Sinister: One day he'll wake with wings........

[Chris Leonard]

My good friends,

I feel renewed and quite splendid after having a lovely evening out with
the famous miss Julia.  We attended King Tuts Wah Wah Hut to hear some
drunk Canadian called Ron Sexsmith sing.  Imagine our surprise to climb
those shaky stairs to nearly be knocked back down by a  huge and
powerful (yet gentle and subtle) lady voice - can you guess who it was?
It was Monica Queen  of course, and that John bloke who plays acoustic
guitar.  She was fantastic.  I was awestruck and I think I love her.
Don't tell Julia that.  Her band, well, her and the acoustic guitar are
called "Stars into paradise" or something, but my god for those of you
who cannae stand her bit in LLPJ, you should have heard this.
Fantastic.

Then Ron came on and my my he was great.  What a lovely lovely voice and
lovely songs and a charming young fellow an that.   He played for ages
as well, even though all his songs are dead short.  He played all the
songs off his albums, apart from the shite ones and some new ones which
sound fantastic.  I was nearly crying at the end, it was so good.  Hold
on, no I wasn't I'm a man and I like rugby an that.  It was just a bit
dusty in there, that's all.

The mysterious and beautiful Charlotte breathed
>I'd like to nominate someone to produce next week's and I nominate, er, 
>Chris Leonard as he is ineffably cute (I know, I've met him) and has 
>produce the most exciting competition to come out of Glasgow since, 
>since, since his last competition.

Oh, stop it.  You made me blush.   Can I keep you?  I'm happy to do a
Monday poem, but this coming Monday I'll be sweating in the hot showers
of lovely Singapore.  I'm not much of a reader, as you may have gathered
from my shaky use of englisch, but I have invested in a novel for my
Journey.  It is "And the Ass saw the Angel" by Mr Nick Cave.  I read the
first page last night, and crumbs, it looks a bit hard.  I think it may
help if I imagine Nick Cave reading it to me.  So anyway, since I can't
do a Monday poem here's one for today.  First some background on the
Author:
Hugh MacDiarmid 1892-1978

This was the pen-name used by Christopher Murray Grieve. He was born in
Langholm and educated at Langholm Academy before becoming a
pupil-teacher at Broughton school in Edinburgh. He then became a
journalist. During the 1914-1918 war he was in the Royal Army Medical
Corps. A controversial figure, as many of the most interesting artists
are, he pioneered what many regarded as a Scottish literary renaissance
in the 20th century. He held strong political opinions which, as they
ebbed and flowed, coloured his writings, but central to his work was his
intention to create (in his opinion re-create) the Scottish literary
language. This involved using a vocabulary from all regions of Scotland
and all historical periods which to some seemed forced and artificial,
but to others was legitimate given the lyric use to which MacDiarmid put
the words. His political views have irritated the simplistic from time
to time since he held ideas which seemed to categorize him as a
'Communist', though his communist ideas were very much his own. He did
stand as a Communist candidate in an election in 1963 but he had also
been a founder member of the 'Scottish National Party'. In the early
1920's he was publishing his own poetry amongst collections of
contemporary verse which he was employed to edit. In Scotland his most
famous work is probably 'A Drunk Man Looks At The Thistle' (1926) which
deals comprehensively with the condition of Scotland and the Scots. This
no doubt explains its continuing poularity here.

'Facing The Chair'
by Hugh MacDiarmid

	Here under the rays of the sun
	Where everything grows so vividly
	In the human mind and in the heart,
	Love, life, and all else so beautifully,
	I think again of men as innocent as I am
	Pent in a cold unjust walk between steel bars,
	Their trousers slit for the electrodes
	And their hair cut for the cap
	Because of the unconcern of men and women,
	Respectable and respected and professedly Christian,
	Idle-busy among the flowers of their gardens here
	Under the gay-tipped rays of the sun.
	And I am suddenly completely bereft
	Of la grande amitié des choses créés,
	The unity of life which can only be forged by love


Oh, and Susannah said
>Right, now all I have to do is work out my list crushes, enter Chris Leonards
>daft quiz...... 
It's not daft, and anyway I'm suspicious if your eligible for a prize,
re Rule number 4.  
Joking???..

That's your lot,
    chris sexsmith


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