CAMILLE PAGLIA STOOPS TO CONQUER

Just sitting here with my husband reading Camille Paglia’s wonderful Break, Blow, Burn—close readings of her favourite poems. It is such a fierce and thrilling ride. Her views divide but her deep understanding of art and poetry always enthrals. She is one in a million. Love, Susie x

“We cannot have a world where everyone is a victim. "I'm this way because my father made me this way. I'm this way because my husband made me this way." Yes, we are indeed formed by traumas that happen to us. But then you must take charge, you must take over, you are responsible.”

Camille Paglia

YET WILL THIS PASS, AND PASS SHALL I?

‘A Popular Personage at Home’ was one of two poems Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) wrote about his beloved dog of 13 years, Wessex, who died in 1926, two years before Hardy himself. However, what makes ‘A Popular Personage at Home’ especially notable is that Hardy wrote the poem from the perspective of the dog, allowing ‘Wessex’ to speak for himself. It also hints at the erosion of nature itself! A beautiful poem about a dog.

I GIVE MY WISDOM AND EXPERIENCE TO ANIMALS

‘I gave my beauty and my youth to men. I am going to give my wisdom and experience to animals.’ I love this quote from the great Brigitte Bardot and I so admire how she dedicated her ‘second life’ to looking after animals. She also said, ‘Animals have the purity humans have definitely lost!’ A great, great woman.

A FROG LEAPS IN

I’ve been reading a beautiful little book of haiku poems I found at a second hand book dealer in Lewes. Such a gorgeous thing by Matsuō Basho, the poet-master of the Haiku. You can see the pond! You can hear the frog!