under another sun

Appalling night's sleep. Woke up late but received an email from my old friend Michael Stone Richards  who is now a professor of critical theory and literature in the US. Saying he just saw a vision of Maude Gonne (the famous beauty WB Yeats had loved for years) and it had reminded him of me.  A characteristically enigmatic correspondence from MSR that made me smile and miss him. Rushing about early with the idea of going to Tunbridge Wells to meet new clients, but events conspired against this. As the ominous crow flaps, it is only in the next county of Kent, but if you try to get there by public transport you are looking at a hefty two hours each way. Sonia here this lunchtime. Explaining that this was the year of the snake and she and her partner were both monkeys, which in a strong Romanian accent was rather funny. Being a pig, I am not over fond of Chinese horoscopes. Sonia off to bask in Egypt for a holiday next week. Sent off my application for the blogger in resi...

Have I not seen the loveliest woman born... Still chipping away at the Bardic coalface. I am making really good progress with the poetry manuscript, although as a blog subject this I know lacks pizazz: got up, had breakfast, sat at my computer and wrote poems for hours. It's not up there with, say, battling the Japanese whaling expedition which requires the slaughter of 1000 cetaceans for, er, scientific reasons. Perhaps the Japanese have had a bellyful of their relaxation tapes. Anyway, back to the poetry... I just can't convey how cheery this all makes me feel. Off to the Jubilee Library in Brighton, which is still new and spiffy, although it could do with more books in it. I can't remember the last time I joined a library, and enjoyed being signed up by a friendly librarian, and discovering new fangled things like that checking books out is all automated, with touch screen computers and so on. Instantly rewarded by being able to borrow a new biography of WB Yeats calle...