The British In Cold Water

Not wanting to be a turncoat (I normally root for Team Canada) but the British team at these Olympics has been showing proverbial grit and determination - and, thankfully for female sport - showcasing the depth and quality of British women athletes. First, there was that gutsy road race the other day (and a long-needed gold medal for Wales, and the UK) from Cooke - and now, an incredible, and mostly unexpected triumph in the water, for women's 400m freestylers, Adlington and Jackson. Their race was so well-paced, and so team-oriented (both supporting the other) it could almost be the bespoke Olympic story - forget Phelps and his drive for massive amounts of gold, here were two unsung hardworking, big-hearted swimmers, who merely pulled excellence out of the bag when it was most needed. Well done!

As an aside, it'd be nice if the BBC showed a few more competititors from other countries from time to time - the focus of all national broadcasters is obviously meant to be on the national teams, but the spirit of the Olympics does also transcend nationalism, in the sense that great stories of success break through, regardless of what flag the athlete's wearing (one thinks of the amazing podium hug between the Russian and the Georgian).

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IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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