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Brian Taylor has been a Poet and Philosopher in Cornwall, England and the Far East.
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Tag Archives: Oxford
WAITING
Magdalen’s groundsare full of life,full of space. Space, which is mownand cleared,tended and enclosed,its waterways unchoked,brown and sparkling clear. It is home to ducksand coots,to dragonflies and deer. Grass and paths and gatesand streamsand yesterday’s undergraduatesare waiting. Not for the … Continue reading
Posted in Oxford Blues
Tagged being, dragonflies, ducks, future, Magdalen, Oxford, Oxford Blues, past, peace, space, undergradutes, waiting, waterways, Yes!
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AREOPAGITICA
The Vice Chancellor is leaving!And the mourners go about the streets,throwing their mortar boards in the airand waving their gownslike bullfighters’ capes. In the Vivisection Laboratory,the faintest of grey lightsslants through the bars of cageswhere animals waitto be scientifically torturedfor … Continue reading
Posted in Oxford Blues
Tagged Chancellor, God, laboratory, makind, Oxford, Oxford Blues, scientifically tortured, Vice, vivisection
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TRUTH IN THE BOTANIC GARDENS
Thousands of magnolia flowers,by Danby’s gateand yellowstone walls,test vernal powersagainst the winds of March; and wait. Slowly, blossoms fall,like heavy snowflakes, one by one,lit by a dull and clouded sun. Tourists have gathered here to seethe wonder of this snow-blossom … Continue reading
Posted in Oxford Blues
Tagged blossoms, Botanic Gardens, harvest, inner eye, magnolia, Oxford, photography, snow-blossom, snowflakes, tourists, winds of March
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POST IMPERIAL BLUES
A terrorist gets his way by violence. Like Alexander,he would prefer a city to surrender peacefully.Like Alexander,he will destroy it if it doesn’tand enslave its population. A successful terrorist,like a successful leopard,does not change his spots. A pugilist can break … Continue reading
Posted in Oxford Blues
Tagged Alexander, Congo, don, footprints, leopard, lions, massacre, Nigeria, Oxford, post imperial, poverty, Rwanda, statistics, student, terrorist
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HALLOWELL
The tide that started flowingall those endless years agohas eddied round and doubled back,has shadowed our diverging tracksand monitored their going. It sidles in and splashes at our feetleaving us very little common groundfor if and when we try to … Continue reading
Posted in Oxford Blues
Tagged Brian Taylor, Euro Express, light, Nature, Oxford, Oxford Blues, Painted Veil, sailing ships, sunflowers, tide, Tuscany, Van Gogh, watercolour master, woodlands
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MAKE THE MOST OF IT
Said the Junior Dean. What is “It”that we should make the most of it?What have wethat we can justly boast of it? We have inherited our share of wealth;and karma and good sensehave brought us health. Time weighs not on … Continue reading
Posted in Oxford Blues
Tagged ashes, Brian Taylor, Desires, good sense, health, It, karma, Oxford, Oxford Blues, parable, shadows, talent, Time, too late, wealth
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ARMISTICE DAY
‘Died some pro patria non dulce non et decor.’So Ezra Pound adapted Horace’s linesfor those whose sufferings for their nationhad bred a dull, dark, painful generationwith gloria cauterised from their minds. In the calendar their deaths are still recorded.Poppies and … Continue reading
Posted in Blondin
Tagged Armistice Day, Blondin, Brian Taylor, Cadets, Ezra Pound, Flanders, grief, Just, medals, November, Oxford, painful generation, past, poppies, present, pro patria, remembrance, spirits, transcendental dust, uniforms
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MAGDALEN
In the Fellows’ Gardens,past the Deer Park,a willow twists and stretchesout of a brown poollike a giant Nagatrailing garlands of green lace. Along the avenues of Addison’s Walk,among birch and beech,chestnuts stretch out their brancheslike semaphores,and hang their leaves like … Continue reading
Posted in Oxford Blues
Tagged Academics, beech, birch, Brian Taylor, chestnuts, Deer Park, Magdalen, Michaelmas Term, Naga, Odysseus, Oxford, Painted Lady, willow
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BLONDIN
“Blondin” is a like a large box of tasty organic delicacies, which you dip in and out of at your leisure – not something to be attempted at one sitting. The poems deal with many facets of life, from glimpses of the cosmic, to the scent of the breeze on a local Cornish lane. Whatever your taste- whether it be wit, insight, or the Tao, you’ll find something to engage you. Continue reading
Posted in Blondin
Tagged atheist, Blondin, Book Reviews, Buddhist, deathless, eternal springs, good and evil, good friend, humour, insight, Now, organic, Oxford, poetry, Tao, Truth, verse, wit
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GOING OUT THERE IS NO OTHER
Going out there is no other,coming back there is no trace.Though we must love one another,whose is the beloved’s face? Start from wherever you think you wish to,you cannot end up in a different place.Examine carefully the mirrors around you.All … Continue reading
Posted in Oxford Blues
Tagged beloved, Blondin, face, mirror, other, Oxford, Oxford Blues, smile, speculum, transformation
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