Ginge Reads

Photo by Andrei Bocan on Unsplash As a speaker of both English and French, it is unsurprising that I might read for pleasure in either language. As many  multi-linguists will know, reading in your non-native language is an excellent way to maintain it, but it also provides a unique entry into whole other aspects of literature, including poetry and drama, that might otherwise be hidden. So why shouldn't others also read in a language that they may not necessarily understand? Many of us are quite content to listen to Spanish pop-songs and pay good money to see an Italian opera, so surely this in itself is evidence of the beauty of the words alone. Lyrical melodies, satisfying rhymes and clever stress patterns please the ears enough that they become number 1 hits or box-office sell-outs without the need for them to be totally understood. And then of course there are those who frequently wear French sayings on their t-shirts, without any indication or understanding of what they ...

If the world is my oyster then I must have an allergy to shellfish. And I don't mean to sound a cynic, Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash But my head is a prison with just the occasional conjugal visit. So I don't want to waste myself with things much bigger than those on the bookshelf. Been there, done that, but the t-shirt was just too tight For a loner with paperback eyes. Now I’m left To think and thoughts and less wuthering of heights Where conversational stares can’t hurt me. Crack the spine. I’m running through pages, splitting their seams, Stalking fiction and forgetting dreams. Paper-faced friends with inky backs are enough to escape the world and its crap While the monsters of the mind Refuse to fall quiet. I ’m not waving, I’m drowning, Frowning, clowning, counting down the days, While stone cold stoned, the world watch away.