it came as a gift; a large grey bird flew up with a loud alarm call ... as it gained height and wheeled away over the valley it gave out a piping sound on three notes ... how elegant, how simple. turning the sequence round opened up the idea of a plain and beautiful song in common time which he could almost hear ... one note lay over and suggested ( Read more... )

If, decades on, there is one image of you all to remain etched in my mind, it would be your raucous laughter, fresh and plangent as if I had heard it just now. I have always held that the best things in life come unexpected and unplanned; and some of the most lasting of things too - encounters brief but fierce, and whose echoes remain long after ( Read more... )

silence is a virtue. in this inane world of crazy relentless noise, the silence once begotten freely and in abundance has become an elusive lover that has to be courted and caught ( Read more... )

faye's new song! :)

http://www.haoting.com/htmusic/138343ht.htm

it's good to be back; though, back to the reality of here and now and work, and these make the vacation feel as if it were a dream, as if i'd never left. i returned to school yesterday severely jetlagged, and there was much to cover already even though i'd missed only 3 days of school. a former class learnt from their new english teacher that i'd ( Read more... )

It rained along the way and the CBD skyscrapers were covered in grey and wet, and changi airport looked like a foreign land already. off to mexico for a much-needed getaway and soon christmas would be gone and the first days of the new year harvested. 2006 has been a phenomenal blast for me, and keeping with the good cheer that'd swirl all around, ( Read more... )

martin amis, the war against cliche: essays & reviews 1971-2000
john carey, what good are the arts?
margaret atwood, curious pursuits: occasional writing
mark doty, school of the arts
mark doty, source
the writing life
adrienne rich, dark fields of the republic
cynthia ozick, din in the head: essays
philip larkin, collected poems
i.a. richards, ( Read more... )

Luing

When the day comes, as the day surely must ( Read more... )

Let us go then, you and I ( Read more... )

as if i were subconsciously storing up food for the cold months,

john fante, ask the dust
don paterson, landing light: poems
vladimir nabokov, lectures on literature
helen vendler, coming of age as a poet: milton, keats, eliot, plath
paul auster, brooklyn follies
kazuo ishiguro, the remains of the day
philip larkin, required writingphilip larkin ( Read more... )