I'm invited onto Facebook & dutifully sign on.

Two things.

i) I'd not anticipated the subsequent deluge of invitations
ii) my inviter doesn't seem to be in contact (so why ... ?)

Odd.

*

Back to the Chalkface - or at least the series of meetings, preparations, etc.

This year - more than ever - the holidays seem to have evaporated. This year - more than ever - the year ahead seems to fall into clearly defined fortnightly segments. Is this an effect of age?

*

The Gallagher brothers split.

Hard to conceal feelings of complete & utter indifference.

*

Reading American Psycho. Not a novel that I enjoy. It's too obviously having its cake & eating it. Too obviously written (from my UK perspective) in thrall to the generation of GQ, The Face, Thatcherism, and Easy Money. I remember having dinner with an old university friend who'd gone into the City. Not surprisingly he offered to pick up the tab. As he explained. his bonus was equivalent to my year's salary in publishing.

*

Last night; moules frites. One of the reasons to continue living in Belgium.

*

This arrives ...



... The Ancient Use of Stone by Ray DiPalma. Elsewhere on this Blog I've written of not being able to know how to read DiPalma (which I take to be a virtue of his work). This latest volume is no exception. Since its arrival on my desk on Wednesday, I've gone through the following reactions:

voyeuristic joy
intrigue
fascination
bafflement
frustration
doubt
anger
inadequacy

One thing it has done is to convince me that this Blog had reached an impasse. Why continue writing about when the challenge - as seen in these pages - is writing itself?

So ... for the next few months (I'll see how it goes) this Blog operates weekly. I'll post like today. Meanwhile, I'll focus my time & energies into more little volumes: further chapters of Hampton Armpit, more poetry, as well as poetical-collage-assemblages (distillations of the kinds of stuff that went into the earlier Blogging). Again, the same offer applies: send your name & address & I'll mail you a copy.

That's the deal from now on.

*

Oh. And I've deleted my Facebook account. Just not my scene.

*

A chill in the air. Autumn's on its way ...

NEWSFLASH!

RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL KITTEN

or

EVERYTHING'S LOOKING ROSIE AGAIN

Yes! Our Rosie's back!

Our reporter on the ground states that at 3:55 EST the runaway kitten (4 months old) was heard miaowing plaintively just the other side of the garden wall. Rescue teams were quick to respond with a bowl of Royal Canin Kitten Food which was rattled enticingly.

Reunited with her owners, the tearaway kitten elected to remain quiet about how the intervening 5 hours had been spent. However, detectives are puzzled by her identity capsule having been unscrewed and the contact details removed. Suspicious to say the least - particularly after the earlier door-to-door enquiries.

(Middle pages: Is Our Neighbourhood Safe For A Kitten With Itchy Paws And Wanderlust?)

All hell's broken loose here: Rosie's done a runner.

There we were having a late breakfast, thinking both cats were cautiously finding their way around the garden, when - hey presto! - she'd vanished.

Tears, recriminations, 'you said ...', etc. etc. Lily is looking rather forlorn, too.

Anyway, Rosie was last seen near the strawberry plants at 10 a.m. Belgium time.

So, if you see a black kitten with white paws strolling down the road - you know what to do ...

Further additions to the library found in the UK ... I'm beginning to think Blackwells isn't so bad these days ...







but, best of all, this arrived while I was away ...





"I have no sky. Sometimes the ground seems tenuous. But composition remains an enjoyment." (Keith Waldrop, 'A Matter of Collage')

*

A morning spent pottering about, catching up on Blogs, leafing through books, making coffee, talking to the cats, making more coffee ... What astronauts used to call decompression, I suppose.

Back in Brussels. Phew ...

Credit: old History textbooks I flogged at Blackwells in Oxford for 18 quid.

Debit: these three chanced upon in the Reading Oxfam bookshop (for more or less the same amount).

The Law of Book Buying: what comes in goes out.

*

Sweltering heat predicted for tomorrow.

I'm working on The Shabbiness of Intent. Lots to catch up.

Back in 1993 the first volume was published by The Sticky Pages Press: The Shabbiness of Intent. Dedicated to Otto Lunchimus is was a one-and-only. The 'original' (given it was a pretty crude parody of Iain Sinclair's The Shamanism of Intent) was circulated and then 'disappeared'. All that remains is my very poor office xerox copy. And I've mislaid that a few times. 

Looking at it again after all these years (mmmmm! that questionable odour of nostalgia), I'm thinking i) maybe I could work something more interesting with that text; ii) the marginal decorations were - without my knowing - what these days goes under the name of Vispo. 

So here - with a nod to Geof Huth (& others) - are some 1990s Glyph poems. 

Glyph poem no. 8

Glyph poem no. 7

Glyph poem no. 6

Glyph poem no. 5

Glyph poem no. 4

Glyph poem no. 3

Glyph poem no. 2

Glyph poem no. 1

Polyvalent. Polymorphic. Polly sings.

I like this CD. I like it a lot.

Summer Reading Update:

Mina Loy - The Lost Lunar Baedeker

Started in on this one again - I bought it a long time ago & never got beyond the introduction. I hadn't realized that Joseph Cornell knew & admired her.

Larry McCaffery - After Yesterday's Crash & Storming the Reality Studios

Hatching a plan to read seriously into Cyberpunk through to Christmas.

Cid Corman - Nothing Doing

It arrived while we were away & I've still to give it the attention it deserves.

Ron Padgett - Creative Reading

Everything I've found by Padgett is good & this one suggests plenty of class-friendly ideas for next year. Hampton Armpit acknowledges a debt.

Stephen Ratcliffe - Listening to Reading

Uncanny timing what with Material Comforts coming to an end. So many sentences seem to ring in my ears or shadow lines I was writing a week ago. In some ways he's covering similar territory as my Riddles of Form (and with the same missionary zeal). Sadly, I keep hitting proofing errors which are risky in books such as this depending upon writings which are challenging 'accepted' standards of typography/spelling/grammar etc.. This aside, loads of valuable stuff.

Not much in a way. However. you writes or you reads.

Or, then again, writing IS reading ... etc. etc.

The latest off the production line.

Go to http://stickypagespress.blogspot.com/ for more details.

If you missed the previous post (now removed) - go to the new site at:

http://stickypagespress.blogspot.com/

Um ... I think that's it. 

This morning I got up at 6 & worked on what I thought was IX. That took me through to 7.30. 

Then it seemed more like a final piece - outside of the series - and now requiring an introductory piece for balance. 

This seems to be in place as of 5 pm. 

So, a series of poems I-VIII framed by an introduction and coda. 

Maybe.