{"id":42988,"date":"2025-04-17T06:30:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T18:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=42988"},"modified":"2025-04-14T20:19:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T08:19:23","slug":"so-how-are-those-1000-nights-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2025\/04\/17\/so-how-are-those-1000-nights-going\/","title":{"rendered":"So How Are Those 1000 Nights Going?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You know, the <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2025\/04\/07\/an-idea-from-the-great-ray-bradbury-1920-2012\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ray Bradbury 1000 nights<\/a> in which he suggested reading a poem, a short story, and an essay every night.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-42989\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/New-Hampshire_Robert-Frost-93x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"93\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/New-Hampshire_Robert-Frost-93x150.jpg 93w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/New-Hampshire_Robert-Frost-187x300.jpg 187w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/New-Hampshire_Robert-Frost.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 93px) 100vw, 93px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You may also recall that I&#8217;ve had <a href=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2025\/04\/10\/with-a-little-help-from-mfriends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a l&#8217;il help from m&#8217;friends<\/a> with a poetry chapbook and two short fiction anthologies from Scotland.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-42990\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/WCWilliams_Collected-Poems-v1_1909-1939-96x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"96\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/WCWilliams_Collected-Poems-v1_1909-1939-96x150.jpg 96w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/WCWilliams_Collected-Poems-v1_1909-1939-193x300.jpg 193w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/WCWilliams_Collected-Poems-v1_1909-1939.jpg 257w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 96px) 100vw, 96px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sadly, I must confess to already falling short of the three per night. O-o!<\/p>\n<p>Happily however, so far I am managing one per night &#8212; with a few classics, such as Robert Frost&#8217;s <em>Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening<\/em>, and William Carlos Williams&#8217; <em>This Is Just to Say<\/em>, along with John Masefield&#8217;s <em>Cargoes<\/em> and <em>Sea Fever<\/em>, interspersing the Scottish works. It is, after all, always good to revisit old friends.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-42991\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Ballads-and-Poems_John-Masefield-116x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"116\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Ballads-and-Poems_John-Masefield-116x150.jpg 116w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Ballads-and-Poems_John-Masefield-232x300.jpg 232w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Ballads-and-Poems_John-Masefield.jpg 386w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 116px) 100vw, 116px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In terms of the chapbook, <em>Ten Poems From Scotland<\/em>, I have now read four of the ten:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-42975\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ten-poems-from-scotland-poetry-pamphlet-front-cover-99x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"99\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ten-poems-from-scotland-poetry-pamphlet-front-cover-99x150.jpg 99w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ten-poems-from-scotland-poetry-pamphlet-front-cover-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ten-poems-from-scotland-poetry-pamphlet-front-cover-768x1168.jpg 768w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ten-poems-from-scotland-poetry-pamphlet-front-cover-673x1024.jpg 673w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/ten-poems-from-scotland-poetry-pamphlet-front-cover.jpg 789w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 99px) 100vw, 99px\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Mouse skeleton<\/em> by Jason Watts<\/li>\n<li><em>Re-reading Katherine Mansfield&#8217;s &#8216;Bliss and Other Stories&#8217;\u00a0<\/em>by Douglas Dunn<\/li>\n<li><em>Etching of a Line of Trees<\/em> by John Glenday<\/li>\n<li><em>Brendon Gallacher<\/em> by Jackie Kay<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Mostly, but not completely in the order they appear &#8212; and the poets all new names to me, which adds to their interest.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-thumbnail wp-image-42976\" src=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Blether_book-cover-92x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"92\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Blether_book-cover-92x150.jpg 92w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Blether_book-cover-183x300.jpg 183w, https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Blether_book-cover.jpg 244w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 92px) 100vw, 92px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In terms of the <em>Blether<\/em>, I have read four of these as well: three short fictions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Squeak<\/em> by Lindz McLeod<\/li>\n<li><em>Crossing the Bridge<\/em> by Kirsty Souter<\/li>\n<li><em>Cordless<\/em> by Catherine Wilson<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>and an essay:<\/p>\n<p><em>Blether<\/em> by Nikesh Shukla<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve enjoyed all of them, but I think the last may be my favourite currently, if only &#8216;by a nose.&#8217; \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n<p>Although not sure how I&#8217;ll go on the entire 1000 days (or 1001 nights), anything that encourages revisiting old friends and trying the new feels like a goodness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know, the Ray Bradbury 1000 nights in which he suggested reading a poem, a short story, and an essay every night. You may also recall that I&#8217;ve had a l&#8217;il help from m&#8217;friends with a poetry chapbook and two short fiction anthologies from Scotland. Sadly, I must confess to already falling short of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,19,10,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friends","category-funstuff","category-general","category-other-writers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42992,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42988\/revisions\/42992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}