Early Morning Fog

Britten

This CD of choral works by Britten is superb. Naxos may be seen as a "cheap" label, but the singing, the playing and the production here are all wonderful.

in Catterline (for Joan Eardley)

The cottage row sits
squat, snubbing the north east
wind; here is all there
is - the caw of gulls,
long days, low cloud
and the wash of it.
In the fields, time waits;
row of stone, row of barley,
lines that stretch a solstice
to infinity. By low water
your breath is still
and the sweep of waves far out
is rumour of something
breaking; the boom
of surf and bones
that write their names in fathoms.
A living that moved you
to edges and flat landscapes,
your eyes fixed on a movement,
cloud to rainbow, city
to sea. The daub of blue,
yellow, black, a gash
of summer light in that darkness.

The Road To Heaven

A lot of the road to heaven has to be taken at thirty miles an hour.

Evelyn Underhill : The Fruits of the Spirit

David Foster Wallace

Reading a book of essays by DFW entitled Consider The Lobster. The excellence of these sent me back to an earlier book of essays by said writer. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again is truly marvellous - the title essay a brilliant, hilarious, astute and ultimately compassionate account of the human condition as observed on an "upscale" US cruise ship.

love

Been listening to the "Beatles" Love album as produced by le petit Martin. Ok, I'll admit up front that I find it all totally wonderful but what is surprising to me is how great the early "pop" songs, like Help and I Want To Hold Your Hand, stand up. I confess that I could have done with the full Hey Jude, a Sun King done the right way round and a full-frontal Tomorrow Never Knows. But listening to this I am astonished at just how good they were. Goodnight children, everywhere.

trees