Jim Bartlett Writer

Hail to the New Chief

jimbartlett1 — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:14:06 +0000

Hail to the new chief

The democrats in triumph

Barrack Obama

Dawns a new age of wisdom

Or more of the same again

Congratulations USA on electing the man. Let’s hope that the 4th line of the above Tanka rather than the 5th is the one that comes true.

Site Update

jimbartlett1 — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:06:19 +0000

Hey ho, learning all the time. Got the site organized a bit better and added a load more haiku. Check them out in the ‘Haiku and Tanka’ page.

Cri du Coeur

jimbartlett1 — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 16:10:14 +0000

I’ve posted a short story, Cri du Coeur on my short story page today. It’s a maritime ghost story. I shall probably change the pagination to allow a page for each story sometime in the future.

To view the story click on Short Story page.

Hedging My Bets

jimbartlett1 — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 14:25:44 +0000

Here are two Tanka. By next Tuesday one of them will be irrelevant. The Tanka is a Japanese form of poetry, related to the haiku but consisting of 31 syllables. Written in English, 5 lines of 5,7,5,7,7 syllables respectively:

Hail to the New Chief 1

Hail to the new chief

The democrats in triumph

Barrack Obama

Dawns a new age of wisdom

Or more of the same again

Hail to the New Chief 2

Hail to the new chief

Republicans in triumph

Though burnt out the Bush

Through that earthquake wind and fire

Where’s the still small voice of calm

THE WELSH IN PATAGONIA

jimbartlett1 — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:57:29 +0000

Introduction:

In 1865, the brig ‘Mimosa’ left Liverpool, bound for Golfo Nuevo in Patagonia, with 153 Welsh speaking settlers on board. The Welsh, believed that their cultural heritage was in danger of being compromised by the spread of industrialisation, mostly English owned. This remote southern region of Argentina on the banks of the Chubut River was chosen mainly because of the lack of outside cultural influences. There were many setbacks and hardships, including a mass exodus to Alberta, Canada, in 1902. This was a result of both repeated flooding of the Chubut, and Argentinean cultural oppression regarding the teaching of language in schools and the eligibility of the members of the community for compulsory military service. Despite its problems however the community survives to this day.

While the song Gweddio i’r Mor (Prating to the Sea) is based on historical fact, the involvement of the young man in the Falklands/Malvinas conflict of 1982 is entirely fictional, though it could very well have occurred. The Welsh Guards certainly took part in the conflict, though whether they took any prisoners, or were involved in guarding them I do not know for certain.

For those interested, my sources were: 1. www.britannia.com/wales/whist32b.html for a detailed history and: http://usarios.advance.com.ar/gwesty wi/hanes_english.html This last is the site for a B&B in Gaiman, and has an excellent little history. Any search engine given: ‘Welsh community in Patagonia’ should come up with these two.

To view the song scroll through the songs page.

Praise Song in the 21st Century

jimbartlett1 — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:30:09 +0000

An article about West African folk music and the ancient tradition of its performance.

To view the article scroll through the articles page.

They don’t make them like that any more!

jimbartlett1 — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:37:16 +0000

R.A.U.J.

This is a character study of a teacher from my schooldays, remembered with affection.

To view the article scroll through the articles page.

Sacked by Sonnet

jimbartlett1 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:19:21 +0000

Back in the 1990s I was sacked from a job on the telephone. I thought that was pretty blunt but I gather it’s got worse. People get fired by email these days and, lord preserve us, by text message even. Just how far will heartless, gutless management go to avoid facing up to an employee they have decided to fire. I don’t suppose there is a nice way of doing this but perhaps Shakespeare might have done it this way, by sonnet of course:

To view the poem scroll through the poetry page.

Note on Ynyswen

jimbartlett1 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:28:50 +0000

I’m going to start off on day one here with a poem. I live in South Wales in what used to be a coal mining valley. This is a very beautiful part of the world, or it would be but for about 200 years of human industrial activity. The mines are gone now but the towns remain and the new curse rubbish or trash as you Americans call it. The poem tries to capture this essential dichotomy of the Welsh valleys

To view the poem go to poetry page.