born on state highway 1

want to ask but afraid to know

Category: Tama Boyle

From De Vaults: Selfstalk Blogtrawl No. 3

The following from 1999 is probably my first attempt at writing pastoral verse. It’s in the from of an eclogue or bucolic. It laments the succumbing of my once peaceful patch of earth to suburban soullessness, like every other paved-over, nondescript bit of sprawl. Yes, that’s right… I remember when all this was trees. It [...]

From De Vaults: Selfstalk Blogtrawl No. 2

The earliest example of this sonnet I could find comes from January 2008. Given, however, the reference to the Swedish Rounding System, it must have been composed sometime prior to 31 October 2006. It has all the elements needed for a great poem: Supermarkets, dairy products and loyalty cards. Enjoy! O worthy Temple! Vast, unbounded [...]

From De Vaults: Selfstalk Blogtrawl No. 1a

With regard to the subject matter of the previous blogtrawl post, I have rediscovered this esoteric and, to date, untitled bit of doggerel which I composed ex tempore a couple of years ago for a fellow-travelling Kropotkin crossword enthusiast: As the sharpener whets the pencil So the crossword does my mind Square by square its [...]

From De Vaults: Selfstalk Blogtrawl No. 1

I wrote the following on Tuesday 27 April 2004: I have five cigarettes to last me till morning: But 18 bottles of beer The Kropotkin cryptic this week vexes me. The day today is Tuesday already and I still have two more clues to get. How utterly irksome. There is nothing more pathetic to me [...]

“O Vobis Praeteritos Referam Si Ego Annos” — after Vergil

You know what’s wrong with young people today? Too much not being in war.