Ping Pong

What is ping without
Pong? An unfulfilling game
You need two players.



I wrote that for my now ex-boyfriend, because he loved ping pong. I wanted to explain to him what a hokku was. I think he liked it. But you never can tell can you?

FOUND: From the Picaroon Archives

Picaroon is a very old fashioned term for pirate. I have something of an obsession for them. I've been wanting to make a zine called Picaroon for about five years now, but I'm too lazy to organise my stuff and I don't like my illustrations enough to put pen to paper. Plus I have about sixteen thousand, four hundred and seventy two other things to do. So yes, I've got a strange collection of things I've written down, excitedly, on the back of fag packets and scraps of paper, in order to *ONE DAY* put them all into this quirky little zine of piratey delight. I've even done proper research. My ex-boyfriends brother, Nick (absurdly intelligent creature), wrote a thesis or something or other on the shipping habits of Liverpool in the 1700s (or something like that, I can't remember, it was like, a million years ago; or four.) and when he wasn't working, I'd steal his books from Wellington University Library and pour over all the piratey bits. Here's a random section I found:

Born on the isle of Lesbos, in 1475, was a man of wicked nature, the much feared, red-bearded pirate Barbarossa, also known as Khair ad Din. One of four brothers...

In 1505 he seized the Isle of Djerba [Tunisia] and made it the base for his 3 ship fleet.

Reknowned for his fartherly care of Moriscos
_____________________________________________________________________________________

The Barbary pirates were pirates who operated out of Tunis, Tripali, Algiers, Sale and ports in Morocco, preying on shipping in the Western Mediterrainian Sea from the time of the crusades and ships on the way to Asia from North Africa until the early 19th Century. Their stronghold was in Northern Africa, along the Barbary Coast, though they were famed it have power reaching as far as North Iceland and south along West Africa's Atlantic seabord.

Not only did they pluder ships, but also raided European coastal towns.

They captured large numbers of Christian slaves from Western Eurpoe, due to be sold in slave markets in Morrocco. Sultan Moulay Ismail built his fortified palace using the Christian slaves provided by the Barbary Pirates.

The most notorious pirate was Barbarossa, Khairad Din, who was invited to defend Algiers from Spain, killed the rules and seized it in 1510, converting it into a major pirate base and regent for the Ottoman Empire's Sultan.

The usual ship of Barbary Pirates was a galley with slaves at oars.

In 1816, a Royal Navy raid, assisted by six Dutch ships destroyed Algiers and its fleet of Barbary Pirates

If you would like to read some fiction which involves the Barbary Pirates, here are some books:
Robinson Crusoe : Daniel Defoe
The Count of Monte Cristo : Alexandre Dumas
The Sea Hawk : Rafael Sabantini
The Algerine Captive: Royall Tyler
Master and Commander: Patrick Brian
The Baroque Cycle : Neal Stephenson

Bees

Something I just found at the bottom of my wardrobe during The Great De-clutter of Summer 2010. It's very old and to be honest I'm not terribly pleased with it, but whilst I was in NZ in 2007, I became obsessed with bees and themes of bees, so it must be from around then.

Bombus hortorum

The humble bumble bee
is gentle and slow, drowsily collecting
pollen and nectar from
flowers which
drip, drip, drip as she drones.
Only The Queen and workers sting.

It seems a little unfinished to me, and also rather plodding and predictable. Humble Bumble is so overused in literature and poetry! I suppose the slow, plosive words mimic the content of the sentence and I can see I was attempting some form of visual metaphor of bees drifting from flower to flower in the layout of the stanza, but all in all it's a bit cringeworthy. I remember the first poem I ever wrote. It's paaaaaaainful to read over. It's like picking old scabs. I guess nobody is any good at anything first try, but still, it's humiliating looking at old work...

found on a scrap of paper

Deep purple passion plum
deftly delving with my tongue
jus dribbling down my neck
fragrant skin finely flecked.

Flesh tearing on my teeth



Apparently I gave up on it here.

Are you blue baby?

Cyanosis can occur for many years in patients who have gone untreated for congenital cyanotic heart disease, the commonest form of which are tetralogy of fallot* and transfosition of the great vessels, in which the circulation is misdirected. Both of these conditions result in the presence of partially deoxygenated blood (which is blue in colour), which gives the skin a characteristic purple colour.

*Tetralogy of fallot is a form of congenital heart disease in which there is pulmonary stenosis**, enlargement of the right ventricle, a ventricular septal desfect, and in which the origin of the aorta lies over the septal defect. The affected child is blue (cyanosed) and frequently squats. The defect is corrected surgically. [ELA Fallot (1850-1911), French Physician]

**Pulmonary Stenosos leads to faintness, angina pectoris, heart failure. Narrowing of the outlet of the right ventricle of the heart to the pulmonary artery.

The above is an extract from a medical dictionary I poured over once, in 2007, when I was working at Kingsway Hospital in Derby. I was fascinated by the concept that people can really be blue, but you aren't meant to be. The language these dictionaries is written in is really interesting. I especially like how you have something explained, but then within the explanation is something you need explaining further, and within that explanation is another concept which requires attention...it's a wordy labyrinth, medicine.