Scribbled Senseless

It is indeed National Poetry Day, and it has spurred me to finish a poem I've been thinking about for a while. It was to be my first foray into Latin Verse Composition, but even I thought that may end up being a little elitist. Plus, it was really, really difficult. Although it is on some level anathema to me to do this, I feel it might need just a little context before being read. My mother has had, as long as I can remember, a grand piano. It's where I first learnt about music, and how to sing and play. This year, she has sold it, and in about a week's time, it goes to its new home. Hebenus ac Ebur It sits alone, still and silent Not through reverence or neglect, But because it no longer fits. A plant in a garden overgrown, .Choked and shaded Not by weeds, but some other pretty flower Flourishing in the sunlight. With every day it petrifies, Grey with dust it becomes An Ozymandian monument, A lonely edifice to a life no longer lived. ...

Today is the centenary of the outbreak of World War One, and the lights are once again going out across Europe. The hype has dominated the news cycles and the public consciousness for weeks now. It has been an opportunity for us to remember the unprecedented horror of war, and to remember what those who fought and died did it for, and how their aims have been achieved and failed. It is an increasingly rare display of respect, dignity and unity between many countries across the world, as we attempt to treat the curiously dual nature of remembrance: The private impact on people's lives and families and the conquests of nations. One man dying in the mud, over and over, and an Empire falling. I'm sure there will be those who disagree, but personally I have not experienced anything in the build-up that has struck me as at all off-key. Indeed, almost everything on the TV, on the radio, has seemed to be thoughtful, and to try to offer real insight into life at the time of the outb...

If I had a motto, beyond "No, leave me alone", it would be Numquam Dubita . Like all good pithy Latin phrases, it's a little obscure, pseudo-profound, and hard to fathom until it's explained to you. Numquam Dubita can be translated as a range of things: 'Never Regret', 'Never Doubt', 'Never Hesitate'. It has senses close to 'carpe diem', or even 'keep on trucking'. At a push, it can mean (and it pains me to say this) 'be true to yourself'. But the sense of it is always the same. It's a rejection of fear. A rejection of the belief that the universe is bigger than you. A rejection of life grabbing you by the throat and sending you wither it wills. It's the affirmation that you are a true agent, that the things that constitute your life are decided by you and you alone, and that you are the only one with power over yourself. That thought becomes important to me at this time of year. For the past weeks, you...