This week Pádraig Ó Tuama asks us what poem we want to learn by heart and why? Lots to think of but Yusef Komunyakaa’s Ode to the Drum is never far from a favourite for me:
Gazelle, I killed you
for your skin’s exquisite touch,
for how easy it is to be nailed to a board
weathered raw as white butcher paper.
Last night I heard my daughter praying
for the meat here at my feet.
You know it wasn’t anger
that made me stop my heart
till the hammer fell. Weeks
ago, I broke you as a woman
once shattered me into a song
beneath her weight, before
you slouched into that
grassy hush. But now
I’m tightening lashes,
shaping hide as if around
a ribcage, stretched
like five bowstrings.
Ghosts cannot slip back
inside the body’s drum.
You’ve been seasoned
by wind, dusk & sunlight.
Pressure can make everything
whole again, brass nails
tacked into the ebony wood
your face has been carved
five times. I have to drive
trouble from the valley.
Trouble in the hills.
Trouble on the river too.
There’s no kola nut,
palm wine, fish, salt,
or calabash. Kadoom.
Kadoom. Kadoom. Ka-
doooom. Kadoom. Now
I have beaten a song back into you,
rise & walk away like a panther.
Pausing a project three years into construction never boded well for this…. But still, that’s a big haircut/ write down www.theguardian.com/business/…
The Man United “curse” strikes again it seems : www.bbc.co.uk/sport/foo…
I always come back to Fedora Silverblue on my (used) ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 2 for the sweet spot of battery life, weight and portability. Shame Lenovo discontinued the X1 Nano line :(
A Man on the Inside has quite grown on me
Won at the end undeservedly, but will take any three points at this stage. A new wonder kid is born #CallHimRio
2025 Reading: Tremor by Teju Cole 📚
When a favourite podcast drops for the last time.. Simplifying Complexity
As seen on LinkedIn
Not sure how to feel about having to dish out just under 200 pounds on school uniforms for the 4 year old.. I guess I could blame the primary school uniform industrial complex 😭😭😭
SFI’s David Krakauer on Startalk
2025 Reading: Zero at the Bone by Christian Wiman 📚
People who have been away from God tend to come back by one of two ways: extreme lack or extreme love… Either the world is not enough for the hole that has opened up in you or it is too much
From Nigeria to the World, with Sarina Weigman in tow: BurnaBoy
2025 Reading: Dancing By The Light of The Moon by Gyles Brandreth 📚 Poetry as Prayer and Reflection is something never far from my mind
Conquering the McKay conjecture through hard work, and love
Many a forlorn night of unrequited love was spent listening to Switchfoot on repeat… Which might have been part of the problem, in retrospect #LifeInASong
Josh Caterer on Giving your band up for God
Adieu Diogo Jota. Thanks for the memories