Tindergarden is the Ode to a Nightingale – choose your own Word of the Year

Word of the year: How about Tindergarden? Or if that doesn’t grab your fancy, what about Hopfen-Smoothie? That’s a euphemism for beer, as Hopfen is the German word for one of beer’s essential ingredients.  No? I’ve got at least one more. Here’s Posttruth for you.  We’re already deep into the holiday season, and soon enough… Continue reading Tindergarden is the Ode to a Nightingale – choose your own Word of the Year

Oliver Sacks has died and I can’t get Rilke’s Der Panther out of my head

‘Sein Blick ist vom Vorübergehn der Stäbe so müd geworden, daß er nichts mehr hält. Ihm ist, als ob es tausend Stäbe gäbe und hinter tausend Stäben keine Welt. Der weiche Gang geschmeidig starker Schritte, der sich im allerkleinsten Kreise dreht, ist wie ein Tanz von Kraft um eine Mitte, in der betäubt ein großer… Continue reading Oliver Sacks has died and I can’t get Rilke’s Der Panther out of my head

travelling with Out of True as it was intended

So, one day in the mail, this little green book arrived. Poetry? Who reads poetry these days? Oh, I know. Guy Clark does. He says this in one of my favourite of his songs: ‘Here’s a book of poems I got From a girl I used to know I guess I read it front to… Continue reading travelling with Out of True as it was intended