Boots, DMs, Doctor Martens, Lraves, Open Participants 2021, The Network
Silent Sunday
“299 Autumn Leaves” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
17 Posts from October 2024
joy, Open Participants 2021, The Network
Use more cats!
Today in the Active Learning Network CPD session Isobel asks us to reflect on the sessions. The activity that I enjoyed the most was the session by Mark Wilsher called The Purr-fect Grade: How grading cats teaches us about student assessment. What one thing will you take from the sessions? Use more cats in my work Use cats more in my work What obstacles might you face? Only having two cats My cats not behaving when/as I want them to […]
Open Participants 2021, philosophical logic, predicate calculus, The Network
Predicate Calculus
Today’s Daily Create asks us to “write a poem formatted like computer code about natural networks”. As I started to think about how to do this, I wondered if a GenAI programme might help with philosophical logic, so I asked ChatGPT to give me an example of predicate calculus. Having ascertained that it could provide something meaningful, I asked it to: “Please write the following in predicate calculus: bees drink the nectar from the flowers” Here’s the answer “Bees drink […]
Open Participants 2021, The Network
Silent Sunday
“291 Mugdock” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
Knightswood, Open Participants 2021, pond, The Network, water birds
Knightswood Pond
Today’s Daily Create asks for a time lapse poem “Knightswood pond” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
October, Open Participants 2021, rain, The Network, weather
Weather forecast
Today’s Daily Create asks for a poem about weather forecasts. I look at many weather maps of Scotland, then write a haiku. October forecast: Rain, followed by rain, then rain Good weather for ducks “Ducks” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
bald eagles, collared doves, Open Participants 2021, The Network
Eagles and Doves
Today’s Daily Create asks us to Look out of your actual window and then open a nature webcam from somewhere in the world. (here is the home of nature webcams via the US National Park Service) Write a poem that bridges these two views, exploring the connection between your local environment and a distant ecosystem. I chose the Bald Eagle cam at Sauces Canyon Nest. “Sauces Canyon Bald Eagle Nest” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license […]
coincidence, Open Participants 2021, patterns, The Network
Ducks and Fuchsias
I don’t believe in God, the afterlife, or supernatural forces. I do believe in coincidence, in seeing patterns in nature and finding meaning when you look for it. Mum loved ducks – there are ducks throughout her house. Pictures of ducks, plastic ducks, wooden ducks. Every time I see a duck I think of mum. Mum died on Thursday morning. On Friday afternoon, on the way back from saying goodbye, we stopped as usual at Tebay Service Station, bought coffee […]
Father Time, Open Participants 2021, The Network
Ode to Father Time
Today’s Daily Create is to write an ode to Father Time O silent keeper of all things, You move unseen through shadows cast, With footsteps soft, yet never still. The stars align, the tides obey, All yield to you—relentless, vast. Your hands are weathered, old as stone, Yet you are ageless, ever new. You mend, you break, you heal, you mar, A sculptor’s chisel, carving through, Unveiling lives in cycles far. A child’s first cry, an elder’s sigh, The bloom […]
Open Participants 2021, The Network
Mum
“Take something to remind you of her”, they suggest. “I already have”, I say. In the cookbooks you gave me: the marks of my cooking throughout their pages, In the jugs and vases dotted around the house: the result of many years happy scavenging together, In the poetry books on my shelves: purloined from yours over the years, In the pictures on my walls: presents from you to remind me of home. I don’t need objects to remind me of you. […]
mother earth, ode, Open Participants 2021, The Network
Ode to Mother Earth
Oh gentle Earth, beneath our feet, Your patient pulse, your rhythmic beat, In verdant fields and oceans wide, You cradle all in arms so wide. From mountain peak to forest deep, Your mysteries you guard and keep. In every leaf, in every stone, Your quiet grace, your ancient throne. The rivers sing, the wind replies, A symphony beneath the skies. You gift us soil, the air, the seas, The fruits we pluck, the shade of trees. Yet how we bruise […]
Lakes, Open Participants 2021, Tebay, The Network
Silent Sunday
“285 Ducks at Tebay” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
mum, old age, Open Participants 2021, The Network
On death
She slips away gradually Retreating from the trivia of daily life The daily paper resting, unread, upon her lap – Sometimes she notices and is surprised to find it still unread – No more Suduko, no more politics (This latter is a relief to her left-wing children!) Her mind folds in: a moth without a flame As her body tells her it is time to leave.
engraving, Open Participants 2021, The Network
Silent Sunday
“Main Building” flickr photo by NomadWarMachine shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license
National Poetry Day, Open Participants 2021, The Network
N+ Sonnet
Today’s Daily Create asks us to share a poem in celebration of National Poetry Day, with this year’s theme being counting. I chose a Shakespeare Sonnet: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date; Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime […]