UPDATE...

So quite a lot's happened in the past few days, and it looks like this could be my last post for a while. I'm off to the airport in a couple of hours and will have limited internet access over the next few weeks until Jan. I'm also leaving Camden for now as I've had to move out. So all that's left to do is find a random word to last me the next few days...

Logging off!

AND TODAY'S RANDOM WORD IS...

...Key

I like that. This could open doors to all sorts of ideas

Postcards from Home, Part 4, I think...

Wish you were here.

Maybe we could drink in the irony

Of these soldiers of the night

Who wrestle not against flesh and blood

But against the dexterity of their own fingers

And infinite boredom

Maybe we could lay dexterous hands on each other

And I could wear the warmth of your skin around my neck

And hope some more

I need not now gulp a goodbye from my throat

Or wheeze another song

Through the overhangs of Monday's spine


I need not now succumb to the promise of soggy chips

Balanced on trembling digits

Because it is possible

That a warrior’s cry lies waiting

To be expelled from lungs

Long since sacrificed to the Smoke

And so, perhaps, I can hold these hands up

Against the Neon-lit streets

Against the tide of idle thoughts

Against the peculiar world

And answer your calls

Maybe you could say it is man’s duty

To tuck these thoughts in

And bite the tongue

And the bullets

And the bit pulling you back

And maybe I should stop wishing

To change the state of play




Me on way home the other day, photo is of a queue at midnight for Call of Duty 3 (the controversial modern warfare video game) ... Random idea in my head now which I've conflated with random idea in my head then... not sure if it works, but I'll play with it tomorrow)

Spanish (& English) Poetry Showcase!

So tonight is probably going to be one of the last - if not, the actual last - gig I do in London this year before I go off travelling.

For those of you who don't know - er, probably most people - the first time I ever went to a poetry event, it was a Spanish poetry night. I was kind of coaxed onto the stage and I remember reading out the poem "Walking Around" by Neruda (decent translation here, original here) which is probably still one of my favourite poems. So it's kind of fitting that I end the year poetically where it started several years ago.

I've also just heard Canadian poet Ian Keteku will be performing too, who I last met at the World Cup Slam in France (he won the title - and deserved it!), so there'll definitely be an international flavour to the night. If I have time to translate a more recent poem of mine into Spanish, I will. In any case, expect a mixture of English and Spanish, with a few poets translating both ways.

P.S. This should also be the last time that photo appears on a flyer. I mean, from all of my facebook pics, you'd think I was actually attached to a microphone... I'm not, honest!

Remember the 'Vember!

I wrote this last week and didn't post...

Well, it's only a few days - two weeks, actually - until I go travelling for a bit, returning in 2012. I've been trying to resist the urge to bundle 2011 up prematurely and start making all those promises to myself that I did last year (write more, finish the novel, become a better person...) but there's still, like, a tenth of it to go, so who knows what's coming next?

I couldn't help but moan in frustration when I got an e-alert from a writing forum, entitled 'Silly Season approaching' - the silliness in question being the mustachioed men of Movember and the 'I've-always-had-a-book-inside-me' ambitions of NaNoWriMo. Predictably - I rarely see things in black-and-white these days - I have mixed feelings on the latter although, ultimately, if someone can write a decent novel in a month, who am I to judge, simply because I can't do it in a year! Some people need the discipline of a strict time-frame, and I should probably include myself in that category. Having said that, I understand why people react negatively to projects such as this: to the casual observer, it can make writing seem easy, like you can just pick up a pen and out comes this bestseller, as if writing is a hobby on a par with crossword-filling and stamp-collecting. A few hours set aside here and there, and a well-structured, grammatically immaculate 90,000 word gem comes out. Voila!

Anyway, since I last updated, we've had Halloween, Bonfire Night, the seven billionth person on the planet, a resignation from Berlusconi (if he really exists) in addition to signs Europe is on the brink of financial collapse... oh yeah, and more annual poppy controversy (including Royal intervention). With all this in mind, it does feel as if there is a certain silliness in the air, or at least a lot of trivialisation and crassness. And I don't really want to qualify that comment much further, except to say :P

I'm hoping the next week or so goes smoothly, catching up with old friends, wrapping up work projects etc, and I'll continue to update until I head off.

Embracing the "silliness" in the meantime!

AND TODAY'S RANDOM WORD IS...

...Tube

(I think I would have preferred 'bus', but you can't pick and choose)