“This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more; and there will be nothing new in it, but every pain and every joy and every thought and sigh and everything unutterably small or great in your life will have to return to […]
Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear And it shows them pearly white Just a jackknife has MacHeath, babe And it keeps it way out of sight When that shark bites with his teeth, dear Scarlet billows begin to spread Fancy gloves, wears old MacHeath, babe So there’s never, never a trace of red
The change of seasons is upon us. The gasfire-warmed mornings of a couple of weeks ago have given way to more temperate conditions. Indoors, for my early-morning writing routine, I am no longer wearing a scarf or chunky neck-warmer, nor am I double-socking. (Yes, Melbourne homes really are that cold in winter and I have
A little, not a lot Read More »
Sometimes the simplest thing to do is to just start speaking and trust you will find a way to say what you really want to say. The ‘simplest’ thing. It’s simple if there’s nothing at stake. It’s simple if what you have to say is a bit ‘beige’, a bit meh. But if you have
“If you want your soul to stay around after your death, and you don’t like fights, you better look for another philosophy.” A Russian guy, referring to Dialectical Materialism on some website about Marxism. I subscribe to The Proofreader’s Parlour, an excellent blog which offers comprehensive tips and advice to would-be writers, proofreaders and editors.
You do your thing, I’ll do mine Read More »
Oxygen Two shots From our wedding day One before And one after The contract Was signed The first In black and white Shows me A rabbit Caught In life’s headlights Stunned and scared But I have no memory Of it The second In colour Shows us Kissing And I am Blowing your head off With
“…my personality had been completely erased. That’s why I’m so boring. People stopped listening to what I was saying, and didn’t seem to notice I was there. Everybody forgot about me. I wasn’t a boy, I wasn’t a girl… I was just a cypher, a sort of glyph. Life’s very difficult when nobody knows you’re
I believe in the possibility of total fulfilment. I believe in the possibility of change. I believe in redemption. I believe in new chapters. I believe in the usefulness of experience. I believe in compassion. I believe in contact. I believe in love. I believe in light. I believe in truth. I believe in the
Anyone for tenets? Read More »
Relationships. They’re important. They define and guide us. They provoke and becalm us. They diminish and inspire us. They enchant and destroy us. They can as easily be razing fire as empowering foundation. And so much store is set in those primary relationships in our lives: parents, siblings, confidantes, teachers and various others. And from
Someone call security… Read More »
In his brilliantly disturbing novella, The Testament of Mary (ostensibly about the mother of Christ but arguably about the inevitable unhappiness of mother-love), Colm Toibin articulates very well the dilemma of choosing between a righteous course of action and the more pressing demands of self-preservation: I watched in horror, but I did not move or
Up with this I shall not put! Read More »
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