Arcs and Arrows: Finding the Line of Flight

December 2009

• On Being Fifty

  The following is an e-mail from the past, composed on Monday, October 13, 2008, and sent via FutureMe.org- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Dear FutureMe, wow! The big five oh! I really really hope you have a job now, or at least something to make life subsistence survivable on the dole. And I sure hope your savings are not all eaten up!so, happy birthday... did you complete NaNoWriMo OK?Are you going to do anything with the output?And has it led to you writing more... otherwise what about getting those postcards into thenewsagents so that you can get some black work?On the other hand - enjoy Isabels Christmas show (today?) and make the most of your time with her....Keep up the blogging - and don't let the buggers grind you down... You've still got some of that grand left to spend onChristmas, right?get into the Christmas spirit after today!

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November 2009

• Isabel's poem

  This was written by my daughter at the weekend, I shall photograph the original text and post it, but this is my version typed as faithfully as I can:- Look! a leafScrunkling my life away. Look! a rabbit holeLike a bowlEating my life away.Look!...a nest Like a bedSleeping my life awayLook at the green grassLike  a beanI roll my life away Isabel Eleanor Amelia Wrighton, November 2009.

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October 2009

• Three Score plus…

  At the weekend I visited my father, aged seventy five, and made sure his computer was online.  Although I am quite sure he shall not manage to read this I thought I would put the poem he gave me at the time online:- Three Score years and tenSo what does one do then?The Bible says - that's your lot;"Can't I do what I forgot?"Now I am seventy two,My latter years have just begunCruising, boozing, having funSeventy Two, don't feel so wellMy prostate begins to tellOh no!  I'm seventy threeMy doctor has his hands in me.He looked inside and said "It's bad!"My love, she pretended she was sadSeventy four, my pension pot is growing,I remember the wild oats I've been sowingSeventy five, life goes quickerAnd my blood is getting thickerOh dear lord six and seventy,Does that make me feel more HeavenlySeventy Eight, the reaper's lateSeventy Nine, or is it Ten?Hari Krishna - not again!Jesus, Allah - I've got the scoreI can't do it anymore. J.C.W. October 2009

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• Fading

  The older I get the more I see People The less they see me   Year by year I am fading like well worn jeans At least that is how it seems   One day the invisible man might see all that he can of all of the people doing all of their things   But I can never see What they are looking at when they do not see me!                            Paul Wrighton October 2009

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August 2009

• Ridership versus…

  There seem to be word police inside my head sometimes, with a latent Mr Angry lurking to listen to them too!  This morning on Radio Four the head honcho of some coach company was spouting on about the launch of the Greyhound bus brand here in the UK.  I know what he intended to say.  I know what he meant. I listened to the Stephen Fry program on Radio Four which explained that saying "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo" makes perfect sense, though somewhat puzzling and missing a possible conjunctive. Yet it annoyed me intensely that he had used this word. But anyone using authorship (v.) does not bother me at all and, more worryingly, I am prepared to accept the collective of a readership (n.) without the slightest qualm....  The Mr Angry seems to have gone away now, and I remember my earlier mention of the poetry book group, which turned out to only have TWO of us and the librarian.  I cannot remember if I was brave enough to read it out, probably not…

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July 2009

• Quakers and cakes

  Today yearly meeting decided on partnerships and I had the idea of trying to earn an extra crust by making "custom cakes" for couples especially but anyone in general under the franchise of tea and therapy, with food for your mood.  I have these great ideas *sigh* but I cannot decorate cakes for toffee so am I wasting my time?  In the context of the posting above this one I should involve this into a spiritual post on "Chuggie", which was the childhood name for flapjack I remember from my first boyhood best friend's family! Another example of such an idea - you know the way drinking straws will always rise from a carbonated glass and invariably escape as you are nearing the destination?  Well it is not beyond the wit of man to devise a straw that will not do this and I reckon patenting that could make you a tidy sum.

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• Perfect Love

  I was recently listening to "prayer for the day" on Radio Four and heard that [[Aung San Suu Kyi]] has been quoted as saying "perfect love casts out fear" and that there is a campaign to wear masks with her face on one side and these words on the other. Then someone corrected me on the attribution and told me that in the words of Saint John  James BibleThere is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. I've been pondering if this saying can be applied in all contexts, not only spiritual, and still reflect the truth I feel it represents...

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April 2009

• Evil Haiku

  The Quaker meeting which I attend has been doing a series of workshops along the lines of "Twelve Quakers and ...." where the ellipsis might be various things including God, Jesus, Equality, Simplicity, and, this month, Evil. During the closing session on "evil" we were invited to write [[Haiku]] and although many felt the form could only be used in the traditional Japanese way to describe natural beauty, but I had no issues with taking the verse form and mocking the traditional Haiku stereotype with these efforts to capture something of the subject of evil. There are four, each standing alone, and alternating the traditional with the free format form of Haiku.   Bloody splash Taking life Maliciously No love Just hurt Abandon hope you Held in the thrall of All that is not love Child eyes Behold Obscenity Innocence lost Forever Mass graves were filled Without thought or care until Evil stared back   Addendum I was concerned with the etymology for clues; which I now realise is…

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• Harmonium

  I have read many more books since my last post, but this is far more worthy I think for a long overdue post.  From my earlier blogging you may know I sing with a Choral Society. For our next concert on July the Fourth we shall be adopting an American theme, and this has led us to the piece "Harmonium" by John Adams. The poetry he adopted to go with this "choral symphony" will mean a good deal to me, as you can read below. Apparently he had much of the opening of the piece already in mind and then the poem slotted into place.  I do think the result is striking - these poems are powerful enough in themselves but set to music can add another dimension, perhaps? (I have mixed feelings on that score, but then again the music stands by it's own merit also).   Negative Love or The Nothing   I never stoop'd so low, as they Which on an eye, cheek, lip, can prey. Seldom to them, which soar no higher Than virtue or the mind to admire. For sense, and understanding may Know…

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February 2009

• Today I called the organisation linked above - they are local to me so it is quite exciting, even though the next chance to join in with them is linked to term times (meaning it shall be September).  They were kind enough to offer me a free ticket to their summer performance!  Not sure how I shall afford it, but time to worry about that later... I am going to add a category of drama, and the focus is intended to be towards script-writing and especially the art of the playwright (not sure if that is the "right" spelling!).  Of course the content may vary from a theatre review to a link to a script I have written - we shall see what develops!

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• Ode to a burglary

  Come on you burglers Come and have a go Take every thing I own I'm a Quaker so that's OK....   The riches of my spirit far outweigh your karma if you want to hurt me You'll have to try harder   Come on all you burglars You got my daughter's DS now you really shouldn't Mess with my princess   Come on all you burglars show me your face somehow I may be a Quaker But I could kill you now   All the stuff you have is tainted You can have it all But frightening my daughter You really didn't oughta   That made it personal that made me care Makes me see your life as worthless But I can't go there   We'll get our home back we have our love You have some stuff and when you go above You're going to fucking pay for this in ways you never could imagine you fucking bastard.   Sorry I'm a Quaker What I meant to say was God bless and I feel sorry for you and listen to a voice inside next time Just LEAVE THE DS, OK?!  

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• Freedom Come Aa Ye

  Roch the wind in the clear day's dawinBlaws the cloods heilster-gowdie owre the bayBut there's mair nor a roch wind blawinThro the Great Glen o the warld the dayIt's a thocht that wad gar oor rottansAa thae rogues that gang gallus fresh an gayTak the road an seek ither loaninsWi thair ill-ploys tae sport an play Nae mair will our bonnie callantsMerch tae war when oor braggarts crousely crawNor wee weans frae pitheid an clachanMourn the ships sailin doun the BroomielawBroken faimlies in lands we've hairrietWill curse 'Scotlan the Brave' nae mair, nae mairBlack an white ane-til-ither mairrietMak the vile barracks o thair maisters bare Sae come aa ye at hame wi freedomNever heed whit the houdies croak for DoomIn yer hoos aa the bairns o AdamWill find breid, barley-bree an paintit roomsWhen Maclean meets wi's friens in SpringburnAa thae roses an geans will turn tae blumeAn the black lad frae yont NyangaDings the fell gallows o the burghers doun…

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January 2009

• Gaudiness on Burns…

  During the week I was fortunate enough to spot a Chambers Dictionary in a charity shop.  I seem to have forfeited every dictionary I owned with the collapse of significant relationships, so the opportunity to acquire one was welcome.  I prefer Chambers because I like to play Scrabble.  In a perfect world I guess I would have the Complete Oxford, but at £250 for the CD edition it is beyond my means.  One day perhaps their word of the day will coincide with the one I want, if it ever happens I'll feel just like I won the lottery!  Below I reproduce the definition from Chambers and after it the reason I featured it. Gaudy - see under Gaud Gaud - n. a.a large ornamental bead on a rosary (obs): a prank (obs); an ornament; a piece of finery; showy ceremony; festivity (obs), - vi (obs) to make merry, - vi to adorn with gauds (obs); to paint (eg the cheeks (obs; Shakespeare) - n gaudeamus L. (in Scotland let us be glad, opening word of a students…

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• Paul's Prayer to a…

  This is a poem I wrote many years ago.  It appears in a published work of my father's called "lie Lines". Jean's got the sneezles and weazles, They sent for a doctor! Then they decided to decorate a wall So they telephoned a draper. The draper was an elephant, Jumbo came with lots of wallpaper. Some was plain, some red and white, Some was decorated with flowers, Some repeated , some had towers, Said me to he, "I think he is dead". We rushed me and my downstairs and said "Help!!!" Only to see a bunch of hungry bears. They all said at once "Let's eat them up!" So they popped me and my insideAnd drank from a cup.   Paul Wrighton (when young enough)   The post was inspired by the recent discovery by my sister of a listing on Amazon for the book, which appears to have appreciated since publication in 1996, when the cover price was "One pint or six mars bars"!

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• My geeky blog

  I need to make a post upate, for my own monitoring testing purposes (one disappeared recently in what I can only assume was an unscheduled site rollback!) For any returning reader; there is a hiatus in my blogging - follow the link (click the title above) for the geeky details. Hopefully resumption of normal, more frequesnt and regular, postings in line with the new theme will be imminent (I have no shortage of material, so there may even be an intial surge when I'm reasured the blog is "secure").

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• The Ancient Smoker…

  Part I - The Curse   He is an ancient smoker, he stoppeth 'neath a tree With thy long black pipe and glittering eye, "Wherefore though stoppeth thee?" The Public Bar is open wide, within a merry din, The youth accosts the ancient soul "Thou can'st not go within!" "I have the curse", the old man sighed "Bin coming here for years, My pipe and baccy both are banned", The old man glared, the old man spake, "Yet I will go within! By God I'll fight for my right!" "A pint", he quoth and settled in his place The taproom glowed, the good beer flowed Joy shone in his face, the din did grow The banter flew, he joined that merry crew. He struck his match, he puffed his pipe The smoke was thick and strong The banter dropped, the door flew wide, A curse came from the throng The barmaid shrieked, the landlord cried "Thou can'st not do that 'ere!" The banter stopped, the silence grew, His curse was in his hand; Now 'twas an angry crew "Be gone!  Get out!  You're banned! God save the…

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• Hello World! (part…

  I listened to this first thing on New Years Day and thoroughly enjoyed it, the words were so positive.  This is really a bit strange and something of an aberation from my normal taste in music - I guess I'm weird and somewhat eclectic from time to time....

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