Sacred Texts from The Weston Library

Tags

Oxford exhibition, sacred texts, Weston Library

a recent exhibition at The Weston Library, Oxford.

Snowdrop Quennet for Candlemas

Tags

Candlemas, quennet, snowdrops

Candlemas Bells     White Purification    Snow Piercers

Milk Flowers

Naked Maidens       Good Christians        Ice Lilies

Mary’s Tapers

February Fairmaids     White tears         Death Flowers

Eve’s Comforters

Morning Stars

Pentecost Flowers

Mary’s Teeth

Dewdrops

Shrove Tuesday Fools

Flowers of Hope

Dingle-Dangles

Snow Bells          Eve’s Tears       Mary’s Tears

Candlemas Lilies

 

 

c Photo and poem by Candia Dixon-Stuart

 

 

 

 

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Tags

animal photography, French Bulldog, idioms, Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, proverbs

 

This good-natured canine is called Ian.

                                                      Images and original photo by Candia

 

 

Medlar Jelly (Kelmscott)

Tags

blett, culs-de-chien, jelly, Kelmscott, medlars, open-arses, poppering pear, Romeo and Juliet

Photo- and preserve!- by Candia Dixon-Stuart

 

So excited to find these at Kelmscott and then to allow them to blett, before making

jelly.  Supposed to be good with game, or cheese.

These are culs-de-chien, ‘open-arses’ and other scatologically named fruits from the rose

family.  Shakespeare and contemporaries loved exploiting double-entendre possibilities

in their lexical field- see ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and references to poppering pears etc

I added a lemon and an apple to the simmering mixture and then raised some sugar to

a rolling boil- and voila!

May- the month or the blossom?

Tags

coat dress, Drize-a-Bone, May blossom, proverb, swagman, winter wardrobe

 

My grandmother used to say,  Never cast a cloot till May is oot.

This, being translated, is tantamount to advising that one should

not strip off, or put one’s winter wardrobe away until… until

1.  The May blossom is in evidence

OR

2)  the month of May is past

 

Which is it?  In Scotland it is probably never a good idea to dispense with a

layer, whatever the time of year, or whatever plant is making its presence

felt.

Above is a photo of the May blossom in my garden yesterday.  I compromised by

wearing a coat dress – ha!  Today I would have needed a Drize-a Bone Aussie

head-to-toe proofed swagman garment.

It’s a wonder there’s any blossom left on the trees after this morning’s deluge!

Mansplaining Quennet

Tags

euphemism, Father of Lies, generic, mansplaining, quennet, rhetoric, smokescreen

Females also guilty – should be ‘Mankindsplaining!’ (New generic?)

 

Hot air   forked tongues   terminal inexactitudes

filthy whitewash

tranparent smokescreens   inexcusable excuses   unmitigated untruths

hollow rants

iniquitous insinuations  criminal understatements  overblown rhetoric

smooth sham

Father of Lies

sweeping evasions

Master of Deceit

euphemistic gloss

hyperbolic tirades

Hath God said?

rash incitements

hollow rhetoric   smooth tongues  transparent excuses

iniquitous inexactitudes

Taking A Liberty

Tags

anarchy, Andromeda, Animal Farm, Burne-Jones, Cassiopeia, casuistry, censorship, Diaz, Dr Atl, etymology, free expression, guerilla warfare, hacendados, Heaven, Hell, Liberty, liberty/licence, Pre-Raphaelites, Prometheus, revolution, volcanoes

Another poem inspired by Prometheus Unbound

by P B Shelley:

Andromeda by Burne-Jones: Wikipedia

 

A wheel will come full circle, you will find.

The outcome’s in the etymology

of ‘revolution.’  Think ‘Animal Farm.’

 

‘You seize the flower; the bloom is shed,’ Rab said.

Heaven and Hell are one’s inner landscapes.

Give a man an inch; he’ll take a mile.

 

Liberty/ licence – where to draw the line?

Free expression/ censorship : who can judge?

Anarchy is based on casuistry.

 

Prometheus played with fire and was burnt.

Imagination versus tyranny.

He who is king over himself is free.

 

Cassiopeia took the liberty

of a frank assessment of others’ looks.

Say nowt if you can’t say anything nice.

 

Why did the Pre-Raphaelites feel free

to create soft porn from mythology?

Liberty bodices off; shackles on.

 

‘When tigers are unleashed, who controls them?’

said Diaz, while Dr Atl opposed

slaves’ exploitation by hacendados,

 

exploding guerilla warfare into print,

like lava from his beloved volcanoes –

but he still became a neo-Nazi.

 

So, I’m suspicious of all these Titans,

larger than life, whose words stream in the wind.

They’re the self-acknowledged legislators,

 

crying, ‘Liberty, equality… (Blah!)

prior to being overthrown – not by a coup –

yet everywhere men are free, but in chains.

 

Hyperbole

Tags

Chinese Whispers, choka, exaggeration, gossip, hyperbole, scepticism

Exaggeration

spices up the varnished truth.

Once Chinese Whispers

are conveyed to print, they last.

Never trust accounts

from impressionable folk.

Concocted gossip

is an insult to the truth,

but scepticism can be

mis-placed, if expressed,

especially if someone is

talking about faith.

Though doubt can be cast on much,

facetiousness is unkind.

Conversation Class

Tags

choka, conversation, disagreement, interlocutors, Tales of Idleness, umbrage

A frank discussion

would be so enjoyable,

but, let us face it,

there are few hearts in accord.

Strong disagreement

can’t be brooked by many folk.

You end up alone,

or as good as such.  You’ll see.

If one could just trust

interlocutors

not to take offence, umbrage,

at a slight demur,

it would be stimulating

and both parties might profit.

The Importance of Poetry – after Sei Shonagon

Tags

calligraphy, inkstone, Kokin Shu, Naniwazu, Pillow Book, Sei Shonagon

Long ago, people

showed great appreciation

for all poetry.

If an Emperor was to

hand you an inkstone and say:

Write down a poem!

you’d be obliged to comply.

The Naniwazu would do,

as would Kokin Shu.

You couldn’t excuse yourself,

or your memory.

Calligraphy could be poor,

but you had to show your taste.