Some poems sound like bells tolling at the turn of an age, and Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush is one of them. Written on the eve of the twentieth century, it stands like a weathered milestone between centuries — one hand resting on the grave of the Victorian world, the other reaching hesitantly toward the … Continue reading The Darkling Thrush
Author: Robert
A fifty-something, retired Celestial Travel Agent and Afterlife Preparation Specialist. Walked many paths; some good, lots bad. Meandering through a difficult past, plodding in the present, crawling toward the future. I've studied English Literature, and hold a BA (Hons) Hum. (History & Art History) & MA (Humanities with English Literature)
Night and Day: The Devil’s Auction and the Radiant Company
Otto Greiner (1869–1916), Die Feilbietung (The Sale), 1898. Lithograph, 25 × 20 cm. Public domain.The devil as auctioneer, mankind as eager bidder - Greiner’s vision of damnation is less warning than mirror, a Halloween reminder that we often sell ourselves far too cheaply. Night and day belong together. One can’t savour dawn without knowing what … Continue reading Night and Day: The Devil’s Auction and the Radiant Company
When Things of the Spirit Come First
A Meditation on Simone de Beauvoir’s Early Gospel of Disobedience Some books are like sermons and others like confessions; Beauvoir’s When Things of the Spirit Come First manages to be both at once. It’s a book that bows at the altar of virtue only to blow out the candles as it kneels. Before she became … Continue reading When Things of the Spirit Come First
The Girl at the Crossroads: The Legend of Kitty Jay
The wind remembers what the Church forgot. Two for the price of one. Today I managed 2.5k words of my book; today’s project was a sombre one so it’s fitting that I pull out these two old essays and share them with you here. I came upon her grave quite by accident, though I suspect … Continue reading The Girl at the Crossroads: The Legend of Kitty Jay
A Nightmare Before Christmas: The Gospel According to the Pumpkin King
Following on from yesterday’s reflection on Corpse Bride, I found myself still wandering through Tim Burton’s haunted imagination — that candlelit corridor where love, death, and longing share the same heartbeat. If Corpse Bride was his requiem for romance, A Nightmare Before Christmas is his hymn to the restless artist — the skeleton who, having … Continue reading A Nightmare Before Christmas: The Gospel According to the Pumpkin King
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