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I’m putting these two short poems together, one from 2017, the other 1859, because their subject is similar, but also for the way both use a kind of openness to usher in a shock of grief. The first is by John Levett, a Norfolk poet, from his sixth collection A Song About You (2017), the… Continue reading Two poems, one old, one new →

Now December is looming it’s time for a re-read of Winter Holiday. I didn’t read Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons books at the age you’re supposed to read them, but I’m making up for it now. I love all twelve books—pure comfort reading—but Winter Holiday is probably my favourite or at any rate equal favourite… Continue reading Winter Holiday, Arthur Ransome →

She dwelt among th’ untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove, A Maid whom there were none to praise, And very few to love; A violet by a mossy stone Half-hidden from the eye! – Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky. She lived unknown, and few could know When… Continue reading The Challenge of Simple Things →

This is the Dog-eared Blog for a number of reasons: It’s a doggily bookish pun, and that corners two main areas of interest I feel fairly dog-eared myself these days Dog-eared pages have something in them a reader did not want to lose I like the near-homonyn and undertow of ‘dogged’ in the phrase But… Continue reading No holding on →

My head is a muddle of excited reactions to the books I’ve been reading recently to still my fears of the climate emergency and to redirect energy to positive ends. Jason Hickel, Antonio Damasio, Jeremy Lent, Fritjof Capra, George Monbiot, Eric Holthaus. That’s where I’ve been. It’s a crash course in planetary survival. I’m not… Continue reading Why I am blogging →