under another sun

Like a hermit today. All grey outside. After working on some poems first thing, I spent most of the day organising my workspace. The Big Sort Out as I am thinking of it. There is still work to be done, but there are increasing outbreaks of space and order. It feels great, and I feel the clearing out being reflected inside my head.   When in doubt, tidy up, as the Oblique Strategy cards say. Otherwise little to report. I spoke to Janet who said she has long had a 'one in, one out' policy on books, of which she has many. I do frequently refer to my books, but only about twenty percent of them. Many of the others I have carried around in boxes for decades, dormant and never to be read again, quite a few of them yellowed and dusty and bought second hand in the first place. Why are they still in my life? This is not my usual way of thinking about books, but I am finding it very liberating. More than that, I am sieving out nuggets in the rubble. A biblical email from Trace in Ca...

Nothing much happening, and I feel I am loitering on the doorstep of life without quite leaving or entering.   If in doubt, tidy up. This manages to be one of Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's fascinating  Oblique Strategies . Not that I needed oracular help for this. Manged to get my inbasket down to a record single email, filed four months worth of bills and statements. Phoned the tax office. Mind then decluttered pressed ahead with the business idea, now drilling down into how green thinking affects marketing. Still not springy enough for the gym, thanks to daily diet of antibiotics, but am trying at least to walk for an hour. Popped into a shop called Foot Locker to try to buy some new trainers, although appeared to be  training shoes, most were thin-soled shoes masquerading as trainers. Can one buy actual training shoes for the gym without spending £90? And if so, where? Spoke to Mum for some time this afternoon, then fed Lorraine when she came home and then z...

Oblique strategies Managed to fling myself onto the train as the doors were closing and then had to stand all the way to London. Lovely morning however, and I was cheerful. Our big pitch at work has hit a temporary lull so I went for a walk at lunchtime along the river. There is a big building site next to the office and The Gnome and I have been locked away a lot in a room which overlooks it. Fascinating seeing cranes and diggers about their business like big yellow insects. There was even a flash of an explosion the other day from the site, which I took to he lightning at the time as it was raining heavily. This morning the shadows of aircraft were passing over it which I thought was strangely filmic. In the afternoon, during this lull I suggested the Gnome and I use some thoughts from Eno's Oblique Strategies to reframe our thinking on the pitch. We found it quite useful and interesting to think about stuff like: "Short Circuit (a man eating peas to improve virility shovel...