George Lang
@xerxesxerxes.bsky.social
Ancien doyen des arts #uOttawa | Erstwhile wine merchant | Known to versify | PwP Thems neurons in the banner
“Brigid, Brigid!”
What we are supposed to exclaim if we spot a flower on #StBrigidsDay
(one day before Groundhog Day)
What we are supposed to exclaim if we spot a flower on #StBrigidsDay
(one day before Groundhog Day)
February 1, 2026 at 5:26 AM
“Brigid, Brigid!”
What we are supposed to exclaim if we spot a flower on #StBrigidsDay
(one day before Groundhog Day)
What we are supposed to exclaim if we spot a flower on #StBrigidsDay
(one day before Groundhog Day)
A reasonably objective piece on Kermit Lynch. Full disclosure: I worked for Kermit 1980-1985.
www.themanual.com/food-and-dri...
www.themanual.com/food-and-dri...
From Jura to Sardinia: What Kermit Lynch taught us about wine
Kermit Lynch reshaped the U.S. wine scene by introducing overlooked regions, low-intervention wines, and new wine styles. Here's how his work expanded our palates — and still does.
www.themanual.com
January 27, 2026 at 10:05 PM
A reasonably objective piece on Kermit Lynch. Full disclosure: I worked for Kermit 1980-1985.
www.themanual.com/food-and-dri...
www.themanual.com/food-and-dri...
ALBA
From sleep the foiled lover
fought like a salmon upstream against a torrent of dream.
Started awake, he held
beside him, diffuse in the dawn,
a bare wisp of her
flesh, ache
of a phantom limb
in the form of a whisper
he knew to be fake
…
alteritas.net/pastis/inven...
From sleep the foiled lover
fought like a salmon upstream against a torrent of dream.
Started awake, he held
beside him, diffuse in the dawn,
a bare wisp of her
flesh, ache
of a phantom limb
in the form of a whisper
he knew to be fake
…
alteritas.net/pastis/inven...
Alba – Pastis @ Bandol
alteritas.net
January 25, 2026 at 5:16 PM
ALBA
From sleep the foiled lover
fought like a salmon upstream against a torrent of dream.
Started awake, he held
beside him, diffuse in the dawn,
a bare wisp of her
flesh, ache
of a phantom limb
in the form of a whisper
he knew to be fake
…
alteritas.net/pastis/inven...
From sleep the foiled lover
fought like a salmon upstream against a torrent of dream.
Started awake, he held
beside him, diffuse in the dawn,
a bare wisp of her
flesh, ache
of a phantom limb
in the form of a whisper
he knew to be fake
…
alteritas.net/pastis/inven...
January 23, 2026 at 7:06 AM
How do poems get us, like this one did me, to the point I put it over into English?
Here it was the lines translated as: … the overgrown / ditches where boys fish stray eels / …..
They recalled a poem of my own from my bayou-centric boyhood in Houston.
Read on:
alteritas.net/pastis/monta...
Here it was the lines translated as: … the overgrown / ditches where boys fish stray eels / …..
They recalled a poem of my own from my bayou-centric boyhood in Houston.
Read on:
alteritas.net/pastis/monta...
Montale’s Lemon Trees – Pastis @ Bandol
alteritas.net
January 22, 2026 at 12:36 AM
How do poems get us, like this one did me, to the point I put it over into English?
Here it was the lines translated as: … the overgrown / ditches where boys fish stray eels / …..
They recalled a poem of my own from my bayou-centric boyhood in Houston.
Read on:
alteritas.net/pastis/monta...
Here it was the lines translated as: … the overgrown / ditches where boys fish stray eels / …..
They recalled a poem of my own from my bayou-centric boyhood in Houston.
Read on:
alteritas.net/pastis/monta...
Machado gives her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump.
Lameculos ¿acaso luce mal?
= “Kiss-ass, does it look bad?”
#Palindrome
Lameculos ¿acaso luce mal?
= “Kiss-ass, does it look bad?”
#Palindrome
María Corina Machado regala su medalla del Nobel de la Paz a Trump.
January 17, 2026 at 12:02 AM
Machado gives her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump.
Lameculos ¿acaso luce mal?
= “Kiss-ass, does it look bad?”
#Palindrome
Lameculos ¿acaso luce mal?
= “Kiss-ass, does it look bad?”
#Palindrome
Reposted by George Lang
Alberta organizes banned book buyback to keep streets safe
Alberta organizes banned book buyback to keep streets safe
Critics have argued that, while the buyback may get some books off the streets, serious readers could simply swap covers, file off ISBN numbers, or even 2D print books at home.
www.thebeaverton.com
January 10, 2026 at 8:56 PM
Alberta organizes banned book buyback to keep streets safe
SOLEMN (Palindrome)
I sat, solemn.
I saw time open one poem.
It was in me, lost as I.
I sat, solemn.
I saw time open one poem.
It was in me, lost as I.
January 3, 2026 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by George Lang
“1939 is gone—
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
December 31, 2025 at 3:26 PM
“1939 is gone—
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
and good riddance… Moving on…
Oh, it left a bitter sting.
What will 1940 bring?
War, a raging hurricane…
The whole world has gone insane…”
In an era much like ours, Alexander Voloshin remembers a happier New Year’s Eve:
bdralyuk.wordpress.com/2025/12/30/b...
F among the Consonants
To the pewter tines of you as cap
I prefer your curves in small case longhand,
gathered and cinched at the crux of your lap
then unknotted at your command.
***
Another in my series #MerciRimbaud pour ces quelques consonnes.
To the pewter tines of you as cap
I prefer your curves in small case longhand,
gathered and cinched at the crux of your lap
then unknotted at your command.
***
Another in my series #MerciRimbaud pour ces quelques consonnes.
December 22, 2025 at 6:29 AM
F among the Consonants
To the pewter tines of you as cap
I prefer your curves in small case longhand,
gathered and cinched at the crux of your lap
then unknotted at your command.
***
Another in my series #MerciRimbaud pour ces quelques consonnes.
To the pewter tines of you as cap
I prefer your curves in small case longhand,
gathered and cinched at the crux of your lap
then unknotted at your command.
***
Another in my series #MerciRimbaud pour ces quelques consonnes.
Para alguém como eu, que é apenas ligeiramente disléxico, isto é um verdadeiro desafio. Parabéns ! 🙏🏼
December 20, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Para alguém como eu, que é apenas ligeiramente disléxico, isto é um verdadeiro desafio. Parabéns ! 🙏🏼
Today's Latin lesson:
Rege expulso spes fidesque virorum liberorum rem publicam continebunt.
(With the king expelled, the hope and faith of free men will hold the republic together.)
Rege expulso spes fidesque virorum liberorum rem publicam continebunt.
(With the king expelled, the hope and faith of free men will hold the republic together.)
December 14, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Today's Latin lesson:
Rege expulso spes fidesque virorum liberorum rem publicam continebunt.
(With the king expelled, the hope and faith of free men will hold the republic together.)
Rege expulso spes fidesque virorum liberorum rem publicam continebunt.
(With the king expelled, the hope and faith of free men will hold the republic together.)
Dedicated to my Uncle Davo, a specialist in tethering, kites, Cajun music, and to boot an all around great mensch.
December 13, 2025 at 1:18 AM
Dedicated to my Uncle Davo, a specialist in tethering, kites, Cajun music, and to boot an all around great mensch.
A concrete poem, per the theory I concocted on them, lo so many years ago (1979): alteritas.net/GXL/wp-conte...
This one has contemporary implications
This one has contemporary implications
December 8, 2025 at 12:00 AM
A concrete poem, per the theory I concocted on them, lo so many years ago (1979): alteritas.net/GXL/wp-conte...
This one has contemporary implications
This one has contemporary implications
An Ode to the Cessna 172.
“Another bush pilot I had flown with in Liberia told you had to be an idiot to die in one. He explained how you could even crash land by keeping your cool up to the very end so that you could steer into a copse between tree trunks….”
alteritas.net/GXL/?p=4228
“Another bush pilot I had flown with in Liberia told you had to be an idiot to die in one. He explained how you could even crash land by keeping your cool up to the very end so that you could steer into a copse between tree trunks….”
alteritas.net/GXL/?p=4228
Ode to the Cessna 172
I met this bush pilot in Guyana, the former British colony on the coast of South America. He flew five of us up to the falls at Kaietur, where the plateau extending from the Guiana Highlands breaks…
alteritas.net
November 30, 2025 at 4:44 PM
An Ode to the Cessna 172.
“Another bush pilot I had flown with in Liberia told you had to be an idiot to die in one. He explained how you could even crash land by keeping your cool up to the very end so that you could steer into a copse between tree trunks….”
alteritas.net/GXL/?p=4228
“Another bush pilot I had flown with in Liberia told you had to be an idiot to die in one. He explained how you could even crash land by keeping your cool up to the very end so that you could steer into a copse between tree trunks….”
alteritas.net/GXL/?p=4228
Reposted by George Lang
Reposted by George Lang
20 LETTERS
In these twenty letters,
we try ten lines. The test
set, we tether sly intent.
We net the stint tersely.
We intently test ethers.
We try the silent tenets—
try the new, tense titles.
Written, the steely nest
settles twenty therein.
We enter its tenth style.
In these twenty letters,
we try ten lines. The test
set, we tether sly intent.
We net the stint tersely.
We intently test ethers.
We try the silent tenets—
try the new, tense titles.
Written, the steely nest
settles twenty therein.
We enter its tenth style.
November 16, 2025 at 7:26 AM
20 LETTERS
In these twenty letters,
we try ten lines. The test
set, we tether sly intent.
We net the stint tersely.
We intently test ethers.
We try the silent tenets—
try the new, tense titles.
Written, the steely nest
settles twenty therein.
We enter its tenth style.
In these twenty letters,
we try ten lines. The test
set, we tether sly intent.
We net the stint tersely.
We intently test ethers.
We try the silent tenets—
try the new, tense titles.
Written, the steely nest
settles twenty therein.
We enter its tenth style.
Swift on Struldbruggs:
When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more, which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struldb...
When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more, which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struldb...
November 14, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Swift on Struldbruggs:
When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more, which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struldb...
When they came to fourscore years, which is reckoned the extremity of living in this country, they had not only all the follies and infirmities of other old men, but many more, which arose from the dreadful prospect of never dying.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struldb...
A thoughtful reader’s contribution to a debate which deserves attention: the academic publishing “racket”
digitaleditionapp.ft.com/i9DX/nlhpe1xh
digitaleditionapp.ft.com/i9DX/nlhpe1xh
Financial Times
News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worldʼs leading global business publication
digitaleditionapp.ft.com
November 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
A thoughtful reader’s contribution to a debate which deserves attention: the academic publishing “racket”
digitaleditionapp.ft.com/i9DX/nlhpe1xh
digitaleditionapp.ft.com/i9DX/nlhpe1xh