Rusty Niall
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on replacing the angel and devil on my shoulders with a gargoyle and butterfly
August 19, 2022
No matter how often you find yourself feeling at one with the fabric of the cosmos, you’ll still end up nuts-deep in a dichotomy a few hours later. So I...
Ruskin Park Monoku
August 13, 2022
It’s a well worn opinion that writing poetry is not always good for your mental wellbeing. That may be the case but writing haiku has always been a boon to...
No, you are not an inconsequential blip within the vast fabric of the cosmos
August 8, 2022
You have no doubt already seen the first high-res shots of the universe taken by the the James Webb Space Telescope. The universe is so incomprehensively...
THE REAL MAN SELF-IMPROVEMENT PLAN
January 25, 2022
A silly advert for a male empowerment course inspired this poem
Talky blog - Should The Matrix Resurrections Exist?
January 21, 2022
A transcript of some out-loud musing on the new Matrix. Spoilers ahoy.
My favourite podcast of 2021 - You Don’t Know
January 6, 2022
In terms of work that functioned as a product of and antidote to the pandemic, one of my favourite projects of 2021 was the podcast, You Don’t Know, from...
Auld Lang Something
December 31, 2021
A poem about being old and boring on New Year’s Eve
The Aesthetics of Resentment
December 22, 2021
A poem
NFTs and the Mona Lisa Curse
December 21, 2021
Why making art of value is more than just making yourself scarce
What can be learned from the suffering of the rich?
November 26, 2021
How I was cheered up by an article that argued I needed to make £300k to live comfortably in London
Friday Poem: On Jordan Peterson’s assertion on Question Time that racism should be tackled on an individual level because the concept of structural racism is too abstract, imprecise and low-resolution
November 19, 2021
A poem followed by a blog
Friday Poem: Declared Goods
November 12, 2021
We never count how many “goods” we utter each day.Good morning. Good weather. Goodnight, sweetheart.The Lord looked upon his creation and saw it was...
Writing for The Beast
November 10, 2021
How W.S. Graham’s The Beast in the Space can help orient the writer in a hyper-connected world
Friday Poem: The Good News
November 5, 2021
I pass him at the same time most mornings, pacing, proselytising, jeans turned up, casual shirt ironed, unlike mine, and I think about how gentrification has...
Remembering the Ice Bucket Challenge after watching Jordan Peele’s Us
November 4, 2021
The following blog contains spoilers for the Jordan Peele film, Us. Being so-on-the-button with the latest trends and cultural happenings, I just got round...
Poem in which the dove that Roy Batty releases at the end of Blade Runner develops an unquenchable thirst for power and becomes Twitter
October 28, 2021
I didn’t ask for a hand that has made murder to clamp down my wings and tail feathers as the ubermensch that caught me attained samadhi with his final breath...
What Blade Runner 2049 says about quitting social media
October 27, 2021
Do Androids tweet electric hot takes?
The Good Life was so bad, it made me want to quit streaming.
October 22, 2021
In the years since I returned to gaming, I have enjoyed reading reviews or comments online about really bad games. Not disappointing games or underwhelming...
The Moon is not a Cliché
October 19, 2021
A public service announcement
Poems written during Wednesday’s live stream (15/10/21)
October 15, 2021
One last visit to the Lake
Why being a scenester isn’t always an option for introverted artists
October 11, 2021
Not wanting to create within the context of a collective is not always a case of the “lone genius”
Poems I wrote during Wednesday’s live stream
October 8, 2021
I live stream most Wednesdays, when I’m not knackered from my paternal duties or dealing with the momentary return of covid symptoms. While I have failed to...
Tips for surviving National Poetry Day
October 7, 2021
Don’t worry, it’s just another day, it’ll be over soon
Paragraphs that might have been tweets, the response they might have received and how I might have felt about those responses (6/10/21)
October 6, 2021
One of my reasons for setting up a substack is so that I can get away from twitter and the twitter mentality. Here are some paragraphs based on ideas for...
An Italian man makes a grand, drunken entrance at the Tesco Local — A Haibun
October 4, 2021
‘The exciting news, it seems, is that he is quite drunk and is ready to make friends.’
Can Substack save me from Twitter?
October 3, 2021
I am exhausted and numbed by Twitter. Can rekindling my blogging help me to put the bird site to bed?
Rusty Sonnets - Dover Beach By Matthew Arnold
December 27, 2020
It’s been a while but Rusty Sonnets sneaks in a final track for 2020. This episode looks at the angsty Dover honeymoon of the Victorian poet Matthew Arnold.
Rusty Sonnets - Paradise Lost Book Club Part 4
June 21, 2020
This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the fourth episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a...
Rusty Sonnets - Paradise Lost Book Club Part 3
April 10, 2020
This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the third episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a...
Rusty Sonnets - Paradise Lost Book Club Part 2
February 23, 2020
This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the second episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a...
Rusty Sonnets #33 - I Give You Ample Leave By George Eliot
February 9, 2020
On this week's Rusty Sonnets we look into George Eliot's musing of the selfless "bubble world" in her unpublished poem, I Give You Ample Leave. I then end...
Rusty Sonnets - Paradise Lost Book Club Part 1
January 26, 2020
This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the first episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a...
Rusty Sonnets #32 - The Burning Babe By Robert Southwell
January 19, 2020
Welcome to our late Christmas episode of Rusty Sonnets! Today we look at the Jesuit martyr Robert Southwell and his nightmarish vision of the spirit of...
Rusty Sonnets #31 - Song of Hope by Thomas Hardy
December 15, 2019
In this week’s Rusty Sonnets we look for optimism from a seemingly unexpected source, the pessimistic poet and novelist, Thomas Hardy. 00.00 Intro and...
Rusty Sonnets #30 Soliloquy on an Empty Purse by Mary Jones
December 8, 2019
In today’s Rusty Sonnets we ask whether virtue can accompany poverty by visiting the witty, down to earth poetry of Oxford’s first postmistress, Mary Jones....
Rusty Sonnets # 29 - Carrion Comfort by Gerard Manley Hopkins
December 1, 2019
Today we look at Manley Hopkins’s sonnet on how wrestling with despair is actually a grapple with God. I then wander off on one about wrestling. 00.00 Intro...
Rusty Sonnets #28 - To His Sonne by Sir Walter Raleigh
November 24, 2019
In today’s Rusty Sonnets we look at a tender lament from a famed swashbuckler and explorer who was perhaps more of a wrongun, Sir Walter Raleigh. 00.00 Intro...
Rusty Sonnets #27 In the Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu
November 17, 2019
This week we look at a lyrical description of a bustling Indian market and ask whether it’s a subtle work of propaganda from one of the central figures of...
Rusty Sonnets #26 - The Garden of Proserpine by Algernon Charles Swinburne
November 9, 2019
In this week’s Rusty Sonnets we muse on whether or not we really want more life with Algernon Charles Swinburne’s ode to Mrs Death (who is also little Mrs...
Rusty Sonnets #25 - from Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein
November 2, 2019
After a little break we return with a dip into the multifaceted musings of poet, playwright, novelist, art collector and Modernist salon extraordinaire,...
Rusty Sonnets #24 - Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats
October 12, 2019
Today’s Rusty Sonnets looks at Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats, a poem about the unreachable beauties of nature and the failure or deception of the poet...
Rusty Sonnets #23 - Whoso List to Hunt, I Know Where is an Hind by Sir Thomas Wyatt
October 5, 2019
When a sonnet about your crush is also a potential act of treason, it’s always handy to present it as a translation of a poem about a deer. Today’s Rusty...
Rusty Sonnets #22 I Sit and Sew by Alice Dunbar Nelson
September 28, 2019
Today we return to the days of the Harlem Renaissance and look at a poem by the poet, teacher, journalist and activist Alice Dunbar Nelson. 00.00 Intro and...
Rusty Sonnets #21 The Cherry Tree Carol by Anonymous
September 21, 2019
Today we get back to my favourite author, Anonymous, and an early oral ballad that brings an unfamiliar slant to the story of the nativity. 00.00 Intro and...
Rusty Sonnets #20 - Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti
September 14, 2019
Today we look at a poem from a time when an abundance of fruit meant more than your 5-a-day, Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti. 00.00 Intro 12.25 Goblin...
Rusty Sonnets #19 - My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
September 7, 2019
The summer hiatus is over and Rusty Sonnets is back with a salacious tale of envy, power and murder, My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. 00.00 Intro 09.35 My...
Rusty Sonnets is on Hiatus until the 7th of September
July 27, 2019
It is with regret that, due to summer holiday childcare, I have to put the Rusty Sonnets podcast on the back burner. I will be back on the 7th of September....
Rusty Sonnets #18 - Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
July 20, 2019
This week we look at Thomas Gray's Elegy, an elegy that that strays from tradition in how it celebrates a people rather than a person. 00:00 Intro and...
Rusty Sonnets #17 - The Tyger by William Blake
July 13, 2019
Rusty Sonnets #17 - The Tyger by William Blake This week we visit one of the brightest burning lights of the Romantic era, William Blake, and look at how his...
Rusty Sonnets #16 - On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley
July 6, 2019
Today we look at a poem from the first African American to publish a book of poems, Phillis Wheatley. We look at her exceptional yet tragic life story and...
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