Writing

Grammar rules are like another kind of prescriptive law: The criminal code. Both are useful to consult to avoid errors, or to diagnose...

There are two main ways of looking at English. You can be prescriptive, setting and enforcing strict rules of speech.

You’re going where? McCaffee’s director said, and McCaffee shrugged. Just driving, he said. The glower deepened; McCaffee could have sworn..

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, but of all ills global warming was the illest. The bad stuff was breathtaking...

After the postdocs’ lecture, Dr Aspler is back in the classroom erasing the blackboard. He comes to HUMILITY, pauses, leaves the word on...

To pause at the lip of this voiceless place To wait at the brink of this frozen dream And feel its dead breath seep through waiting space

Nor glass nor stainless steel now comes between My wide eyes and their vision steeped in sleep – Of things that live yet live divorced ...

The ships lie out on English Bay Bright-lit like floating beacons Vancouver with her spangled hands And accents of exotic strands

My distillate of summer, that red mane Learned color from a dawn-exploding sun; And smooth stream-polished pebbles of green jade That glow..

The man in the moon Slouched up through the sky And he heaved up his shoulders And gave such a sigh That the stars in their spheres

The bells split distance as the night air splits Our breaths’ dim shadows from the forest floor, Making of each moonlit exhalation