At the bottom of the left-hand column are books I recommend. They are set up as referral links to Amazon (UK). I’m not seriously expecting a useful revenue stream from this, it’s just a way to liven up the appearance of the site. The plan is to occasionally add a new title, and as books get bumped off the bottom of the page, I’ll move them to a page that will act act as an archive of all the old recommendations.
You’ll notice the place looks different now. I doubt whether this version will last too long – I changed it because I thought the previous look was a bit too tasteful, too pastel. But this one already feels too self-consciously wacky, and I only just did it.
You’ll notice on the left of the page that I have a new links list. It will get longer – those are just the ones I did before getting bored.
The phrase ‘Silences at-a-glance’ was used by the BBC to link to this page. It’s practically a poem in itself. Or perhaps a title for a poem or sequence of poems.
Help me get a free ipod (and get one of your own!) by clicking on this link.
The chirping of sparrows is a key human noise, a key human experience.
the essential noise of humanity (humanness)
most human of noises
the sparrow is the human soul. (id?)
throwing croissant crumbs/bits of chip/whatever to the sparrows. Chirping among the roof-tiles. dust-bathing.
I’ve been very conscious of sparrows since they disappeared from this part of London a few years ago. There were lots at the hotel in Egypt – the noise is so cheerful, and so deep-down familiar. People think of ‘chirping’ as a generic bird-noise, but actually it’s not, it’s very specific to sparrows.
Sparrows are only found in association with people – their original habitat is unknown.
From a US website: “Perhaps the most citified of birds, this import’s incessant chattering, quarrelsome disposition, and abundance about human habitations distinguish it from our native sparrows. Actually, it is not a sparrow at all, but a weaver finch.” Surely it would be more true to say that American sparrows are not sparrows at all.
Catullus. Some haiku? Who killed cock robin.
There’s a poem in there somewhere.