mythweaver2025

When you are old:

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep.

How many loved your moments of glad grace.
And loved your beauty with false love or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead,
And hid his face amid a crown of stars.

Bemoaning the current state of things is clearly a long tradition - a verse from William Wordsworth that reflects on the state of the world...


The world is too much with us; late and soon.
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in nature that is ours:
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon:
The winds that will be howling at all hours.
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not - Great God! I'd rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

So, I've heard from the World Fantasycon Art team. They've reviewed my portfolio and ' are delighted to offer me display space within the World Fantasy Convention art show in Brighton.'

Yay!

But now they want me to let them know how much space I will need - announcing that they will be using pegboards mounted on heras with lighting attached, similar to Eastercon and Worldcon in Glasgow.

On what? Oh, ok - so those are the big panel things, right? Sort of trestle table long and ... how deep? They take five pegboards, apparently - but how big is each pegboard? This is not helpful, people. Give me specific dimensions. not assume I've done this before or will instinctively know how much space I'm being offered. And do I have to do my own labels? (I will bring my own blue-tack if so, but I don't know if that's allowed ...)

I'd ask, but I haven't had much success in getting answers back to previous questions. {sigh}

I guess I'll ask for one heras, and hope I can fit everything on it. I have five/six months left to complete stitching stuff, so I think I can probably fill at least one. I am happy to offer pieces for sale (there's another assumption in that, but they expect it, as they don't charge for the exhibition space, but recoup on sale commissions.) So, if you're going, and fancy an embroidered dragon (or firebird) to hang on your wall, do come take a look at mine ...

I walked past our shelf of poetry books this morning, somewhat dusty from neglect, and thought 'I should be using those - they might re-spark some creativity!' I grabbed the nearest collection 'Poetry from 1870-1914' and flicked ...

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Extract from 'Spring' by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring -
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightning to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

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(glances out of the window)

Very pale blue sky, bright sunshine, and the glimmer of fading frost. Early spring, bringing promise to the world - well, my bit of it, anyway!

(Putting this here so I can find it again!)

Being Social

It’s a Blue-sky day today
And I’m busy surfing the Internet.
Trying to avoid too much Discord
Seeking that elusive X ingredient.
Will I find it where the world is all a Twitter?
Or purchase it perhaps in a Wandering Shop?
Live Journals lure me away
Barely a Dream Width from my goal.
Offering me a chance to Face the Book …
I pause to ask ‘What’s App?’, seeing
The Messenger that keeps pace with me
And which holds - with a sharp pin - my interest.
Ah – that I had time to Slack and Tumblr into the QZone
But the clock goes Tik Tok
And in an Instagram
I drop the Telegram he brings
Realising I have already Reddit.
So – Linked in again to Life – I follow
The Threads to my Home page ...