There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
blue eyes
that
hold, no
lies
sparkling smile
that
holds, no
wile
(nor guile)
words
softly, spoken
not, just
words
what lay,
inside
all
those
years
it is clear,
to me
now
smile
This week, my poetry prompt is simple, it’s smile. Why not?
To the complaint, ‘There are no people in these photographs,’ I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer
― Ansel Adams
This post is about my passion for photography.
It is also about the process of learning. In a recent post in this (rather sporadic) series, I featured a photo which I believe was the first that I ever shot. It was of a hovercraft, a futuristic vehicle that like others, including the Concorde, has disappeared into the history books.
That camera was a Kodak Instamatic 25. It was (almost) idiot proof (if not Andy proof). A cassette was inserted in the rear of the camera, a single click captured (most of) what could be seen through the offset viewfinder, the cassette was wound on by a large black plastic wheel and that was it. The cassette was then dropped off at the developers and then the waiting began.
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Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer
– Rainer Maria Rilke
so no,
or (yet) yes,
anyone’s
guess
in perpetuity
always, (ambiguity)
the clouds and, the
rain
swept, window
pane
conflated with
snow and a (bitter)sweet
scented, candle
flame
that burned
red
and (yet)
(never)
quite
dead
and
the pain
yes,
exhaled
(from)
that, place
lingering
in perpetuity,
in misty,
(ambiguity)
misty (ambiguity)
My prompt for this week’s Poetry 101 Rehab is MISTY (AMBIGUITY), just because
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nunca te entregues ni te apartes
junto al camino, nunca digas
no puedo más y aquí me quedo
– music by paco ibañez, poetry by josé augustín goytisolo
the road
the road, is long
the road, is long, and the road, is hard
the road, is long, and the road, is hard,
and
full,
of pitfalls,
perils, and
punishment
(for,
the unwary)
and
false,
turns
the road, is long
the road, is long and the road, is hard
the road, is long and the road, is hard
and (yet) it
is
(and,
always will be)
yours,
to
take
road
My prompt for this week’s Poetry 101 Rehab is ROAD and is dedicated to all those who walk their own, road
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You’re an expatriate. You’ve lost touch with the soil. You get precious. Fake European standards have ruined you. You drink yourself to death. You become obsessed with sex. You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafes.
― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
Funny how Hemingway summed up the dreams and aspirations of a group of young teenage boys who set forth on a European adventure. Perfectly.
We didn’t get that drunk, mostly sticking to orange, exotic, Fanta in deliciously heavy brown glass bottles. Oh, and ok, the occasional beer. We were young, I was only thirteen. And being thirteen in the Summer of 1975 was a world away from being so in 2016.
Sex? Well we dreamed of it a lot, fantasised about every girl we had met, and were yet to meet. But sex, as in real, messy, sex. No.
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You and I must fight for our rights
You and I must fight to survive
scream
no one, will believe you
no one, cares
scream, and scream
no one, will believe you
no one, cares
scream, and scream, and scream
makes
no,
difference
until
one day
they do
care
scream
My prompt for this week’s Poetry 101 Rehab is SCREAM and is dedicated to all those who suffer, in silence
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happy,
despitethe rope,
that constrained
himhe
held on
to
hope
the rope
My prompt for this week’s Poetry 101 Rehab is THE ROPE and it was inspired by a comment left on (another) face, by LuAnne Holder, author of Wind Rush.
So, over to you.
You can link to your post in response to today’s prompt by leaving a comment on my post and / or by clicking on the poetry | 101 | badge below and leaving a link.
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More information can be found on my poetry | 101 | rehab page.
The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.
How could a weekly blog post about the life of an Englishman living in Spain not include a reference to those words spoken by Audrey Hepburn paying the part of Eliza Doolittle in the movie My Fair Lady which in turn was based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion?
Often misquoted as ‘the rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain’, or is it just me that constantly misquotes it? Probably. So much for that expensive private education and my success in English Literature examinations which included, as it happens, studying Pygmalion. But, as I said in my opening essay, I like to think my education taught me to think, not to remember things. So there you are.
Anyway, I think it is a reasonably well established fact that English people, at home and abroad, like to talk about the weather. A lot.
Girls who are boys
Who like boys to be girls
Who do boys like they’re girls
andy townend 