Status Updates From Anecdotal Evidence

I love heeeeer omg

Brilliant. Soufflés are such a simple recipe too cook but require utmost skill. Like Wendy Cole’s brilliant poems. X

all my heart

'Scientific evidence' for justifying reading:

'Health Advice'

"People who read books enjoy a significant "survival advantage" over those who do not."

If you want to stay alive,
Sit and read a book.
It will help you to survive.
If you want to stay alive,
Eat broccoli and you may thrive
But here's the good news - look:
If you want to stay alive,
Sit and read a book.

(p. 62)

'Cento': a somewhat irreverent remark on the nature of art…
"Art's whatever you choose to frame.
It looks easy enough. Let's try it."
(p. 55)

A fair observation about Christianity:
"…I love him [Jesus]
for being on the side of the wusses,
telling us the meek will inherit the earth.

I don't know if he was the son of God
I don't know if he rose from the grave.
If he is a fiction,
the genius who created him
deserves all the love and the praise we can give."

‘The Worst Row’: a little tongue-in-cheek humour? Making merry with the literary canon (narrative) through which characterisation is developed?

“The worse row we two ever had concerned
The sonnets — Shakespeare’s. […]
… But we’re agreed
It was our worst dispute. The one we had
About a steak? That wasn’t quite as bad.”

‘The Marriage’: a clever tribute/homage to Shakespeare (via sonnet form); also comments on the sacrifice demanded upon individuals and families, yet the ever-present desire to reap benefits from them regardless?

“… We cannot know
The cost to you, your family, your wife.
We cannot wish you’d lived a different life.”

‘Absent Friends’, ‘Memorial’: deeply heartfelt tributes to important individuals; bringing their presences to life (in the face of absence…).

‘Evidence’: on the purposes of writing.

“What’s the use of poetry?
You ask. Well, here’s a start:
It’s anecdotal evidence

About the human heart.”