Post by sheila on Apr 15, 2020 12:10:15 GMT
Hi all
For any who read this forum/chat room, there is not a lot going on at the moment so I thought I would share with you something that has taken my fancy lately. OK it is not sailing realted but who is sailing at the moment? This might also help you fill in some time while theree is nothing else to do!
A week or so ago I saw one of my favourite celebrities, Gyles Brandreth on The One Show I think it was and he was talking about poetry and learning poems. He suggested that if you learnt 2 lines of a sonnet (a poem of 14 lines in case you didn’t know) each day during your daily exercise by the end of a week you would have learned a whole poem. He went on to mention his book Dancing by the Light of the Moon, how poetry can transform your memory and change your life. I ordered the book and just started reading it last night in bed, and this morning. I am up to page 91 of 440 odd pages, and as I read it is almost as if I can hear his beautiful dulcet tones reading to me. It is quite strange. My usual choice of reading matter would be a novel by Lee Child, Jo Nesbo or James Patterson, something in that genre. I am so loving this though, and I thought I would share with you a couple of extracts (hope I am not breaking copyright rules) that have amused me or touched me. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has even just a hint of poetry in their soul.
P.60
For many years the shortest poem in the English language was reckoned to be the nine-letter couplet by American poet Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954) entitled “Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes” also known simply as “Fleas”
Adam
Had ‘em
P 70
Roger McGough, (b 1937) the Liverpool poet and one-time member of the 60’s group The Scaffold (famous for their song Lily the Pink and others) wrote this entitled Survivor
Everyday
I think about dying.
About disease, starvation,
violence, terrorism, war,
the end of the world.
It helps keep my mind off things.
P80
And from the Indian born Canadian poet Rupi Kaur (b 1992) this little gem
loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself
For any who read this forum/chat room, there is not a lot going on at the moment so I thought I would share with you something that has taken my fancy lately. OK it is not sailing realted but who is sailing at the moment? This might also help you fill in some time while theree is nothing else to do!
A week or so ago I saw one of my favourite celebrities, Gyles Brandreth on The One Show I think it was and he was talking about poetry and learning poems. He suggested that if you learnt 2 lines of a sonnet (a poem of 14 lines in case you didn’t know) each day during your daily exercise by the end of a week you would have learned a whole poem. He went on to mention his book Dancing by the Light of the Moon, how poetry can transform your memory and change your life. I ordered the book and just started reading it last night in bed, and this morning. I am up to page 91 of 440 odd pages, and as I read it is almost as if I can hear his beautiful dulcet tones reading to me. It is quite strange. My usual choice of reading matter would be a novel by Lee Child, Jo Nesbo or James Patterson, something in that genre. I am so loving this though, and I thought I would share with you a couple of extracts (hope I am not breaking copyright rules) that have amused me or touched me. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has even just a hint of poetry in their soul.
P.60
For many years the shortest poem in the English language was reckoned to be the nine-letter couplet by American poet Strickland Gillilan (1869-1954) entitled “Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes” also known simply as “Fleas”
Adam
Had ‘em
P 70
Roger McGough, (b 1937) the Liverpool poet and one-time member of the 60’s group The Scaffold (famous for their song Lily the Pink and others) wrote this entitled Survivor
Everyday
I think about dying.
About disease, starvation,
violence, terrorism, war,
the end of the world.
It helps keep my mind off things.
P80
And from the Indian born Canadian poet Rupi Kaur (b 1992) this little gem
loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself