Tag: honesty

poetry, poetry appreciation, reflection

talking or lying…?

Aug 6, 2024 #connection, #courage, #despair, #fear, #honesty, #intimacy, #isolation, #Larkin, #Philip Larkin, #poem, #poetry, #relationship, #Talking in Bed by Lucy Crispin

A friend of mine recently dealt with a potentially tricky situation between us with tremendous grace and courage. Their honesty brought to mind this poem about its opposite—a poem I have long loved with a deep sense of melancholy, fearing that it spoke The Truth. It’s always a great relief when I remember the poem speaks the poet’s truth, with which we all may resonate sometimes, but which need not be The Whole or Only. See what you think about Larkin’s ‘Talking in Bed‘:

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poetry appreciation

those precious people

May 28, 2020 #advertising, #bullshit, #clap shaming, #clapping, #coercion, #Dennis O Driscoll, #honest, #honesty, #manipulation, #No thanks, #O Driscoll, #obligation, #plain speaking, #saying no, #social media, #social media platforms, #spin by Lucy Crispin

I was walking with a friend the other day—how marvellous to be able to write that again—and she was telling me how she’d been co-opted without consultation into a cheesy social-media-platform birthday tribute to someone she hasn’t even seen for about many years, and with whom she had no significant relationship anyway. Something about this, or rather, our reaction to this, put me in mind of the glorious ‘No, Thanks’, by Dennis O’Driscoll. This is the only version of the whole text I can find online, and it’s been very slightly edited from the print version I have. You have to scroll almost to the bottom of the page and when you get there it’s not laid out well. But I reckon it’s better to have a “nearly” version of this poem than not. Do read it out loud to yourself. It’s one of those poems which tells you exactly how it wants to be read.

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