Words and Lines

Write Me Something

(on university examinations)

by Tris Kerslake

It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece, just several thousand works of art that sing of Gilgamesh and Moby Dick.

Consider this a little trial for bigger things. Include for me a snappy paragraph or two that deconstructs the words of God, perhaps you could explore why myths are.

Or you could do the Greeks. There were a few of them, I know, but Homer said it all. Heroic drama is the thing, a touch of rhetoric will fill the page.

Just write me something that I can use to exercise my cutting pen, and try to leave out Dylan Thomas if you can. He wasn’t One Of Us.

A stream of consciousness might do as you unfold your tatty books and what shall I say about the feeble scribbles oh no the coffee’s cold now who’s at the door. But take no risks.

There’s always good old Milton in a pinch, and Eliot or even Whitman if you feel poetic, but never ever write me something of your own.