Tag Archives: Oxford University Press

Living on the ‘plains’.

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Occasionally, I revel in the ‘plains’ of life.

Plain cake

Plain Cake

plain yogurt in a plain pot

: Plain yogurt

: Plain pot

plain words

Canterbury

On this great plain the eye
Sees less of land than sky,
And men seem to inhabit here
As much the cloud-crossed hemisphere
As the flat earth. ……..

Basil Dowling

‘plains’ that sustain us;

Canterbury Plains

: ‘Sight rides on power-poles’

: ‘and tops of trees’

: ‘then dreams begin’

that form the staff of life.

Plain yogurt bread

How good are the ‘plains’. 🙂

Plain song
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© silkannthreades

Turning Back the Clocks

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In the still of Sunday,
I hear the tick of clocks,
Reminding me that time has been reset,
Back to the older hour.
Daylight saving is no more.
I am released to spend my thrift with time.

Like so, with flowers and verse…..

Sasanqua Camellia

Verses

White on White

A Collection

Potato Vine

Roads (an excerpt)

by New Zealand poet, Ruth Dallas (1919-2008)

Once it was difficult to keep to roads,
Ditches harboured nameless flowers, and sometimes
There were frogs and tadpoles in cold ponds.

Nowhere. The roads led nowhere then, and time
Was safely shut inside the clock at home.

Now to put time back inside the clock,
Now to be able to forget the signposts,
To rediscover pond and nameless flower.

from An Anthology of New Zealand Verse, Selected by Robert Chapman and Jonathan Bennett, published by Oxford University Press, 1956, purchased from St Christopher’s new Dove Bookshop near St Paul’s on Harewood Road.

“How do I love thee…apples….”

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When the first blush of autumn tints the oak,

First tint of autumn

and one can feel that quintessential, autumnal air in the breeze,

the apple harvest comes to market.

It’s a Breeze

” Dull Russet, glossy Quarrenden,

Green Wellington, and scarlet-peeled Pearmain…

You apple-trees, give up your sum-

Your time is come, your time is come.” (*Apple-time by Eleanor Farjeon)

I am Smitten

Smitten by apples

by apples. I adore them. Should I blame my love affair with the apple

I *heart* apples

on Eve,

Was it Adam or Eve?

or Adam?

“Like Adam, I was born

To go and seek the apple-trees…

the green, the yellow, and the red,

The streaky pippin-stripe,

The windfall and the still unshed,

The ripe and the unripe-” (* The Favourite Fruit by Eleanor Farjeon)

Or, perhaps, I should leave that scenario alone, clouded as it is with doubt, and attribute my love of apples to the irresistible Beauty of its feng shui,

A Beauty

which brings harmony and peace to hearth and home

: *”Some

: to dress

: the table…”

and rosy good health, too; according to the ancient wisdom of Dae Jang Geum

The wisdom of Dae Jang Geum

who, in Episode 52 of The Jewel in the Palace, insists that apples be placed next to the King, because the aroma of apples will improve his well-being.

And, though I am no King, I can attest to the loveliness of falling asleep with the sweet scent of apples next to one’s pillow.