Bartok Tick Tock

The rain is lashing down on the conservatory roof near my desk, as I sit listening to the piano music of Bela Bartok played by Zoltan Kocsis. I’m not sure whether it is the music, or the relentless sound of the rain, but I have an overall feeling of listlessness today. Things could certainly be better.

Yesterday a few interesting things happened on the poetry side of things. I bumped into one of the leaders of our local poetry group, First Thursday, who told me that they want me to do a reading next March. I’m really pleased about this – it will be the third time I have done a reading at this group. I will probably present some material from ‘the alice conversations’. It seems a long way off, but I am looking forward to doing it.

I also had a letter from Suffolk with details of the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival’s tour, which includes a performance in Manchester – I’m currently considering whether to go to that. I just might. The letter also included a CD of poetry from the festival, which I’ve dipped into a little this morning. I need to be in the right mood to listen to this. It is available for free by following the link (www.thepoetrytrust.org). This whole mailing looks like a marvellous idea. It must be really well funded to be able to do this.

The third thing which happened was an email from Australia. I had sent an email to Alison Croggon earlier in the week, commenting on her plans to put her weblog on hold for now. I’ve enjoyed reading this weblog in the past, and wanted to thank her for the work she had done on it over the months. She wrote back to me, which was nice. I really like her work, especially ‘Mnemosyne’, a chapbook produced by Wild Honey Press.