This blog is my response to themes in the writings of Stevie Smith and Charles Darwin and may include short fiction and poems as well as random thoughts.
Some blogs may be a response to the work of only one of the writers, as in the worms blog which was inspired by Darwin’s book on worms, but others have a theme that appears in the work of both, as in the clams blog. My aim is to look at the work of both the poet and the naturalist as collections of words which do not always have to be put in different fields with fences between them.
Writing seems naturally to fall into categories, and Smith’s poems and Darwin’s scientific work are very obviously in different categories. My hope is that blogs are flexible enough to allow the words of the two writers to escape from their categories and run happily between different fields, cheerfully jumping over the fences and hedges. I hope there may be fruitful connections when the words of the two writers meet.
Blog No 1 is on the worms that live in Wimbledon, London.
Blog No 2 is on clams and cockles