Two Sonnets

Is that...Wing?

On Saturday four of us made a trip into London. The woman in the picture above was by far the highlight of our trip. While she wasn't really Wing, she was singing Amazing Grace over and over with her little boom box in Leicester Square. "I once was rost..." You've got to love the way she used the statue's cane as a prop as well.



Everyone keeps asking what we did in London, and then look at me strangely because we didn't really do anything we were supposed to do. We wandered around a lot, got lost quite a few times. Saw the 100 Club and the Hard Rock, indulged Patrick in his quest for rock t-shirts. But we certainly had a good time.


The only touristy place we visited was St. Paul's cathedral. Patrick thought we should visit since it's mentioned by so many writers. While we were there a service was going on, and I must say the acoustics were incredible. You could literally feel the organs. At least I felt less uncomfortable than I usually do in a place of worship as the place was swarming with tourists. The strangest part was noticing how many of the memorials inside were placed there for people in the military, not important people within the church.



Yes, that's a rat on a plate in the tube. He was just begging me to take his picture.

Rhyming Dislocation

Opening the Aperture

Believe it or not, I am doing work here...

I've decided to share some of the things I'm writing for the program. It's intensive, so I have far less time to work on things than I normally do, but I think that's a good challenge for me. Please be rough, give me some criticism--I'd love the input.

Women's Rights

On Friday I also went on a walking tour of Oxford. It was unfortunately more a tour of the colleges than a tour of the city, but still interesting. I learned lots of interesting tid bits, including finding out that one of the pubs we've been frequenting--The Turf--is the pub where Bill Clinton "didn't inhale."

What I found astonishing, however, was learning about how late in the game the colleges here accepted women as students. Oriole College, the college Clinton attended for two years, was the last to accept women and didn't give in to the pressure until 1984. Even then some professors refused to participate, and would walk out of the lecture hall if the class was mixed.

The picture above was taken in the chapel of Oriole College. Since women were not allowed to attend the college they were not allowed in the chapel for service, even though the fellows were allowed to be married since the 19th century, I believe. If one of their wives wished to attend the service, she would have to go in through a separate outside entrance and sit in a room behind these curtains so she could hear the sermon but not be seen.

There's apparently a book about all of this called The Women of Oxford.

Look Out, Trump!

On Friday afternoon I decided to take a walk so I went down to the Christ Church Meadow. It was really quite beautiful, and wonderful place to sit and write or have a picnic, as long as you weren't down wind from the manure. The meadow is bordered by the River Thames, and there were many people out boating, either motored boats, canoes or paddle boats, or in some cases I saw people poling down the river.


After living in West Palm Beach these boats looked so strange--in comparison to whatever else was out there, I think this may have been a yacht.

Age Before Beauty?

Today, while on a tour of Exeter College given by one of the fellows, I got to handle a Bible from the 12th century. I couldn't believe he let us touch it, but his reasoning was that nothing makes it 700 years if it can't get a few fingerprints. The pages were Vellum (goat's skin) and had quite a distinct aroma. The calligraphy was all done by hand, and you can see the notes written in the margins from the 13th and 14th centuries.



We also visited the oldest pub in Oxford (13th century), The Bear. I really wish I'd realized how great the sign was without the flowers in the way while I had the camera with me. The bear on the sign is really quite ferocious. The pub is so named because they used to have a bear chained up in the back whom they would pit against dogs in fights for entertainment. I'm so glad I missed out. The ceilings in this place are also unreasonably low, I had to stoop just about anywhere inside.

A Room with a View

This is the view from the window of my dorm room. It looks out into the courtyard of Exeter. Windows being open is key as there is no air conditioning, and so far it's been surprisingly sunny and warm. The best part about my dorm room is that it's a single room. I was pleased to have been given some privacy.



I have a desk, and I finally have internet in my room. (For some reason the college will only let us have access to the wireless nextwork for 14 of the 20 days.)



I have a wash basin, so at least I have running water and can brush my teeth without walking down to the next floor.


A wee bed and a closet. Seriously, that bed is small. It's much thinner than a twin bed, and my feet inevitably hang off the bottom no matter how close I am to the head board.



A heater in the remains of a fireplace, a bench. It's a looking at bench, I think.

The rooms are really not bad, though everything is horribly creaky--I always feel like I wake everyone up every time I leave my room at night.

Let's Start with a Disclaimer

I've decided the easiest way to keep those interested informed about my three weeks here at Oxford's Summer Programme in Creative Writing was to make a blog. I can post photos easily and avoid writing essentially the same email to more than one person. I just want to say, however, that I have no idea how often I'll keep up with this or how well this will be executed as I've never done this before and--let's be honest--I'd rather be out exploring than sitting on my laptop reading through FAQ's. In other words, expect technical difficulties. I hope to make this interesting, but if it does make a turn for the worst and end up like Uncle Ed's eight hour slide show, at least you can just close the browser without having to make awkward excuses.

That being said, I guess I'll get on with it. Cheers!