to resume

... the heaviness has lifted, and I hope the headache has flown off for a while.

Now, did I say I met Mark and Martin? Indeed, I did. We talked of the things poets do - art and words and history and books and gossip/doings.

Mark I met twice. Over lunch then over mineral water in and around my slightly grungy work area. We exchanged books and did the poets' ritual signing. He gave me a copy of Poles Apart, a collaboration with Jukka Pekka Kervinen. Great cover, a piece of moon rock. We had an interesting discussion about books and printing as this one has been done by a firm called Lulu.com which does a print-on-demand thing. Quality is pretty good from what I could see (as she checked the paper, the binding and the cover - typical bloody poet, eh). Of course, the content is pretty damn good as well. Jukka's amazing visual poetic constructions and Mark's terrific sonnets and other movements of words. I love the obsession with Marx - a generational thing, a name thing? I can get with it. I love the thought of Marx listening to the Beach Boys. (Everyone should listen to the Beach Boys!) I remember drinking at the pub where Marx and Engels had the odd tipple just near the British Library/Museum. Yeah, you should read this book, you should gaze upon this book.

Martin sent me a book, later. Again, a beautiful object: Ghost Who Writes (no apologies to The Phantom). An essay in a real pocket-sized book published by Four Winds Press. Ah, something for me to read in Paris, I thought, but I have already looked into its pages. Mention of Walter Benjamin gets me thinking of the passages again. Benjamin mentions the Passages des Panorama (in The Arcades Project), which we went to last time, and, from memory, he talks of Passage Brady, which I will check out this time. Will also revisit Galeries Vivienne, which has been renovated and is now a bit twinkified, but there's a great second-hand bookshop spread over two premises where the passage turns, as well as a terrific little shop selling artists books of all kinds. But Martin's book starts off with Pessoa. A good place to start and I'll look forward to the whole thing.

Expect this blog to bit a bit spotty for a few weeks. I'm way busy then travelling.

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