RIP Brian Patten

 Another Poet lost.

Minister for Exams

When I was a child I sat an exam.
This test was so simple
There was no way i could fail.

Q1. Describe the taste of the Moon.

It tastes like Creation I wrote,
it has the flavour of starlight.

Q2. What colour is Love?

Love is the colour of the water a man
lost in the desert finds, I wrote.

Q3. Why do snowflakes melt?

I wrote, they melt because they fall
on to the warm tongue of God.

There were other questions.
They were as simple.

I described the grief of Adam
when he was expelled from Eden.
I wrote down the exact weight of
an elephant's dream

Yet today, many years later,
For my living I sweep the streets
or clean out the toilets of the fat
hotels.

Why? Because constantly I failed
my exams.
Why? Well, let me set a test.

Q1. How large is a child's
imagination?
Q2. How shallow is the soul of the
Minister for exams?

See also Gust Becos I Cud Not Spel

Labour Conference

 Very pleasing, sensible things being said.
Starmer calling out Frage's racist policies.

Lammy good on Justice.  Coooper and Mahmud excellent.

Mackerel Sky, Yesterday Evening

 

RIP Tony Harrison

 Sad news of the death of Tony Harrison, much admired by us hear at the Trees.

Guardian Obituary

And A Kumquat for John Keats

S&D Railway 200

 So, the TV and newspapers are full of the celebrations, as are our social media feeds.  

Two hundred years ago today, Locomotion No.1 pulled the first (ish) train of paying passengers, on the new Stockton and Darlington Railway.  Along with several coal chaldrons.

It marked one of the real beginnings of the railways, and the immense social change they brought.

So this is our desk.  Just for today.

(For the record, Hornby Locomotion No.1., with two sets of Accurascale chaldrons).

Orange Gibbon Alerts #3

 

If you look into the matter, you realise:

In the last ten to fifteen years, the availability of halal meat in the UK has increased dramatically.

In the same time period, diagnoses of Asperger's syndrome in our land have dropped to zero.

We'd better tell the Orange Gibbon.

Orange Gibbon Alerts #2

 So the Orange Gibbon claims Climate Change is a scam on the very day the effects of it are being seen in Typhoon Ragasa.

Better show him the videos...