Scotland suits me well. We’ve been here before in 1970’s. Spent a lot time living & working here. Plus, we have living relatives (on R’s side) here. Mine are all lang deid which seems to matter less in Scotland than it did in both Ireland & Derry.
Kay McKenzie Cooke
@kayfrances53.bsky.social
Aotearoa NZ writer. Arts Murihiku Trustee. Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Waitahi oku iwi. Pākehā - Scottish, Irish, English. https://silentletterk.blogspot.com/?m=1
I think I might be allergic to either Ireland 🇮🇪 or Northern Ireland. Sniffles & itchy throat. Blah. Scotland may 🏴 give me some relief. The peace wall in Belfast hasn’t got a NZ flag so kiwis have been writing their protests and perved-off sentiments on the Aussie flag. It’s an Aotearoa takeover.
I keep thinking the Irish are putting on their accents with some doing it better than others. The ones here in Derry are the winners so far. I 💚 Derry. Right now it’s even raining ☔️ A relief after the humid high 20’s in Dublin which just seemed wrong.
It’s the chimney pots of Dublin that break my heart. And the gulls.
Just managed not to get yelled at by mean cyclists. Otherwise, the canals & old buildings are beautiful & dear old Vincent V G was worth long walk into blinding sun & kind friends we haven’t seen for 40 yrs taking us out for lunch, all helped cancel out the otherwise general pushy Amsterdam vibe.
What remains of Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s cowardly hideout bunker village in Poland, close to Lithuanian border, would’ve been a lot heavier if it wasn’t for nature showing who’s really the boss. #mossisboss
Dziendobry. Hello. From Poland. Being introduced to its charms is proving a surprise at every turn. Loving the vibe. 🇵🇱 ♥️ 🤍
Poland & moaning rooftop doves. Christ and cobblestones. Poem on a wall. Historical buildings decorated like cakes. Stalwart soups. Heavy skies. Poland in summer sings its understated hymns & original songs. Wears white.
Off to Poland on a big shiny, black bus. #enfamille #withwhānau
Biggest disappointment in Berlin so far is not hearing a crow (yet).
An honour indeed for my poem to be included on this site. #poemsthatRethabilelikes #poetrysaves
Rethabile@rahlooho.bsky.social · last mo.Sacred Days by Kay McKenzie Cooke | Poems Rethabile Likes po-re-li.blogspot.com/2026/07/sacr... #KayMcKenzieCooke #SacredDays #PoetryCommunity #PoemOfTheDay #PoemsRethabileLikes #Poems #NewZealandPoetry #21stCenturyPoetry #Adolescence #Memory #TheKinks #Days
If you ever want to feel hope, tune into those cool, sweet playing for change videos. So cool.
Just dawned on me we’ve got a 20-hour long distance haul ahead of us, starting tomorrow.
Snoopy & Woodstock: Headphone Fun
ALT: Snoopy & Woodstock: Headphone Fun
static.klipy.com
Pure gold. Thanks Ret.
Rethabile@rahlooho.bsky.social · last mo.When You Are Old by W.B. Yeats | Poems Rethabile Likes po-re-li.blogspot.com/2026/07/when... #WBYeats #WhenYouAreOld #CillianMurphy #PoetryCommunity #PoemOfTheDay #PoemsRethabileLikes #Poems #IrishPoetry #20thCenturyPoetry #NobelPrize #LovePoetry #Poem #Video
We never seem to feel earthquakes in our wee Tainui hideaway. We must be perched up on a particularly hard piece of magna. Others around us felt it, but not even a little twitch was felt by us, watching tv, totally engrossed in making sarcastic asides about the characters in a Welsh murder mystery.
21stC problem when you forget to mute the sound after watching a video & resume scrolling only to get hit with annoying sound & can’t for the life of Moses find the blasted megaphone / speaker to turn it off so abandon all hope & go back to calm of random pre-21st-dial-up-birdsong from outside
silentletterk.blogspot.com/2026/07/cond... Seeing what condition my condition was in, or something.
Conditions
About month ago, we were travelling towards the east, going back home from a place almost as far south as you can get. It was very early o...
silentletterk.blogspot.com
Wondered what the wail of many sirens just up the road from ours was all about.
RNZ News Feeds@rnzrss.bsky.social · 2mo agoEmergency services rush to scene of bus and car crash in Dunedin
Bye-bye June - donuts & a coffee in Muzzyburg. It’s the little things.
Envisioning Jenny Powell’s book Biology Field Trip, bobbing about on the sea of the Book-o-Verse, encountering readers who will savour every poem & make a personal connection with poetry & with nature & in the process save the world, or at least the whale silentletterk.blogspot.com/2026/06/look...
Look and Then Look Again
J&K (aka Jenny and Kay (moi), occasional touring poets) taken at Jenny's book launch, where her wonderful new collection, Biology Field Tr...
silentletterk.blogspot.com
When a book is so good you require breaks to catch your breath. Jenny Powell’s Biology Field Trip - a different way of seeing, is just such a book. Just the premise itself 🤩 I’m calling it. This pukupuka is unique. It is Taoka / Taonga. Fantastic work J.P. & Cold Hub Press.
