Corris
Corris is between
Machynlleth and Dolgellau.
Corris is not Welsh for grey
but it should be
cos Corris DOES grey
every day
and does it well in winter
when its slate houses and walls
are the colour of the clouds
and the mists that they
misappear in and
disappear into.
To get to Corris
you have to drive up
a road round a lot of bends
of all shapes and sizes.
There’s only the one straight
with a speed camera
and if you manage to hit over 60
the cops stop you
to congratulate you!
But what really gets to you
when you drive up
this bending road
is when you come to a road sign
warning you
of a bend!
Once you have been driven
round the bend
you arrive at Corris
the independent
Welsh state
of slate.
It has slate houses
and chapels and shops
with slate walls
slate roofs
and slate pavements
a school of slate and
to end it all,
slate gravestones.
Corris is slate
and slate is Corris.
It has been said that
they eat slate sandwiches
a scurrilous rumour
... which could well be true.
In fact Corris
Is two places
Corris Uchaf
and Corris Isaf,
Upper Corris
and Lower Corris,
both built of slate,
from the slate quarry
that created Corris,
but there is,
thank God,
no Middle Corris.
Playing with computers
A Feminist perspective
Firstly remember this.
Computers are stupid,
Very basic, on and off
machines which only
understand yes or no,
Secondly, remember
that men created computers
and how you should operate them
and they decided to
let you press buttons.
The buttons you press
are the only choices.
There are no nuances,
Its just yes
Or no.
But don’t be afraid
of computers as
all you need to do is
keep pressing buttons
until they work
Tim Richards
Feb.23rd, 2006