Janet Cameron

Copyright: Janet Cameron People are always asking, "What is poetry exactly?" Recently someone even said, "Can't stand poetry. Why not just write an essay?" I explained this was a completely different art form. You might as well ask why a sculpture isn't a painting. But the lady didn't see that at all!   Hmmm... I always quote Philip Larkin, "The best possible words in the best possible order." Here are some lovely allusions to poetry from my Oxford Dictionary of Quotations: Boswell: Sir, what is poetry? Johnson: Why Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is, but it is not easy to tell what it is. Still, some thinkers do try and succeed quite well. Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: It takes it origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity ~  William Wordsworth. That willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith. ~  Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I...

Copyright: Janet Cameron According to  Transactional Analysis  there are  four “basic" human emotions. Yes, just four.  They are: Fear, Anger  Despair Happiness Words that describe feelings can be a variation in intensity of one of the above, or else a combination of two or three different emotions. Just as a tickle is a tiny pain, so  apprehension  is a mild form of fear.   Anxiety  suggests a little more than apprehension while  terrified  is stronger.  Read more...