Skip to content
  • Articles
    • Features
    • Columns
    • Reviews
  • About
  • Contact
  • Public Speaking

Marina Gerner, freelance feature writer & critic

Read a selection of features, columns and reviews:

Tag: paper straws

The Times Raconteur: Is greenwashing always a bad thing?

Posted on March 9, 2020February 5, 2021 by marinagerner

We often see businesses accused of greenwashing in the media. McDonald’s was questioned about its decision to get rid of… Read more The Times Raconteur: Is greenwashing always a bad thing?

Some poetry while you’re here

In a crowded London shop
An open book and empty cup
On the marble table-top.
While on the shop and street I gazed
My body of a sudden blazed;
And twenty minutes more or less It seemed, so great my happiness,
That I was blessed and could bless.

– W.B. Yeats

How dreary – to be – Sombody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!

– Emily Dickinson

At lunchtime I bought a huge orange—
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave—
They got quarters and I had a half.

– Wendy Cope

Always to shine,
to shine everywhere,
to the very deeps of the last days,
to shine—
and to hell with everything else!
That is my motto—
and the sun’s!

– Vladimir Mayakovsky

Can it pull extraordinary faces?
Is it usually sick on a swing?
Does it spend all its time at the races,
or fiddling with pieces of string?
Has it views of its own about money?
Does it think patriotism enough?
Are its stories vulgar but funny?
O tell me the truth about love.

– WH Auden

I used to think all poets were Byronic-
Mad, bad and dangerous to know.
And then I met a few. Yes it’s ironic-
I used to think all poets were Byronic.
They’re mostly wicked as a ginless tonic
And wild as pension plans.

– Wendy Cope again

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Marina Gerner, Journalist and Critic

These articles have been published in the Economist, Standpoint Magazine, Financial Times, MoneyWeek, the Times Literary Supplement, New York Observer and more.

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Blog at WordPress.com.
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Marina Gerner, freelance feature writer & critic
    • Join 27 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Marina Gerner, freelance feature writer & critic
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar