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What It Means to Stand on the Shoulders of Giants

Something my late father taught me that I’ve never forgotten was to surround myself with people who I respected, and people who inspired me. “Stand on the shoulders of giants,” he told me. And while I didn’t really begin to live by this code for some years, it resonated with me and I never forgot his advice. But what does it really mean to stand on the shoulders of giants?

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The Delicate Craft of Writing Poetry

There are a lot of writers out there who take their poetry very, very seriously. They study tone, lineation, verse and structure. They analyze rhyme, alliteration, assonance, and the many conventions of Western poetry. And while it’s important for a writer to understand the function of line-breaks, alliteration and form, etc – poetry remains one of the few forms of prose where there are no rules. Or rather rules that must be learned in order to be broken.

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My Windup Brain

Unhealthy sleeping habits of an over thinker

I try and pry open my eyes, but they’re viscous, like two dead moths stuck to a window. I look for a line, the silhouette of the curtain, but the glow of winter is different to the bloom of warmer months. I haven’t really slept in two weeks. Sure I’ve “slept” but only when my brain has reached the point of exhaustion. And I wouldn’t call it sleep, 2–3 hours a night is not sleep — it’s a kind of incubation.