Plenty of Nothing

Uncanny Sylvia Townsend Warner

This short animation of Sylvia Townsend Warner reciting her poem "Go the Long Way, the Long Way Home" seems to have been made from a photograph and an LP recording, and is perched partway up the slope of the Uncanny Valley, a place she would not necessarily disapprove.

The Old Landfill

Mars Is Braw In Crammasy

 

This evening walking home I spotted the planet Mars and recited this verse, "The Bonnie Broukit Bairn" by Hugh MacDiarmid:

Mars is braw in crammasy,

Venus in a green silk goun,

The auld mune shak's her gowden feathers,

Their starry talk's a wheen o' blethers,

Nane for thee a thouchtie sparin',

Earth, thou bonnie broukit bairn!

-- But greet, an' in your tears ye'll droun

The haill clanjamfrie!

The lyric was published in MacDiarmid's Sangschaw in 1925. The photo of Mars is from this site. Douglas

Trente-sept

In stormy Octobre,
Quand les boulevardes sont wet,
What better time
To be trente-sept?

Les arbres dans the avenue
Their feuilles rejet.
When would you rather
Be trente-sept?

Les vapeurs scud,
Le soleil set.
In Paris everyone
Is trente-sept.

Rhubarb!

It's sour,
And has cleansing power.
Eat it in a crumble,
Makes your tummy rumble.
Mmm, Rhubarb.