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Candia Comes Clean

~ Candid cultural comments from the Isles of Wonder

Category Archives: Language

Sacred Texts from The Weston Library

13 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by Candia in art, Bible, Education, History, Language, Literature, Personal, Religion, Supernatural, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Oxford exhibition, sacred texts, Weston Library

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a recent exhibition at The Weston Library, Oxford.

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Snowdrop Quennet for Candlemas

01 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by Candia in History, Language, Nature, Nostalgia, Personal, Photography, Poetry, Writing

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Tags

Candlemas, quennet, snowdrops

Buscot 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

 

 

 

 

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Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

25 Friday Jan 2019

Posted by Candia in Animals, art, Language, Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

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

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This good-natured canine is called Ian.

                                                      Images and original photo by Candia

 

 

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Medlar Jelly (Kelmscott)

30 Tuesday Oct 2018

Posted by Candia in Arts, History, Home, Language, Literature, Nature, Nostalgia, Personal, Photography

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

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

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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!

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May- the month or the blossom?

02 Wednesday May 2018

Posted by Candia in Environment, Horticulture, Humour, Language, mythology, Nature, Nostalgia, Personal

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Tags

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

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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!

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Mansplaining Quennet

11 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by Candia in Crime, Language, Poetry, Psychology, Social Comment, Writing

≈ 3 Comments

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

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Taking A Liberty

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by Candia in art, Language, Literature, mythology, Philosophy, Poetry, Politics, Social Comment, Writing

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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.

 

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Hyperbole

04 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by Candia in Language, Personal, Poetry, Psychology, Relationships, Social Comment, Writing

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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.

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Conversation Class

03 Wednesday Jan 2018

Posted by Candia in Language, Personal, Poetry, Psychology, Relationships, Social Comment, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

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.

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The Importance of Poetry – after Sei Shonagon

14 Tuesday Nov 2017

Posted by Candia in Arts, Community, Education, History, Language, Literature, Nostalgia, Poetry, Relationships, Social Comment, Writing

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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.

 

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← Older posts

My name is Candia. Its initial consonant alliterates with “cow” and there are connotations with the adjective “candid.” I started writing this blog in the summer of 2012 and focused on satire at the start.

Interspersed was ironic news comment, reviews and poetry.

Over the years I have won some international poetry competitions and have published in reputable small presses, as well as reviewing and reading alongside well- established poets. I wrote under my own name then, but Candia has taken me over as an online persona. Having brought out a serious anthology last year called 'Its Own Place' which features poetry of an epiphanal nature, I was able to take part in an Arts and Spirituality series of lectures in Winchester in 2016.

Lately I have been experimenting with boussekusekeika, sestinas, rhyme royale, villanelles and other forms. I am exploring Japanese themes at the moment, my interest having been re-ignited by the recent re-evaluations of Hokusai.

Thank you to all my committed followers whose loyalty has encouraged me to keep writing. It has been exciting to meet some of you in the flesh- in venues as far flung as Melbourne and Sydney!

Copyright Notice

© Candia Dixon Stuart and Candiacomesclean.wordpress.com, 2012-2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Candia Dixon Stuart and candiacomesclean.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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