Urbs and Spices

Various tales from the City, seasoned for your delectation

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OUGH

English is a very strange language and severely taxes even native speakers. For instance, there are nine ways to pronounce the formation 'ough'.
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A Homage to English - (Not an Hommage to French)

Does some pretentious modern usage get on your nerves too?

How to be a White Van Driver

If you ever wanted to drive a white van, learn the secrets here.

The Laws of Nature

Have you noticed that all wires, on headphones, telephones, or whatever are always tangled up, even when you untangled them only yesterday? That recent observation led inexorably to this poem.
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The Literary Agent

For all of you out there who have ever tried to excite the interest of a literary agent.

The Comma

Oscar Wilde once wrote, "I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again."
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The Scottish Play

IP 20/11/09 Though technically, it was this piece that inspired the inspiration point, if you see what I mean.
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The Bard in Brief

IP 21/11/09 About half of them anyway.
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Love Letter

Great excitement at Christie's in New York, as a newly discovered love letter by Frank Sinatra goes up for auction.

Hannah's Angel is Still on the Go.

Contribution to a seasonal campaign, regrettably still necessary it seems.
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Last of a Kind

Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid.

Too Late Now

It’s a bit like that metaphysical question that George Berkeley posed – you know the thing; about a tree falling in a forest. Does it make a noise if there’s no-one there to hear it?

Eleanor

Hearing of Tony Cook's joy at the recent birth of a grandchild caused me to remember this. After a desperate search I finally found it.
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The Academy's Final Reckoning

Some people's lives are like a movie.

The Greatest?

The story of a forgotten hero.
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Sic Itur ad Astra

What if?

Do as The Romans Do (Part One of Two)

The previously untold, true story of the Boudiccan Revolt.
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Do as the Romans Do (Part Two of Two)

The previously untold, true story of the Boudiccan Revolt.

Paying the Ferryman - Three Poems on Crete

Three poems about a holiday on Crete. Not this week's Inspiration Point as such but inspired by the Inspiration Point.
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Remember, Remember ...

The IP I suppose though a slightly different take.
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The Harvest

The fruits of war?

Waking

I’m often awoken by the passerine choir, Not conscious exactly, but nor am I dreaming. My love lies beside me, the spring of desire, Her soft lips...

Finest Hour - A Lockdown Poem

During the Coronavirus lockdown, there seems to have been a renewal of interest in poetry. Perhaps this is a British characteristic – in times of crisis, a tendency to resort to rhyme rather than reason. Whatever! So, although I've not posted on here for some time I thought I'd offer up these few lines.
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