One kneeling, one looking down

Les Murray My half-buried timbers chained in corduroylead out into the sandwhich bare feet wincing Crutch and Crotchspurn for the summer surfโ€™s embroideryand insects stay up on the land. A storm engrossing half the skyin broccoli and seething draband standing on one foot over the countryburrs like a lit torch. Lightningturns air to elixir at …

Six awesome blogs for research students

Dr Rod Benson, 4 October 2024 Stairs between Lower Ground and Ground Floors, Donald Robinson Library, Moore Theological College, Sydney. There are three kinds of research student: those who start researching and writing and are crawling or sprinting toward the finish line, those who give up in defeat, and those who finish writing and submit …

The five pillars of writing

We are all writers. Think for a moment about the writing you have done during the past 24 hoursโ€”perhaps texting friends on your phone, writing a shopping list, entering words and other data into a computer, or making marks with a pen or pencil on a tablet, whiteboard or sheet of paper.  A lot of …

On writing about oneself

โ€œA person can write about himself from angles that are charmed, fond, delightfully nervy; alter the lens just a little and he crosses over into gloating, pettiness, defensiveness, score settling (which includes self-hate), or whining about his victimisation. The truck is to realize that one is not important, except insofar as oneโ€™s example can serve …