Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

Sometimes when I finish a really good book I just can’t wait to dash off to the computer and write my review – I want to tell everyone about it.  That’s the way I feel about A Blade of Grass by South African/Canadian author Lewis Desoto, which was longlisted for the Booker in 2004.  It’s a story of an inter-racial friendship set on the contested South African frontier in the 1970s during the apartheid era.  I found it to be a remarkable debut novel that was engaging from the very beginning yet managed to raise complex issues about entitlement to land; about power and gender; and about the destructive effects of fear of The Other.

So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered from some outraged comments at GoodReads that some readers are very cross about this book. For some, there is too much lyrical description, for others too much symbolism.  One who…

Annestown Beach, Co. Waterford

Peace is something that I never, ever take for granted ~ either personal peace or public peace.

I was reared by my mother  on the saying, passed to her by her father:

Better a dinner of herbs and peace therewith than roast ox and contention.

and I don’t think I ever prepare a meal of any significance without thinking of this.

At a broader level, I give thanks every single day for the fact that the horrific Troubles in Northern Ireland were brought to an end after endless negotiation. As a child and young teenager, I was absolutely terrified that they would spill drastically into the Republic of Ireland and had all sorts of Plans A, B …Z to try and escape the turmoil.

Talking not fighting is the key!

What sparked these thoughts was stumbling on this poem earlier today:

Peace

At the ship’s bow…

Thinking of Li Po at Sky’s End (after Tu Fu)

Cold wind rises at the sky’s end.
What does he consider?
And when will the geese arrive?
The rivers and lakes are full this autumn
but poets’ fates are seldom pleasant.
Demons love to see us fail.
Let’s think of dead Ch’u Yuan
and offer poems to the river.

The transliteration on Chinesepoems.com reads:

Thinking of Li Po at the End of the Sky

Cold wind rise sky end
Gentleman thought resemble what?
Goose what time come?
River lake autumn water much
Literature hate fate eminent
Demons happy people failure
Respond together wronged person language
Throw poems give Miluo

According to the notes at Chinesepoems.com, the wild goose is a symbol of autumn, letters and travellers in difficulties. The wronged person is Qu Yuan, a poet of the fourth century BC who drowned himself in the Miluo river – another…

“Beachside Fun”

A few days ago, we took our 18-month old daughter to a tucked away little beach in Malibu. That’s where I took the above photo. The beach was empty except for us, and the herd of surfers who were riding waves of paradise.

I watched my tender, innocent daughter wander through the landscape. Enjoying and observing every little thing she saw.

The sand. The driftwood. The seaweed. The rocks.

They were all simply amazing to her. And to watch her enjoy life with such an angelic, naivety was just as amazing.

I smiled.  (Then, ducked down from a swooping seagull.) And then I smiled some more.

Adulthood brings with it such responsibilities, anxieties and concerns. Your heart begins to fill with worry and disappointment. You block people from entering your heart…because…you have been burned too many times in the past.

Then something magical happens. A little girl arrives here on planet…