Poem: Love poem #3
This is the third of a tranche of love poems from 1996. Read more...
Richard D North.
On culture, Nature, liberal issues, monasticism, spiritualityPage 20 of all posts
Poem: Love poem #4
This is the fourth and last of a tranche of love poems from 1996 Read more...
Poem: Wintering geese
What's the command-and-control in a skein of geese? Read more...
Poem: Digital
A couple of years ago, I had a run-in with my brain. I like its not having a precise diagnosis, and even better that it only happened once, briefly. (Insurers please note.) Read more...
Poem: The sound of a carotid
A couple of years ago I had a.... No that's boring. Hell, I'm 67, I am in the zone, no more or less than that, so far. I have had the odd brush, the odd procedure, I take the meds... Read more...
Poem: Schoolboys on a bus
I like my bus rides into town. We are a very mixed bunch, but I like best checking out the real-life youngsters I overhear. How like are they to the reality-TV shows and dramas by which I normally get to hear and watch them? How like the young of other generations? Read more...
“Shady Lady” (2012): a brilliant low-key movie
This summer, I saw Shady Lady: Mission accomplished... running on empty at the Chichester Film Festival and thought it marvellous. I nabbed a DVD of the film on my way out, and some others from Fact Not Fiction Films, and settled on a stormy British winter afternoon to be transported to 1943 and the longest range bombing mission ever then attempted, from Darwin, to Balikpapan, on the island of Borneo, 1300 miles away. Read more...
A lesson in poetry-writing
Chris Allinson, a master in portraiture (paint) and Haiku (brevity) took me to the excellent Bridge Inn at Shoreham-by-Sea ("fresh local fish", lively mixed crowd), and put my hat on straight about my "poetry". Please note my quotation marks. He said something like, "I like your stuff about Alfie and Bernardine Bishop, but it's not really poetry". Before I got upetty, he smoothly proceeded, "You ought to be looking at Haibun". Read more...
“The Railway Man”: Oddly unconvincing
Most middle-aged people with any sense of history have had plenty of opportunities to try to get to grips with the horrors of the Japanese exploitation of their prisoners of war. On the face of it, the extraordinary real-life story of Eric Lomax's journey from victim to forgiveness would have made a wonderful film. But it hasn't, I think.... Read more...
“Fill The Void” (2012): 4*+ movie, but questions….
As many reviewers have said, and I think Frank Kermode in the Guardian is about right, this is a richly-involving movie with a decent narrative in which paint-dryer and something close to a domestic thriller are combined. Comparisons with Jane Austen are justified. But there is a question as to political correctness, too... Read more...