Ask and it shall be granted: click the picture to be taken to the issue
Yes, life limps on. It staggers lurches and lunges, it hulks glooms and shudders. Summer is here, so I must be unemployed. Or, as we call it now, “freelance.” Today is, in fact, the first day of the rest of my life. Or tomorrow is, anyway. Today is just the last day of my job.
It’s also the day when I can share with you the first issue of the New Trespass magazine, which contains a poem from my new collection. Check me out on page 17 if you want to know what can happen if you forget the all-pervasive power of God’s salvation – or just the words to a song. Typical, this issue looks so amazingly stupendous, and this is the issue they’ve gone online; I’d have loved to leave this lying around on the coffee table for a few weeks…
Big day. I’ve loved this job, for the 13 months I’ve been in it. I love the people I work with, and we’ve been able to do some really good work together. Breaking up a great team when they’re doing really good work together feels wasteful – but that’s the times. Nature red in tooth and claw.
No time to mourn and pine, though. Tomorrow I get the train to Swansea with Tamar Yoseloff, to read with her at the Dylan Thomas Centre. Hurrah! I can’t remember the last time I saw the sea – anyone who was with me, please remind me when it was. I am really hoping to see the sea a little bit when I’m in Swansea. Anyway, I’ve never been to Swansea before and I’m interested. And of course v much looking forward to the Dylan Thomas Centre etc. The reading is at 7.30pm, and tickets are £4 I believe. I’m still debating whether to do my Pirate Pru or not. Plenty o’ sea in that, arrr, me hearties.
Speaking of nature red in tooth and claw, I was in West Sussex at the weekend. We were having a lovely stroll just before sunset – the sun was a burning orange ball on the horizon, and there were undulating fields and downs all around, lit with its unearthly glow. Even the specks of sheep glowed faintly orange in the distance. All was still… then an almighty shrieking, high-pitched and relentless – and I realised it was a rabbit, screaming. It got nearer and nearer and, turning, we saw a bunny making for us with incredible speed. Followed by something. Two things making for us with incredible speed. The other thing – was it a bunny? No. Was it a bird? We both agreed afterwards that we’d thought it was a bird. But no, it wasn’t. No time to think or ponder or even look, though – WHISH up they came, it was a ferret, half an inch from the bunny and evil-looking, and WHOOSH scupper into the hedge the ferret went – and the bunny went on running as fast as the Roadrunner, down the lane,until he too scattered off somewhere to the side, or round the corner at the end into the field, or somewhere.
Um, and that’s about it I think. Back into a scary future, then. Nothing but jobhunting and my kids travelling and everyone away and no money coming in and Amy Winehouse dead and Norway and whatever keeps rumbling along about the PoSoc scandal and the US debt ceiling and redoing my website and getting my accounts in order and sorting out my elderly aunt (so far as possible, i.e., not very far) and pitching all and sundry to all and sundry… I’ve got some ideas for things to write but I still can’t see how I could write any poetry… I just need to make money. It’s the difference between Baroque and Rococo I think. The difference between fluffy bunnies and bunnies in the wild.
Anyhow, so if you haven’t got Egg Printing Explained, look on page 17 here in New Trespass, and see if it makes you smile.
Oh – and happy birthday, Sis!
Happy birthday - and no product placement in sight at ALL...
Dear Katy
Yes, Happy Birthday, Sis. As a Leo she must be more than a match for you! Please do your Pirate Ditty in Swansea – it might well enter the annals of local legend. I remember that Lord Motion did a reading in Pontardawe (six miles from Swansea) a couple of years ago but unfortunately we were abroad at the time. You will definitely be able to see the sea as the Dylan Thomas Centre is right next to the Marina. To help remind you of the ocean, here’s a quote from John Updike.
SHIPBORED
That line is the horizon line.
The blue above it is divine.
The blue below it is marine.
Sometimes the blue below is green.
Best wishes from Simon
Dear Katy
It was lovely to meet you at long last. I thought that you looked pretty good for a woman pushing forty! It was also great to finally get my copies of your books signed. To me an unsigned book is a bit like an unmade bed. Swansea’s not a bad town, is it? I hope that you had a chance do some exploring. You really should visit us here in the south Wales valleys more often. You will always be welcome.
Love from Simon
P.S. Regards to Tamar.
Dear Katy
We’ve now had a chance to read Tamar’s ‘The City With Horns’ and both thought that is was wonderful. She’s a real talent, isn’t she? I like her economical use of language. We’re very pleased that you enjoyed yourselves in Swansea and that you got home safely.
Best wishes from Simon & Rusty
PS It occurred to me on the way home that you could sum up the current fiasco in Betterton Street as PS, BS and FS!