Wordstall

  • Rapture in Lamentations

    Rapture in Lamentations

    Harry Kratchnikov’s face fills the mask: Did he cry for help as he lay there? Then after a pause, “Are you there?” It was only luck that I had the radio on at 9pm, BBC Radio 4 (21/03/2014), began listening to  Four Trees Down from Ponte Sisto (NB click on this link to ‘listen again‘), and…

  • Returning the favour

    The photograph shows a demonstration in Florence on the 15th March – showing the flag, making a stand, resisting the values of nationalism and bigotry. There was drumming and shouted speeches. Yeah! Right! Business as usual. Then on Thursday of this week, almost accidentally, we found ourselves near to La Certosa outside of Florence. I…

  • Not quite here . . . or there

      Back from Rome. But not quite! At least not all of me, some bits are missing: my attention is caught, snagged in some Roman street. Is this a complaint that Florence is not Rome? And another thing, I thought (imagined?) that I caught a glimpse of ‘arry in Rome. Perhaps he was hurrying into…

  • Coming, or Going Home

    Coming, or Going Home

    CRITICAL WORD ART: “Still in the East, yet in the West. Us in the East, them in the West; us in the West, them in the East, from one system to another. Is it another system? How so? Why have I come here? There’s no way back! Time stands still and yet continues. This is…

  • This is for Roads Without Potholes

    This is for Roads Without Potholes

    ‘This is not for Europe. This is for Roads without Potholes’. Here’s ‘Arry – and this what he was writing recently. Here’s Harry Kratchnikov. ‘This is for Victory, the Fight Continues’, he also wrote. And he is on his way home. Pretend he is just a mask if you like. But he already has a life…

  • Let’s go bravely out there

    As our old friend Harry Kratchnikov was often mistakenly quoted as saying: the brave new world is always last week’s news. But, of course, we struggle on with near blind courage and some alertness as to the position of drains and robust iron railings, which perhaps are the least of the obstacles lying in wait;…

  • Harry Kratchnikov

      A pile of notebooks of varying sizes but each one carefully bound in ochre leather have, as recently reported in at least one of the better newspapers, been discovered in what must be described as a condemned building, some in various cupboards, some scattered about on different floors. Gathered together by one member of…

  • Ripped through Time and Space

    Ripped through Time and Space

    “Hello Grandpa”, kindly defiance, defiant humility and with a feeling like I am not done with my story either. Well, you would have to come out of hiding too faced with that kind of greeting wouldn’t you? Really, after that sunny command you are not going to stay crouched down on your knees with your…

  • It was my First Pike

    It was my First Pike

    The Left Bank of the Dniester, sometimes called Transnistria, is located not so far away in eastern Europe, once being part of Rumania. It became an autonomous political entity In 1924, when its people were made up of mostly Moldavian, Ruthenian (Ukrainian) and Tatar peasants. Overrun by the Nazis in the Second World War, all…

  • Misheard / Miss Hard

    Misheard / Miss Hard

    “A ‘daybook’ is a journal or ledger in which ephemeral expenses are recorded before they are entered in an account…”*. The ‘D’ word… Or had I misheard / Miss Hard? As promised, Shiva Yatra came to its climax at the village temple all night last Thursday, and I was present in the mass: in my…

  • dot dot dot

    dot dot dot

    Come on, I say to myself . . . keep going . . . as the energy flags, the various tasks and projects fall into disarray . . . surely there is a need for community . . . a need to talk through the variety if the possible . . . after all there…

  • I breathe therefore I am

      What is this? Where am I? Are these the white tiles of the morgue? I think I can hear the whispered voices around me. Is he breathing? No we’re too late, let’s see where the breath has gone, open him up, see if we can catch the last and final fleeting thoughts. Ha ha!…

Categories (2024) are:

  • ATELIER Work – about-creative-work (in all mediums: text-drawing-sounds-image etc)
  • CLIMATE Action – indications-and-contra-indications
  • DAWDLING – walking-pausing-to-wonder-wandering
  • IN Conversation – companionship-and-connections
  • LA Communita –participatory-collaborative-artivism
  • OTHER than Human – animate-and-inanimate-terrestrial-kin
  • PARANOID Readings – violence-and-fundamental-perversions
  • POLITICAL Readings – mobilisations-affect-polarisations
  • REPARATIVE Readings – inspiring-healing-restorative
  • SHADOW Readings – speculative-and-not-yet-visible-thinking
  • STYLE Readings – scales-and-familiarities
  • TONITE at the Coliseum – live-experiences-performance
  • YOGI (‘Not This-Not That’) – meditation-bhakti-consciousness


Different WORDSTALL Categories in the past supported the mainly experimental personal writing in posts. The previous list of Category headings was: Anti-gravity Surgery / Atelier / Catastrophe Games / Echo Effects / Exodus / Fundamental Perversions / Hitting the Potholes / Holy Fool-Hero / In Conversation / Old Men Traveling / On the Street / Out in the Wilderness / Over and Beyond / Tonite at the Coliseum. Some of these still persist or recur as Tag key-words.

The even earlier Category headings for the walkingtalkingwriting blog (2006-2012) have been forgotten, but can be explored if desired via the long tail of monthly posts for those years here.