Poemsarts

This book is a tribute to my artistic expression, which has served as a source of solace for me over the years. It serves as a repository for my emotions, ranging from the highs of joy and love to the lows of disappointment and anger. By fusing my poetry with my artwork, which has played an essential role in maintaining my sanity, I hope to inspire readers to embrace their emotions and express themselves through words or art. I offer this book for your enjoyment and preservation, hoping it provides a sense of tranquility and peace. As you read my poems and admire my art, I hope you can sense my warmth and love. the poet, Mairux.

Anthology of about 600 poems from more than 200 twentieth century English poets.

‘A fascinating and moving portrait of love, loyalty and infidelity.’ Sarah Waters A sudden death in the family delivers Julia Parry a box of love letters. Dusty with age, they reveal an illicit affair between the celebrated Irish novelist, Elizabeth Bowen, and the academic Humphry House - Julia’s grandfather. So begins a life-changing quest to discover and understand this affair, one with profound repercussions for Julia’s family, not least her grandmother, Madeline. Using fascinating unpublished correspondence, Julia follows the lives of three very different characters through some of the most dramatic decades of the twentieth century: from the rarefied air of Oxford in the 1930s and the Anglo-Irish Big House, to the last days of Empire in India and into the Second World War. The story opens up a lost world, one with complex and often surprising attitudes to love and sex, work and home, duty and ambition, and to writing itself, spiced throughout with social history and a celebrated supporting cast that includes Isaiah Berlin and Virginia Woolf. Inspired by Bowen’s own obsession with place and memory, Julia travels to all the locations in the letters - from Kolkata to Cambridge; from Ireland to Texas weaving present-day storytelling with historical narrative and literary exploration. From an assured, elegant new voice, The Shadowy Third is a beautifully written investigation of family, love, and the lasting power of literature. Praise for The Shadowy Third ‘Julia Parry has a fascinating tale to tell, and she does so with a compelling immediacy and also with admirable finesse. Bowen fans will be in her debt; and those interested in the milieux she frequented.’ Peter J. Conradi ‘The Shadowy Third is the intimate portrait of a love triangle, with the novelist Elizabeth Bowen as one of the protagonists. It is also a work of discovery, using letters with sensitivity and intelligence, rebuilding a lost world with imaginative flair, seeing Bowen and her world with insight, and the lives of Julia Parry’s own grandparents with a sharp eye for detail and a skill at telling a fascinating story.‘ Colm Tóibín, author of The Empty Family ‘A vivid picture of an important and immensely gifted writer in love.’ Joseph O’Connor ‘A compelling story of marriage, passion and betrayal that reads like a richly textured novel. With skill, wit, and empathy, Parry takes readers on a compelling journey to find the truth of her grandfather’s love affair with a famous novelist. Gripping, poignant, and fascinating.’ Charlotte Gordon, author of Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley Parry is a spirited narrator who is clearly a great admirer of Bowen's fiction but isn't blindsided by this, remaining admirably nuanced as she gives a judicious moment-by-moment account of these complicated characters over the decades.’ Lara Feigel, Spectator 'Fascinating and poetic.' Ian D’Alton, Irish Times ‘An essay of rare sensitivity and intelligent reflection... Julia Parry's elegantly written The Shadowy Third uncovers the love triangle that consumed the novelist – and her grandmother.’ Rupert Christiansen, Telegraph ‘As literary discoveries go, it’s a big one: the discovery in her uncle’s attic by Julia Parry, a secondary school English teacher, of the forgotten correspondence between her grandfather, the literary critic Humphry House, and the famous 20th-century Anglo-Irish novelist and short-story writer Elizabeth Bowen. Parry is an engaging writer, deliciously alert to the echoes and parallels that sometimes feel like ancestral instructions on how to approach the material.' Lucy Atkins, The Sunday Times 'Parry is an intrepid narrator, with a beguiling style... she marshals her facts and impressions with energy and assiduity.’ Patricia Craig, TLS 'Bowen devotees will find fascinating insights. Anyone who has yet to discover her sublime fiction, meanwhile, has so much to look forward to.’ Saga

Early one autumn afternoon in pursuit of an elusive book on her shelves, Susan Hill encountered dozens of others that she had never read, or forgotten she owned, or wanted to read for a second time. The discovery inspired her to embark on a year-long voyage through her books, forsaking new purchases in order to get to know her own collection again. A book which is left on a shelf for a decade is a dead thing, but it is also a chrysalis, packed with the potential to burst into new life. Wandering through her house that day, Hill's eyes were opened to how much of that life was stored in her home, neglected for years. Howard's End is on the Landing charts the journey of one of the nation's most accomplished authors as she revisits the conversations, libraries and bookshelves of the past that have informed a lifetime of reading and writing.

Provides teaching strategies, activities, and resources to help students with specific problems.

Arts of Resistance is an original exploration that extends beyond the arts into the context of politics and political change. In three wide-ranging exchanges prompted by American blues singer Linda MacDonald-Lewis, artist Alexander Moffat and poet Alan Riach discuss cultural, political and artistic movements, the role of the artist in society and the effect of environment on artists from all disciplines. Arts of Resistance examines the lives and work of leading figures from Scotland's arts world in the twentieth century, concentrating on poets and artists but also including writers, musicians and architectural visionaries such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Patrick Geddes. Poets studied include Hugh MacDiarmid, Sorley MacLean, Iain Crichton Smith, Edwin Morgan and Liz Lochhead; artists include William McTaggart, William Johnstone and the Scottish Colourists. The investigation into the connection between the arts and political culture includes historical issues, from British imperialism to a devolved Scotland. Finally, the contribution to poetry and art of each major Scottish city is discussed: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dundee. Highly illustrated with paintings and poems, Arts of Resistance is a beautifully produced book providing facts and controversial opinions.

This poetry collection contains spontaneously composed works, often inspired by fictional scenarios from my imagination. The poems mainly focus on romantic themes, exploring idealized outcomes alongside their opposites, depicting scenarios of what might have been, should have been, or could have been. The decision to start this literary journey came from a lifelong habit of creating detailed scenarios in my mind, finding joy in envisioning both realistic and fantastical situations. While love is a key theme in the collection, I have woven moments of emotional depth to offer a rich narrative. These poems serve as channels for my feelings, capturing fleeting moments of intense passion and deep sorrow. Navigating through my emotions, each verse mirrors the complexities of human relationships and the intricacies of the human heart. Within my imagination, I am free to explore the depths of love, loss, yearning, and everything in between. Through language's rhythm and metaphorical artistry, I invite you to embark on a journey through a range of emotions that reside within us all. Each poem acts as a reflection of the soul, providing insight into a heart that beats with vulnerability and resilience. As you delve into these lines, may you find comfort in the shared experiences that unite us through themes of love and longing. All my love, Mairux

Tom Stacey has a lot to think about these days. The bees for one. He hasn't seen any but he keeps hearing them, buzzing in the fridge at work, in the overhead lights, in the test equipment in the factory where he has spent the last fifteen years of his working life. They seem to be getting louder and more insistent. Then there is his search for Sarah McCarthy. Sarah was his first love when, as a teenager, he travelled around the country in the back of a horsebox with his grieving grandfather. But perhaps it isn't the bees or the past which is the problem. Perhaps it is his loneliness. Twenty-two dates with Happy Couples dating agency and nothing to show. Relationships are all about the details and there are just not enough boxes to tick on the agency's personal profile form. Armed with a wax model and a list of criteria, Tom sets out on a quest to create a personal profile to find his ideal match. On his journey, he meets people just like him, warm but unable to show it, lonely and unable to remedy it, the lost, the misplaced and the damaged.