wonderful words
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The question you will ask yourself
So here we are, at the beginning of a fresh new year. Let’s start it artfully with a bit of poetry. I found this poem in Cate Kennedy’s collection The Taste of River Water (Scribe,…
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The results of unexpectedness: Thoughts on ‘Life While-You-Wait’
Sometimes words find us in unexpected ways, falling into our minds like light piercing through the gloom. It happened like that with this poem, which was shared with me by a dear friend. Now I am…
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An act of faith: Why language matters (even when it is inadequate)
For all its beauty, complexity and nuance, language is at times sadly inadequate. Certain experiences fall beyond words. They render us inarticulate, unstitching us from meaning and annihilating our ability to share the messy reality…
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Strike your note:
A new year’s admonitionIt stretches before us, crisp and unsullied. Poised as we are at the start of this bright, shiny year, we are free to imagine without hint of disappointment all the wondrous things we might experience,…
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The doorway into thanks and silence
Time for some more poetry, I think. (Isn’t it always?) Sometimes it takes no more than a moment. You meet a person, see a painting, hear some music or read certain words. Immediately, there is…
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Exhausting or exhaustive?
It is an easy mistake to make, especially when you’re tired. Nevertheless, there is a difference in meaning between the words “exhausting” and “exhaustive”, and astute writers know which one to choose. The word “exhausting”…
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Those monsters who live in the air
You know that delicious shiver which good writing can deliver? This passage from Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall does it for me. It describes the scene of the procession through London for Anne Boleyn’s coronation. The…
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Choosing a word of the year the Macquarie Dictionary way
While devising new words and wrangling existing definitions into curious contortions can be considered all manner of fun, it is only cautiously that such linguistic innovations make their way into official dictionaries. Yet the value…
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A Christmas poem
In my last post, I mentioned a collection of poems by e.e. cummings among the books I stole from my parents. In it I found this treasure which I’m happy to share with you today.…
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Murder, unkindness and storytelling
It began with ravens. A flurry of birds, persons and other wondrous beasties hurried thereafter. But it did begin with ravens. I read an interesting article about these sleek creatures and it led me to…
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Wherefore art thou?
You don’t actually need to be languishing on a balcony in order to ponder what’s in a name. Yet as Juliet discovered, it can be surprisingly enlightening to consider how and why a certain thing…