Wednesday 10 December 2008

Tuesday 9 December - stillness

As I said, a busy day so not a lot of time to fit this in. However, I did get out two poetry books - Dylan Thomas and Wilfred Owen. I tried to read at lunchtime but didn’t have the time to settle. However, I did arrive for the PCC meeting very early (and I had Dylan Thomas in the car) so I succeeded in having a peaceful 10 minutes before phoning Jane Ray. I’m a fan of Under Milk wood - we did it at college and I have a CD which I occasionally play in the car. His use of language is remarkable: It is spring, moonless night in the small town, starless and bible-black, the cobblestreets silent and the hunched, courters'-and-rabbits' wood limping invisible down to the sloeblack, slow, black, crowblack, fishingboatbobbing sea. But his poems don’t quite achieve this level. Nevertheless it was a peaceful ten minutes. But I do need to manage my time better so that I get more than ten minutes!

Tomorrow: children’s play

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've read some Wilfred Owen but never any Dylan Thomas and the wonderful quote you've chosen David, has inspired me to hunt out a copy of Under Milk Wood-thank you. I've come to your blog somewhat belatedly but have thoroughly enjoyed catching up with your Advent journey and look forward to reading more!

David said...

Under Milk Wood was originally written for the radio. I have a copy on CD of the radio play. It uses the original recording or Richard Burton mixed with a new cast. The full text is available online at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0608221.txt