Author Archives: lindaibbotson

Contemplating the Muse No 21 – Linda Ibbotson A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.” ― W.H. Auden, The Complete Works of W.H. Auden: Prose, Volume II: 1939-1948 It is the love of language … Continue reading →

Contemplating the Muse No 20 – Linda Ibbotson Plato – “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”   Here, in New York City, listening to wonderful pianist Ivan Ilić in an authentic … Continue reading →

Contemplating the Muse No. 19 Linda Ibbotson “The people that I liked and had not met went to the big cafes because they were lost in them and no one noticed them and they could be alone in them and … Continue reading →

  Contemplating the Muse No 18 Linda Ibbotson From grandeur to graffiti, bohemian Berlin’s creative vibe is its raison d’etre. Thrilled to revisit for Ivan Ilić’s wonderful concert and CD launch Reicha  Rediscovered Vol 2 which particularly focuses on counterpoint and fugue. Chandos … Continue reading →

Contemplating the Muse No. 18 Linda Ibbotson   “It must be a sign of talent that I do not give up, though I can get nobody to take an interest in my efforts.” Fanny Mendelssohn. Interlaken from Harder Kulm There are … Continue reading →

Contemplating the Muse No. 17 Linda Ibbotson Thomas Merton. “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” With the onset of Spring I recall visiting Paris in April 2017 to walk in the footsteps of … Continue reading →

Contemplating the Muse  No. 16 Linda Ibbotson “When I seek another word for ‘music’, I never find any other word than ‘Venice’.” Friedrich Nietzsche. When pianist Ivan Ilić announced his cd  ‘Reicha Rediscovered’  was to be launched in Venice on … Continue reading →

Contemplating the Muse No 15 Linda Ibbotson “Paris opened like a book under my skin, ‘A Moveable Feast’ Hemingway once said….”   Opening line from my poem ‘Pastiche,’ one of a sequence of poems entitled ‘The Paris Sketchbook’ published in … Continue reading →

Contemplating the Muse. No 14 Linda Ibbotson   July 2017, my destination, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire built by Bess of Hardwick, the location that is said to have inspired Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice.’ Here, I am captivated by the magnificent … Continue reading →

Contemplating the Muse No 13 Linda Ibbotson “There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who transform a yellow spot into sun” ― Pablo Picasso For me, Spring arrives with the welcoming blooms … Continue reading →