ve found my Treo to be so versatile I rarely need to travel with a laptop any more.
November 30th, 2006 Comments Off
I used to write poetry, way back when I still thought I knew everything about everything. My poetry was mostly sad and dark and not very good and after a few years I just quit.
I started to write ‘maybe not a Haiku’ a few months back and have been enjoying publishing some of my rather naive efforts along with a snapshot. What has also returned — thanks mainly to my mate Harvey, because he keeps sending me great poems to read — is a renewed interest and growing appreciation of poetry as a whole.
This one was in my mailbox yesterday. I really enjoyed it and wanted to find out about John Fox. What I found was a wonderful site and some lovely poetry and thoughts. Well worth a look…
When Someone Deeply Listens To You
by John Fox
When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.
» Read the rest of this entry «
October 28th, 2006 Comments Off
The Moving Finger Writes; and, Having Writ
by Omar Khayyam
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it
October 14th, 2006 Comments Off
The Roman bath-house, in the City of Bath, receives more than a million visitors a year. So don’t go there if you want to be alone. They do have a cool audio service that wasn’t available last time I poked my nose in. Seems you can now listen to Bill Bryson — the author of some very funny travel books — share his thoughts and observations on Roman life, history and society. The swimming pool is called the Great Bath — I bet the water wasn’t that green when Marcus Aurelius was alive.
October 8th, 2006 Comments Off
You gotta love Margaret Atwood — she knows how to write great books and super funny poetry.
This Is A Photograph Of Me
by Margaret Atwood
It was taken some time ago.
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;
then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.
» Read the rest of this entry «
October 1st, 2006 Comments Off
flash fiction by John Holman
When your only true-blue friend is a cockatiel named Bird, your life cannot be lived the same as everyone else’s. On Tuesdays, when you visit the local library, your best friend is perched patiently on your shoulder, whistling a happy but obscure tune. And, as you approach the library door you notice for the umpteenth time the printed sign saying, ‘No Animals or Food Allowed’.
How do you feel?
How do you feel knowing your best friend is supposed to wait, perched on a railing in a draughty hallway, while you enjoy yourself hunting for this weeks’ read?
Maybe a more practical cockatiel owner would have left his bird at home, but not Tony! Tony and Bird were inseparable. Which meant, wherever Tony went, Bird went as well.
I’ll warn you now that you may end up thinking this story a little far fetched, a little too hard to believe. Yet I can assure you there have been many witnesses to Bird’s uncanny ability — including myself.
At first, Tony says, even he didn’t believe it. But in the end he couldn’t deny it either.
One day Bird just started: “What’s a Dacha? What’s a Dacha?” And he carried on like that until in frustration Tony said, “BIRD! For Christ-sake shut-up! A bloody Dacha is a Russian weekender, a holiday home for the rich and the bloody famous.”
That’s how Tony says it all began. How it finished was Tony realising that Bird had been reading over his shoulder.
» Read the rest of this entry «
August 7th, 2006 Comments Off
A friend of mine sent me this quote yesterday — wont say why (grin). It’s from ‘Letters to a Young Poet’ by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Rainer Maria Rilke (4 December, 1875 — 29 December, 1926) is generally considered the German language’s greatest 20th century poet.
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
On wikiquote.org I also found this variation:
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. (as translated by Stephen Mitchell)
