Author Archives: johnfield1

Curtal sonnet on the curtal sonnet In crystal, snowflakes, frost, a tight-furled   sunflower’s spiral of hulls, a floret     of broccoli’s fractal beauty, such arrays and iterations! O baroque arranger of the world,   clockmaster, maker of matryoska, in secret     patterning stem, seed, atom, say that at the heart, the carpel core of the familiar   flower—red roseContinue reading “Counting the Stars: Richard Osmond’s Variant Air”

Oxford’s Donnington Bridge had a witty voice. As the university’s boat clubs fought for supremacy, they’d paint its arches, often with sharp references to popular culture and, as one college obliterated a rival’s efforts, a satirical dig might be thrown in too. This microculture, this clandestine war of words, waged with brushes in the dark, felt romantic, exciting andContinue reading “Find the River – Tom Chivers’ Flood Drain”

You’ll know my brother’s work from Poor Rude Lines’ masthead. His images have also graced various posts and the About page.  You may not know that Peter James Field is a freelance illustrator with a client list which includes Time Magazine, The New York Times Magazine and Penguin Books. Peter has kept a visual diaryContinue reading “No Bulb in my Lamp: Selected Diary Sketches 2004 – 2014”

I’ll not succumb to the radiation emanating from the cultural Chernobyl that is Disneyland Paris just because I’m a parent. It’s a lobotomy, not a rite of passage, a Stepford amnesia, not a cherished memory.  Who knows whether my brood will grow up to think independently and kick against the pricks but, if not, it willContinue reading “My bloody valentine – Richard Osmond’s Shill”

Back in prehistory, before we started buying music online, early adopters had to copy and paste album artwork (from a niche website like Amazon) onto tracks individually. Can you remember the first time your computer started thinking for you? Those crude, pixellated little covers metamorphosing into high-resolution beauty and some of them inexplicably started changing identity altogether: The Moulin Rouge!Continue reading “History Repeating: David Attwooll’s & Andrew Walton’s Ground Work”

The Guardian’s coverage of the 2004 Madrid train bombings was the first time that I considered the burden shouldered by newspaper picture editors in their vocation to tell the truth. A clutch of UK nationals had opted to airbrush the image of wreckage – and people – blown across the tracks, in the interests ofContinue reading “Dan O’Brien’s War Reporter”

I surfaced gently from sleep and, for a befuddled moment, stretched and relaxed. Then I noticed that I was lying on the floor of an empty classroom, my head cradled in a colleague’s lap. The school nurse was there ensuring that my legs were elevated and, as I came to and reacquainted myself with the last memoryContinue reading “Amplified Heart – Sue Rose’s Heart Archives”

Roundabouts are disorientating – the work of the devil – and often I’ll have to orbit in a holding pattern to get my bearings. Recently, in a shopping mall I’ve visited countless times, I had to ask a security guard for directions. In my defence, I  struggle even to recognize the town – or country – I’m in based soley on theContinue reading “Act of Remembrance – Tom Duddy’s The Years”

The dressing up box in my daughter’s room is dangerous. One moment I’m daddy but, sporting a witch’s hat, I’ll have her shrieking from the room in abject terror. As the fabric of the universe warps, any item I’m holding – a wand, a stick, a Very Hungry Caterpillar – will turn into an instrument of untold power.Continue reading “Wordless by Kevin Reid & George Szirtes”

In Tony Harrison’s v., the Vs sprayed on the Harrison family grave in Holbeck Cemetery, Leeds, ‘are all the versuses of life / from LEEDS v. DERBY, Black/White / and (as I’ve known to my cost) man v. wife, / Communist v. Fascist, Left v. Right, // class v. class as bitter as before, /Continue reading “I Predict a Riot – Helen Mort’s Division Street”