Haykus-on-Hay

The British poet Simon Armitage attended the recent Hay-on-Wye literary festival and in honour of the location, wrote a bunch of 'haykus' which were published in The Telegraph. Here are a few:

The Bard

Poet in a field, a mountain on his shoulder. Next week, a puddle.

Paint Your Volkswagen

Red dust from Welsh soil makes the Passat blush. Add rain: rose-tinted windscreen.

The Wye

All day the river draws its question mark. Answers on a postcard, please.

Big Top

Roll up, roll up, see the famous author, upstaged by a bluebottle.

Small Hours

In the stilled cosmos of the empty pavilion a field-mouse wonders.


PShaw!

A letter that George Bernard Shaw wrote to The Times in 1905 complaining angrily about how a woman at the opera was dressed has been republished by a website, lettersofnote. com. Here's an excerpt from GBSS's rant : "This lady, who had very black hair, had stuck over her right ear the pitiable corpse of a large white bird, which looked exactly if someone had killed it by stamping on the beast, and then nailed it to the lady's temple, which was presumably of sufficient solidity to bear the operation. I am not, I hope, a morbidly squeamish person;but the spectacle sickened me. I presume that if I had presented myself at the doors with a dead snake round my neck, a collection of black beetles pinned to my shirtfront, and a grouse in my hair, I should have been refused admission. Why, then is a woman to be allowed to commit such a public outrage?"