November 30, 2022
This is a personal post about social media and blogging, not language, but it does contain a few bilingual puns.
I almost joined Mastodon years ago, but I knew few people using it then, and it didn’t seem worth the trouble. I tend to resist popular time-sinks – like Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok – but I changed my mind about Mastodon.
If you’re there, you can find me at @stancarey@mastodon.ie (more on the address style below).
I used to use Twitter a lot, popping in on work breaks and idle moments. It was a good community and source of information. I even got one of those infamous blue ticks, for my language journalism. But my tolerance for Twitter, and visits to it, dropped steeply years ago, and the recent chaos threatens what remains of its appeal and viability.
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17 Comments |
blogging, news, personal | Tagged: birds, blogging, fediverse, internet, internet culture, Ireland, Mastodaoine, Mastodon, MastodonMigration, nature photography, news, personal, photography, puns, social media, tweeting, Twitter, TwitterMigration |
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Posted by Stan Carey
October 19, 2022
Last month I spent a while cat-sitting for friends in the Burren in the west of Ireland. The Burren is one of my favourite places, a thinly populated area in County Clare renowned for its botanical, geological, and archaeological richness.
The late cartographer Tim Robinson described it as ‘a vast memorial to bygone cultures’; I would extend that beyond human cultures for reasons that will become clear. Robinson’s meticulous map of the Burren was among those I took exploring from my base in Corofin village.
This post is more of a photo/geography/archaeology post than a language one, but it does include notes on place names.
The name Corofin comes from Irish Cora Finne ‘white ford’, or ‘weir of the white (water)’ as translated by Deirdre and Laurence Flanagan in their book Irish Place Names. The same root may be familiar from the fair-haired Fionn Mac Cumhaill of Irish legend.

The white water is the River Fergus, which flows past Corofin and links the two lakes that bracket the village. Its riverbank enjoys constant activity from herons, swans, and other wildlife. This arched stone bridge across it was built in 1790 and is a protected structure:
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Ireland, naming, nature, personal, photography | Tagged: animals, archaeology, Burren, Cahercommaun, cats, Corofin, County Clare, dolmen, geography, geology, history, Ireland, Irish, Irish books, karst, Killinaboy, Kilnaboy, Leamaneh Castle, Lough Avalla, Mullaghmore, naming, nature, nature photography, Parknabinnia, photography, place names, portal tomb, Poulnabrone, prehistory, round tower, sheela-na-gig, travel, wedge tomb |
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Posted by Stan Carey
December 19, 2021
A new book spine poem with a medical theme, to see the year out:
*

Hidden Symptoms
Hidden symptoms
Under the skin:
A disaffection,
A ghost in the throat –
Patient or pretender
Waiting for the healer.
Can you tolerate
This parasite?
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books, poetry, wordplay | Tagged: Ashleigh Young, Bong Joon Ho, book spine poem, bookmash, books, Charles V. Ford, Deirdre Madden, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Eamonn Sweeney, found poetry, James Kelman, Marc D. Feldman, Michel Faber, photography, poetry, Toni Reinhold, visual poetry, wordplay |
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Posted by Stan Carey
August 9, 2021
For the day that’s in it, a new book spine poem. Bit gloomy, this one.
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Touching the Precipice
Zero, zero, zero wild flowers,
The insect societies
Collapse on your doorstep –
Mind and nature
Touching the precipice.
*

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books, poetry, wordplay | Tagged: Ashley Montagu, book spine poem, bookmash, books, Edward O. Wilson, found poetry, Gregory Bateson, Heather Greer, Jared Diamond, literature, Marjorie Blamey, photography, poetry, Richard Fitter, Roberto Saviano, Toby Ord, visual poetry, wordplay |
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Posted by Stan Carey
November 17, 2020
It’s been a while since I made a book spine poem (aka bookmash). This one is overdue, but thanks to Edna O’Brien it’s also a month early:
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Listening to the Wind
Connemara –
listening to the wind,
the songs of trees, wild
December’s nocturnes
on your doorstep,
Going home one by one
in the darkness.
*

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books, poetry, wordplay | Tagged: book spine poem, bookmash, books, David George Haskell, Deirdre Madden, Edna O'Brien, found poetry, Heather Greer, Kazuo Ishiguro, literature, photography, poetry, Thich Nhat Hanh, Tim Robinson, visual poetry |
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Posted by Stan Carey
April 1, 2020
If you’re lucky enough to have books and time at hand, here’s something fun you can do in lockdown: book spine poetry.
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All the Pieces Matter
I choose to live
a life in parts –
insects’ flight
from dream to dream,
through the woods
beyond the sea.
I only say this
because I love you:
All the pieces
matter.
*

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books, literature, poetry, wordplay | Tagged: Alannah Robins, Bob Gibbons, book spine poem, bookmash, books, Bryan Cranston, Deborah Tannen, Emily Carroll, found poetry, Jonathan Abrams, literature, Oona Frawley, Paul Lynch, photography, poetry, Sabine Dardenne, visual poetry, wordplay |
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Posted by Stan Carey
August 15, 2019
Here’s a new book spine poem (aka bookmash). For the uninitiated: This is a game where you make a visual poem from the spines of books on your shelf.
*
Secret Place
Wild flowers, the wild places,
The birds of the innocent wood –
The secret place on the black hill,
Half a life still life,
The living mountain
Changing my mind.
*

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books, literature, poetry, wordplay | Tagged: A.S. Byatt, book spine poem, bookmash, books, Bruce Chatwin, Deirdre Madden, found poetry, literature, Nan Shepherd, nature, nature poetry, photography, poetry, Richard Fitter, Robert Macfarlane, Tana French, V.S. Naipaul, visual poetry, wordplay, Zadie Smith |
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Posted by Stan Carey