Thursday 19 November 2015

VID TTSAOTWJS (Taking the Stairs and out the window)

Saturday 14 November 2015

Salesman poem

6K out of a 4K deal
By John Stiles

I was not really expecting anything,
When Joe said concentrate on Paul
For now so I called London. It wasn’t
That bad even though I gave Joe

The architecture books from the Swiss
Air Flight he won’t encourage me
To work with Bill! I guess it makes
Him look like he doesn’t have anything

Special going on in the office if anyone
Can get a decent sized deal off Bill?
I’m not that curious about these salesman
Nor do I care what they get up to late at
Night in Sau Paulo or Valetta?

My interest is in making it into the Barbican
Library and get off the street, you wouldn’t
Believe how it looks to see a red-faced, bald
Salesman coming up some street at a clip

With a deal in his hand, even with a thousand
Dollar suit on you know he lives in hotels.  No
Missus back home says Pete from behind
 His desk over in the corner, but you, you

Will get 6K out of a 4 K deal with him
Better than a kick up the ass and the 20 quid
L won’t  bother to pay you, you wonder too
how much patience does he have for this sort of thing.

Thursday 28 August 2014

Man on a white Horse?

Consider the LiliesConsider the Lilies by Iain Crichton Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The title almost put me off but was hooked soon enough. Aside from the feisty old lady who rules her old farm house, it is about the Scottish clearances - and the exodus to NS and other parts of Canada. It is about an old lady notified by a man on a white horse she is about to be kicked out of her farmhouse. It is very poetic with rural images that last and has elements of Brian Moore's "Lonely passion of Judith Hearne" and Margaret Laurence's "The Stone Angel".

View all my reviews

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Charles Dickens in Halifax (did he meet up with Haliburton in the Gov't house?)

Life of Charles DickensLife of Charles Dickens by John Forster My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a detailed book and gives little insights in Charles Dickens' mind from the point of view of a close friend and later executor of Dickens' will. I like this book because it gives an additional insight into Dickens first trip to North America when he stopped in Halifax NS, and after a choppy sea crossing and having his ship run aground on the mudbanks off NS, was immediately greeted with fanfare by the local politicians in Halifax and was taken to the Government Building where he was paraded as a celebrity, which he didn't care for so much. View all my reviews