I have just read Seamus Heaney's collection District & Circle (2006). Today I started on Electric Light (2001). And you know, I think the first 5 poems or so in that collection are better than most of the recent one. There is a real savour, colour and verve to the 2nd and 3rd poem, whose names are a) 'Perch' and b) 'Lupins', I think. It is, probably, a long time since anyone said, on this list, anything as nice about me or something I had collaborated on as what Krister Bladh said in that latest post. Thank you, Bladh. It is two words, though: 'Day Star'. It was only Chick Factor, I mean, chickfactor, that got it wrong. Or was it Paper Cuts, I mean, papercuts, I mean, Papercuts? The strings on my guitar - the guitar on which most of It's Been A While and Lives You Didn't Lead was recorded, though perhaps not 'Day Star' (I think the acoustic on that was Stevie T's; he certainly played it) - are sounding worn and strained, perhaps seeking to be in tune with the state of their owner. Should I bring that guitar? It is a nice idea, as someone has asked me, but it would surely be an impediment in any post-picnic travels, attempts to get across town and wander through discotheques, etc. Other people used to bring axes, too, didn't they - Chu? Or did Chu only bring a football? Well, a football used to be a good thing to have, on hand, at feet. I was struck a moment ago by the memory of how it was, not 10 years ago but perhaps 9, 8, 7 or even less, at these picnics; of the sense of vast possibility, albeit often frustrated, awaiting, delayed, enigmatic, that still seemed to hover over life, out in the great blue skies above, in the slow clouds and the green slopes, the ranks of yet unopened bottles and unlived hours. I'm afraid those days are gone. But I still expect to hear their echoes, teasing, taunting or faintly comforting, across the hill somewhere, sometime, on Saturday. Last week a Austrian friend from Cornwall and Japan gave me a load of music, which is on this computer right now, would you believe. And it included a few tracks from Lloyd Cole, and the Commotions, that I didn't have. I have just started one of them playing: 'Lonely Mile'. And though not a very evidently structured song, its sound is tremendous. He sings 'mister' every verse, Neil Clark sounds like Robert Quine, the keyboard makes great swashes of chord change, a harmonica adds its melancholy in the distance behind the chorus. It ends with a final rattle of drums. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+