All of Agatha: They Do It with Mirrors

This series of entries is commentary on my lifelong quest to read all of Agatha Christie's works in UK publication order.

They Do it With Mirrors (1952) is a decent story made more decent by its opening premise of Miss Marple helping her girlhood friends. I like that idea. Miss Marple goes to Stoneygates, a country house converted to an institute for young delinquents. It follows the idea 'the people you think are crazy, aren't and the people who aren't crazy, probably are.' Except for Miss Marple, of course.

The next book is a Mary Westmacott called A Daughter's a Daughter which I have never, ever heard of. It sounds very tedious so I am thinking about putting it off to November. I will have enough to do for October.

My poems

I actually have written quite a few poems this month from participation in the fandom_empire challenge.

1. better to be alone than wish you were [original, villanelle]
2. the blade runner's secret [English sonnet + 1, Blade Runner (1982)]
3. Rachael paints [quatern, Blade Runner (1982)]
4. ghost dance [Ghost in the Shell (1995)]
5. noble harts [original, ottava rima]


1. This is actually based on something I found on a post-it note stuck to my father's computer. This was after my mother had died and he had moved to a different town & state from the one I grew up in (but before he got remarried).

better to be alone than wish you were by okapi

scratched on a scrap, a proverb amateur
carelessly scrawled, blue ink on yellow square
‘better to be alone than wish you were’

what are you choosing, what do you prefer,
‘company kept is company earned,’ there,
scratch that on a scrap, a proverb amateur!

at ‘solo expedition,’ daydreams stir,
scaled peaks, breaths of singularly fresh air
‘better to be alone than wish you were’
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