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Angus Warburg

@amjwarburg.bsky.social

110 followers 300 following 51 posts

Cambridge English graduate. Writing, hopefully.
https://abetterlanguage.substack.com/

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Angus Warburg

@amjwarburg.bsky.social

Johnny and Thom playing to each other last night was beautiful to see. #radiohead #O2

Thom Yorke and Johnny Greenwood playing guitar together at the O2 arena in the Radiohead comeback tour.

November 25, 2025 at 8:51 AM

Angus Warburg

@amjwarburg.bsky.social

I want to learn more poetry by heart. There's no need to aim high, I'd just like to learn some gems. I have this one already – its mystery and its bliss.

When all this is over, said the swineherd,
I mean to retire, where
Nobody will have heard about my special skills
And conversation is mainly about the weather.
I intend to learn how to make coffee, as least as well
As the Portuguese lay-sister in the kitchen
And polish the brass fenders every day.
I want to lie awake at night
Listening to cream crawling to the top of the jug
And the water lying soft in the cistern.
I want to see an orchard where the trees grow in straight lines
And the yellow fox finds shelter between the navy-blue trunks,
Where it gets dark early in summer
And the apple-blossom is allowed to wither on the bough.

April 26, 2025 at 4:28 PM

Angus Warburg

@amjwarburg.bsky.social

Term over at Cambridge. My final supervision was conducted under the plane tree at Emmanuel. It was funny and freezing and everything you'd want a lesson to be.

I shall miss Michaelmas and hope that I have a good Lent. Bring on visual culture and ethical imagination!

The plane tree at Emmanuel college where I had my final supervision of Michaelmas term

December 6, 2024 at 7:30 PM

Angus Warburg

@amjwarburg.bsky.social

This is one of the few poems that has overwhelmed me before.

I would love to read more of Holan's work.

Resurrection

Is it true that after this life of ours we shall one day be awakened
by a terrifying clamour of trumpets?
Forgive me, God, but I console myself
that the beginning and resurrection of all of us dead
will simply be announced by the crowing of the cock.
After that we’ll remain lying down a while …
The first to get up
will be Mother … We’ll hear her
quietly laying the fire,
quietly putting the kettle on the stove
and cosily taking the teapot out of the cupboard.
We’ll be home once more.

Vladimir Holan
translated from the Czech by George Theiner

November 20, 2024 at 3:23 PM

Angus Warburg

@amjwarburg.bsky.social

This poem by James Wright was quoted in part in Granta Issue 164 'Last Notes'. It is beautiful and I have ordered Wright's collected poems based on its strength.

Yes, But
by James Wright

Even if it were true
Even if I were dead and buried in Verona
I believe I would come out and wash my face
In the chill spring.
I believe I would appear
Between noon and four, when nearly
Everybody else is asleep or making love,
And all the Germans turned down, the motorcycles
Muffled, chained, still.

Then the plump lizards along the Adige by San Giorgio
Come out and gaze,
Unpestered by temptation, across the water.
I would sit among them and join them in leaving
The golden mosquitos alone.

Why should we sit by the Adige and destroy
Anything, even our enemies, even the prey
God caused to glitter for us
Defenseless in the sun?
We are not exhausted. We are not angry, or lonely,
Or sick at heart.
We are in love lightly, lightly. We know we are shining,
Though we cannot see one another.
The wind doesn’t scatter us,
Because our very lungs have fallen and drifted
Away like leaves down the Adige,
Long ago.

We breathe light.

January 4, 2024 at 12:14 PM

Angus Warburg

@amjwarburg.bsky.social

Rang in the new year by watching "EMMA."

It lived up to expectations in that it was very stylish but overly silly. Reminded me how much I loved reading the novel at least, and Johnny Flynn raised it from almost-frippery to fun!

Also, that late line about being tongue-tied by love is glorious.