All my posts: https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?u=zw219551
or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.
I am not on YouTube or social media
This is the second post for Saturday 10th January 2026
Tags for the earlier 10am post today: language, AI, EU, USA, personal information, framework, linguistics, biometrics, opinion
I wondered and lost myself
[ 6 minutes and 35 seconds read ] 195 words per minute
I didn't enjoy writing the blog post I wrote earlier today and published at 10am, o'clock, in the morning. I had a bee in my bonnet, though I think that might be somewhat leaning towards misogyny. Only girls are afraid of bees and get in a tizzy, right? Maybe I had a frog in my fedora or a beetle in my bowler. You can be sure that I noticed that 'fedora' has three syllables, and doesn't work well there.
My gander was up and my wick was gotten on because I had a beetle in my bowler about how the world slowly erodes into chaos. The unisex hat is a beanie or a bucket (hat), except that female UK police officers wear bowlers. We could have a frog in a bucket, though. Indeed, it is the cousin to 'As mad as a box of frogs.' My own is: 'Crazy.....like a fish'. I suddenly wiggle one hand like a fish darting away as I say 'like a fish', put my hand down and stare silently at the person I was talking to, for a few long seconds.
I have never enjoyed poetry because my mum didn't, and my genes come from her; that's why I have small eye holes, like her. We would be okay in a sand-storm, while my Irish ex-wife with big eyes was not good in sunny places or windy beaches.
I have a book called 'The power of Creative Intelligence' by Tony Buzan. I came across a chapter called 'you and shakespeare - poets both!' In it, Tony Buzan writes about a chap called Ted Hughes who came up with a technique for 'developing creative and metaphorical thinking in which he used memory systems and Mind-Maps ™.' (Buzan 2001) Yes, Ted Hughes the English Poet Laureate.
The observant people will notice the trademark sign after 'Mind-Maps'. According to the credits in the book 'Mind-Maps' is a registered trademark of the Buzan group. Who knew? I think though, we can use 'mind maps' without the hyphen. Don't trust me on that one; I haven't researched it and have no prior knowledge to rely on.
Tony Buzan highlights that Ted Hughes wrote from animals point of view instead of his own, and 'entered the minds of foxes, bulls, jaguars, and myriad birds and fish.'
This technique for developing creative and metaphorical thinking that Hughes taught his students involved teaching them memory systems, the power of Association and Imagination. He then gave them two disassociated words like father and wood and would get them to make two mind maps each for one of the words with ten associations for each word. Then he suggested that the students pick a word 'from one concept and find associations between that and the ten words in the other'; then the second word and so on. The associations were wild, 'provocative' and highly imaginative.
The students' next task was to pick the best ideas and create an original statement, and ideally a poem.
From two starting words. 'Mother' and 'Stone' (apparently Ted Hughes favourite pairing) Tony Buzan came up with this poem:
Thank You
Gems embrace her throat.
She the Jewel.
In her Crown.
the diamond of my mind.'
I think that is much more fun than trying to read 'Paradise Lost' by Milton. Certainly, it is a far better introduction to poetry for me. I think I might be okay with poetry if I have a creative run up to it.
Tony Buzan tells us that Ted Hughes would have a lit candle beside him when he wrote. 'The candle flame is a wonderful 'creative meditation' device, which encourages your brain to look at a beautiful, ever-changing object and to daydream.'
'The Power of Creative Intelligence' is written by Tony Buzan and published in 2001 by Harper Collins with the 2001 edition by Thorsons. It is available as an e-book from z-library, as a free 4.6Mb pdf.