justfranksthoughtsnstuff
I started posting to jtns on 20 February 2010 with just one word, 'Mosaic'. This seemed an appropriate introduction to a blog that would juxtapose fragments of memoir and life-writing. Since 1996, I'd been coming to terms with the consequences of emotional and economic abuse that had begun in childhood, and which, amongst other things, had sought to stifle self-expression. While I'd explored some aspects of my life through fiction and, to a lesser extent, journalism, it was only in 2010 that I felt confident enough to write openly about myself. I believed this was an important part of the healing process. Yet within weeks, the final scenes of my family's fifty-year nightmare started to play themselves out and the purpose of the blog became one of survival through writing. Although some posts are about my family's suffering - most explicitly, Life-Writing Talk, with Reference to Trust: A family story - the majority are about happier subjects (including, Bampton in rural west Oxfordshire, where I live, Oxford, where I work, the seasons and the countryside, walking and cycling) and I hope that these, together with their accompanying photos, are enjoyable and positive. Note: In February 2020, on jtns' tenth birthday, I stopped posting to this blog. It is now a contained work of life-writing about ten years of my life. Frank, 21 February 2020.
New blog: morethoughtsnstuff.com.
Two good posts in one day- you are making the most of the week's spaces. Your Godstow - Binsey reflections were very evocative. How good it is that it really doesn't change at all as you walk in that direction.
ReplyDeleteHopkins is a favourite of mine , even though he does describe our bit of Oxford as 'a base and brickish skirt.'
I heard today, on Something Understood' Richard Burton reading somef Hopkins I'd never heard of - at first I thought it was Dylan Thomas. It was called 'The Golden ---????------' Quite extraordinary. Do you know it?
Thanks, Margaret. No, I hadn't heard it before but now I have can quite understand why you thought it was Dylan Thomas's poetry. It's on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhQwFf6Qb9U.
ReplyDelete...The Leaden Echo and The Golden Echo.
ReplyDeleteThank you ! Wonderful to hear it at will. Burton and Hopkins, so different in their lives, complimenting each other perfectly.
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