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Poetry is where my cultural appreciation collapses and I reveal myself to be the philistine I truly am. I don't understand it at all. I have tried.

I like John Hegley because his poems are funny. Maybe they're more jokes than they are poems.

Here's a John Hegley poem called "Pat":

I said Pat
You are fat
And you are cataclysmically desirable
And to think I used to think slim
Was where it’s at
Well not any more
Pat you’ve changed that
You love yourself
You flatter yourself
You shatter their narrow image of the erotic
And Pat said
“What do you mean, fat?”

Same q.

No particular order:


Sonnet 116, Shakespeare
"The Pardoner's Tale", Chaucer
"To the Virgins", Herrick
"The Rape of the Lock", Pope
"She Walks in Beauty", Byron
"Epipsychidion", Shelley
"Christabel", Coleridge
"Remembrance", E Brontë
"Ariel", Plath
"The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock", Eliot


I don't really do favourites


Have you read Frankenstein?

no, but I plan to one day. My english teacher wrote some sequels, actually. (Pete Planisek)


have you read Don Quixote? (it's one of my favorite books of all time)

Yes. I used to work in an office that was opposite the graveyard in Bournemouth where Mary Shelley is buried and occasionally in my lunch hour I would go and talk at her because I'm a weirdo.

Anyone else?

^^Sorry that was for the previous q.

Yes I have also read Don Quixote. I love it too. Probably about due a re-read.

Have you read War & Peace?

Breathless.

I hate you Brits for this, sometimes.
Ok lots of times.

Did you feel a vibe?



No interest in War. Or Peace.

No vibes. I'm not spiritually inclined that way. But there is something comforting about being close to someone's bones. I don't know what that is. I like to walk where I know Hardy walked too, and visit his locations. I imagine whole conversations with him, I imagine bringing him into my time and trying to help him make sense of our world. I think in my mind I've confused him a bit with my grandfather who I was close with as a boy. The house where Hardy was born is just up the road and, I don't know, I find it helps to have something physical when you're trying to connect with the past.

That isn't Mary Shelley's grave though. It's a much less romantic graveyard. And there were no bookish honeys. Unless I was in the wrong place. Maybe that's why I felt no vibes.

Anyone else for War & Peace?

nope. I find realistic and nonfiction boring to tears (metaphorically). I'd much rather dive into a rich sci fi or fantasy world with clearly defined rules, or lack of them, interesting characters, and good story.


What symbolism do you feel is pointless/overused/annoying?

I tend to think that any symbolism can feel fresh if it's used well, but it can also be cliched in the hands of a hack.

That said, I've probably seen enough weather and sea used to symbolise emotional states. Gathering clouds and churning oceans and all that. The last season of White Lotus was terrible for overusing the sea as symbolic, although I suspect it was deliberate overuse.

Please tell me about a specific sound that can make you feel happy. One of mine is the connection sounds from a 56k dial-up modem. Also skylarks.

I know it's not.
It's from the movie Mary Shelley but I think it's such a pretty set design, at her mother's grave (Mary Wollstonecraft).
I love cemeteries, and Hardy too. Such an interesting marriage and life story.
My ancestors were christened and laid to rest by Patrick Brontë.
Many are in the churchyard outside the parsonage window.

One died right after Charlotte, so Arthur Bell Nicholls (her husband) presided at the funeral because Patrick was too grief-stricken to attend. I have all the registry documents with their signatures. I've read that Patrick was only absent for that one day.

symbolism - virginal tropes, fallen woman tropes, fire for passion, most colours and weather

Yes, I later took the time to actually read the text on the grave and it all made sense. It does have a similar shape to Mary Shelley's though. Hers is lower to the ground. Not seen that movie.


I've been fascinated by cemeteries since I was about 5 when I lived in Southampton. I'd play here in The Old Cemetary in Southampton.

It's stunning, absolutely rammed with headstones and mausoleums and it's all overgrown and unkempt and wild, even though it's not far out of the city. Lots of burials associated with Titanic and other maritime losses, and Waterloo and Boer War. All gone, all forgotten just crumbling away.


How lovely to have that in your possession. History is so potent when you can touch it, or see the remains of it. I love to touch historical artefacts, you're not often allowed to. I think I'd have liked history at school a lot more if it had been less abstract.

But yes, symbolism. Or sounds. Or whatever.

lovely, no question asked
sometimes our parents took us to visit war- memorials and things, i didn't appreciate that back then,
but im over that, i took the family to WW1 memorial at the 100 y - in 17 -
slight preference for ww1, the relevance, and its not as crowded as the second

nowadays all is forbidden, back in the 60s we could climb and play on those


or explore old bunkers- creepy cold places
ww trenches

All so beautiful!

I support Undercliffe in West Yorks

Too tired to post photos


https://www.undercliffecemetery.co.uk/g ... -cemetery/


Whose grave would you love to visit, but haven't?

James Whittaker Wright, 19th century dude who killed himself after being convicted of fraud. I'm a little obsessed with his life and the things he built on his estate.

Same q.

My father's uncle died in Europe during WWII and is buried in Italy. My father has always wanted to visit his uncle's grave, and my sister and I have been thinking of going with him when he does.

Same question

I would like to visit my grandfather on my mom's side once more; however I'm not in the best financial state to do so. Have you ever attempted painting or sculpting?