Day Three of Thirteen Days of Looking at a Bureaucrat
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Day Three of Thirteen Days of Looking at a Bureaucrat

ByJeff Rich

The third chapter of Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat is the title essay, ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat’. It plays with Wallace Stevens’ poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, and seeks to open up the reader’s mind to the many unexpected, even poetic ways you can look at this plain, humble, even despised personality, the bureaucrat.

The poet, the bureaucrat and the émigré
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The poet, the bureaucrat and the émigré

ByJeff Rich

During the week I have been finalising my next book, 13 Ways of Looking at a Bureaucrat, and reading some essays and poems of Marina Tvetaeva (1892-1941), the great Russian poet, collected in Art and the Light of Conscience. A strange mix, true, but that is the life of my strange mind.

‘Once I lived in heaven above, now I live among grass and brambles’
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‘Once I lived in heaven above, now I live among grass and brambles’

ByJeff Rich

Empress Zhu wrote, “Once I lived in heaven above, in pearl palaces and jade towers; now I live among grass and brambles, my blue robes soaked in tears. I hate the drift of snow.”

My new beginning as an independent author

My new beginning as an independent author

ByJeff Rich

This week was the beginning of the next stage in my new life, la vita nuova as an independent author. After a ritual week on the liminal beauty of the Bay of Lorne in South-Eastern Australia, I transformed from a government official, wounded and now retired, to become an independent author.