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| All gods are invisible... |
My cultural week: last week I had the great pleasure of seeing Karine Polwart singing in the Komedia in Brighton. She was fab, such a warm presence and her small band make such a wonderful noise, simple but effective. It was a joy. I read The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson and that too was fab, 16th Century witch trials with a little magic realism (oh and rape) thrown in. And now today I am re-drafting the start of my novel, which is fun in its own way too. No rape, but a wee bit magic realism too, so trendy these days, everyone should be doing it. But I am also reading some poetry - a collection called News of the Insect World by Susan Hampton and I particularly like the poem, 'Banquet of the Invisibles' with the lines:
All gods are invisiblemade from mere suggestion
Ideas of possibilities immediately start to appear. But here is a curious one, at the same time as Susan's book arrived another letter came with 7 postcards celebrating National Poetry Day in Scotland - with each postcard containing a poem on the subject of 'stars'. I am such a lucky boy to have other people looking out for my cultural life. One of the poems is called 'Mother' by Meg Bateman, its in Gaelic:
O gun lasainn de dh'aighear annadna leigeadh leam d'fhaicinn gu slanno chan fhaidde thu bhuam nuair a shiubhlas tuna bha thu rim thaobh a-nochd
and I read this translation, thinking of my own, who is still hospital bound:
And if forever, should ever run dry, somewhere the rain will still fall, from the sky... rivers run and rivers flow:I wish I could kindle a joy in youthat would let me see you wholeor you wont be further when you gothan you were tonight at my side
