Bye David, bye George, hello real world

Difficult to let go, there was so much creative activity. We were working on a new lit mag called The London Bay of Pigs, GPS was dashing back & forwards to the US to try and get money to keep Proudstage (his creative 'factory') going. We gave a Sound and Image presentation of David's book WITHDRAWAL at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. The book then gets British Film Institute backing for filming. But it was difficult to keep the creative mercury together.

By this time we had 2 children and our first house in the country (Hertfordshire) and I was on the career ladder. But I didn't let go without trying real hard to be a writer as well as a bread winner. I even wrote a play inspired by one of the people I worked with in an ad agency in London. Called MORNING ISSUE, it was a parody of everyday living set against the clown-like comedy of life. I can see now that I was looking to the future.

Perhaps this too was a mixed-up scene setter for what was to come. Called THE ROOM (an idea for a film) it went on to be published twice and appear in a poetry anthology later:

The general light upon the eyes
blessed Madonna, freedom of slaves.

Room - curtains open; dark,
small, close pressing upon ...
table, coffin, dead man in a chair,
an armchair - face pale, bones broken
a feast of feeding flies
cuckoo claws his shoulder.

Woman - arranging cups and glasses
icing the beer, combing the hair
on the head of a dead man
sitting in a chair - an armchair.

Boy - handsome with white legs
wearing blue shorts and shirt
strokes his hair, blond hair
bounces on the dead man's knee.

Criss-cross the arms of men
dancing on a parrot's swing
drinking beer, fondling girls
asking for a loan, echoing a cry
all together in a room
knocking on the walls
listening to the dead man.


As you can tell, I'm doing all I can to push to one side the real world that I keep alluding too. So much better to let the poet speak. But I will tell you about life in a suburban situation and about London ad land. Because, although I left my poetic garb to one side for some years, I took-up a rich galaxy of literary luminaries, if only as an audience looking on, instead of sharing the limelight. Next time I'll bring-in Mr. Pound, for it is he that ultimately replaced George et al - in a way I think George and David would be pleased to have moved over for the mighty man, although I am fast approaching the year when Ezra Pound died and I started my first real business. It's that word again: real. What is it:

On the rim of the mind:
running as fast as backwards
the steel band that clamps the mind
that saves us from splintering
- just gets a little tighter.


Get behind me Muse ... I'm about to catch the 8.15 to London.