Books by bike.
A dash to @rhymereasonbooks between meetings (in the Park) to collect another book.
Another few quid spent locally rather than down the Amazon.
Confessional: this is the first poetry book i’ve bought in almost three decades. During my time at Sixth Form i wrote three little books of poetry, had them ‘published’ locally (think photocopied + stapled ), and perfomed a few of them at a little arts centre in my native North East.
When i returned ‘home’ on my first leave from the Army, the manuscripts had been binned, along with my beloved three pairs of Walsh’s, and some of my cherished vinyl record collection.
Larkin was right about parents.
Whilst at Sixth Form i found a loophole in the A level English regs that said that if a suitable argument could be made then ‘alternative texts’ can be studied, instead of the usual dosage of Shakespeare, Miller et al. I was way more interested in words that did back-flips on a page, knifed the reader in the heart, battered their senses, and left them dazed.
Somewhere there are assessments on ‘the nonsense verse of Edward Lear’, and ‘the many interpretations of the lyrics of John Winston Ono Lennon’.
Upon reflection my deep interest in the personal impact of words was probably well hidden under various coloured berets for the next two point five decades. The beret hangs above my bookshelves now.
And what of ‘The Heeding’ ? the seven pages of the introduction alone are the most beautiful explanation of the impact of the last few years on people, place, and nature that i have read.
A literal heeding🙏.