All About The Angles & Reflections Blog

This blog is mainly an on-going record of how I've been keeping myself amused since taking early retirement a few years ago. It also contains a good deal of material completed prior to then - often long before. 

I've tried to make the content as easy to access and interesting to read as I know how. Hopefully, people even less computer-savvy than I am will be able to navigate their way around the blog with little trouble.

There are four sections, each of which has a separate introduction. The Underrated Albums series was the original motivation to set up the blog. It's part of my Jukebox For A Brain writings on popular music, which also features in the Other Prose section. You will also find my memoir, Fosse Road Days, about growing up in Leicester during the 1950s and '60s there. The Photo Gallery section contains four albums (Britain, Europe, Leicester & Miscellaneous) of some of the best pictures I've taken in recent years. Finally, Poetry Corner features work stretching back to the 1970s, accompanied by more of my pictures and short contextual notes. The pieces on music are illustrated by pictures used courtesy of Google Images (as are some of the poems).

If this blog turns out to be as user-friendly as intended, then it is in no small part thanks to John Coster, editor of  the Citizens' Eye Documentary Media Consultancy in Leicester.  I am a slow learner when it comes to technology and John has been a model of generosity and patience in developing my computer skills up from Neanderthal right into the last century...I should also thank my wife, Lisa for her technical assistance.

Anyway, I hope Angles & Reflections proves to be as entertaining to read as it is for me to write.

Ian Roberts

LUCERNE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Through the meandering afternoon park  

That trickles by the river and boatyards

Down to the lovely, illustrious lake,

Passing statues, jetties and picnickers,

Sleepers, children’s playgrounds and a juggler,

We amble along shaded sylvan paths

Until, after a warm but well-spent hour,

We reach a white mansion with green shutters.

The Wagner House at Tribschen stands august,

Raised on a landscaped mound overlooking

A wooden boathouse, shrubs and cypresses

With red seats of readers and view-finders.

A single white sailboat drifts lazily

Through gaps in the tall trees by the lakeside,

Barely rippling the tranquil blue water, 

As it floats from one frame to another,

Foregrounding the green forests and white clouds

Which crest the blue Alps, clear in the distance,

As sunlight catches the meadow flowers

Sloping down away from the flawless lawn.

Wagner composed the Siegfried Idyll here -

And an idyllic place, it truly is,   

But then we remember what a fascist  

The old, long gone genius was at heart…

Before we leave, we decide, however,  

To trust - rather than the artist - the art.

We depart by way of an outbuilding

That houses an ultra-modern toilet,

All clean stainless steel with push button seat

And whirlpool flush. On the wall, a small hole

Opens a chute, above which a graphic

Of a syringe minds us that the word ‘idyll’

Means idealized, unsustainable…

Then we slowly walk back out of this world

To the world of inconvenient fact,

But with our digital pictures intact.

(2014)

This came out of our first visit to Switzerland. England has become a country cursed by graffiti and litter, with my hometown of Leicester an increasingly bad example. Zurich and Lucerne, by way of contrast, were spotless but, even there, amidst so much apparent perfection, little flaws would appear at the edge of your memory and vision…

 

The photo captures the yacht as it 'floats from one frame to another' towards the end of the first verse.

 

 

 

   

LISA'S LAUGH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is that famous smile, of course,

Which people always remember,

And the mischievous chuckle

And the sexy grin with full headlights on,

But most of all, it is Lisa’s laugh

That I might love best of all.

Full-throated and loud,

It is a sudden and honest sound,

Which comes from her belly

And up through that largest of hearts,

Proclaiming how good it is to be alive.

(2013)

 

After Lisa's health-scare in 2012, we've been through a transitional

period which hasn't been easy, but which could have been so much

harder had it not been for her bravery and positive attitude.

 

When we've been to comic films or plays in the theatre, that laugh

of hers really rings out. Each time we've seen the brilliant satirical

vocal group Fascinating Aida, I end up remarking that I bet they'd

love to take her with them on their tours...