Stories

July 25, 2018 - Robin Small Answers

 

robin small answers

 

Robin Small struggled to find what seemed so forever elusive – the answer .

Footnote:  Robin seems to hold a flag for the sense of wonder and mystery that was more afforded in years gone by, than in our world today.   Answers don’t always come easy, and sometimes there aren’t answers to everything.  But Robin, although struggling, doesn’t seem (entirely) defeated by the struggle.  Or the elusiveness of answers.  He’s tentative?  Undecided?  Maybe ready to step or move?  And those new paths often open up from not giving up when there seems no answer, but by having the determination to keeping seeking and exploring and examining what doesn’t make sense.   Responding in your own way to whatever uncertainty arises and whatever struggle arises from it?

Clunk & Jam book (2019)

July 3, 2018 - Robin Small Wells

 

robin small wells

As choices lay before him, Robin whirled in the – well, well, well.

Footnote:  Robin appears to be in a zone of great uncertainty – and cautiousness.   He could be anticipating the next step?    The ‘well, well, well’ could suggest he’s weary of the waiving finger of disapproval?  Or maybe the ‘well, well, well’ relates to a discovery he has made?

Find Robin Small in Clunk & Jam book (2019)

June 6, 2018 - Wisdoms of Rose Off the Planet

 

wisdoms of rose saving water

Rose wasn’t into saving water – she liked her bath too much.

Rose is of the view that taking care of herself is the best addition she could possibly make to the world beyond her own thought processes.  For much of the time she lives her life in blissful oblivion, completely absorbed in simple off-the-planet personal pleasures of strange delight – and no financial gain.  Long Live Rose.

Footnote:  This Rose seems relatively free from an environmental and social conscience, which makes her very politically incorrect.  She does have very green tendencies that offset her blissful oblivion.

(Wisdoms of Rose and Clunk & Jam, 2019 books.  Reposted from 2013).

May 17, 2018 - Wisdoms of Rose Keep Your Hat On

 

rose party hat on

Rose wasn’t cursed with good looks .

Rose is free from any expectation to be abnormally beautiful 24/7, which leaves her undefinable by looks alone – and alone she is.  Consequently, Rose rarely receives invitations of the social kind but isn’t bothered by being omitted in this way.  In fact, it affords her three good things.  One, more time to herself.  Two, being left alone to be herself.  And three, to live within the containment of her own tangible world.  With such a high level of self acceptance, Rose manages to by-pass all standard dress codes and cosmetic alterations of the conforming and horribly restricting kind – and mirrors.

Footnote:  In a world of ‘likes’ and ‘followers’, this Rose is independently refreshing.  Always good to question who and what determines our worth.

(Wisdoms of Rose and Clunk & Jam, 2019 books.  Reposted from 2013).

May 13, 2018 - Clunk & Jam in Bookshops

 

clunk and jam bookshops

(All content in Clunk & Jam is freely available in the Black Dog blog here.)

Clunk and Jam is now available in Perth, Western Australia at …Fremantle Art CentreFOUND Giftshop.  .  New Edition Bookshop, Fremantle. Lane Bookshop, Claremont.  Crow Bookshop, Victoria Park.  Planet Bookshop, Northbridge and Mount Lawley.  Beaufort Street Books, Mount Lawley.   Subiaco Bookshop, Rokeby Road, Subiaco.  Collins Booksellers, Cottesloe.  The Well Bookshop, Applecross. Diabolik, Mt Hawthorn.  Paper Bird Books, Fremantle.  Available on-line from Browne Ink Studio.

Thank you kindly to these independent booksellers for their support.

April 25, 2018 - Be The Captain of Your Soul

 

 

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Footnote:  The poem ‘Invictus’ was written in 1875 by William Ernest Henley, an English Poet, who had one of his legs amputated at the age of 17.  The poem, which he wrote while healing from the amputation, is a testimony to his refusal to let his handicap disrupt his life.  ‘Invictus’ is Latin for unconquered.  Undefeated. It was the anthem used for the Invictus Games this year.