Father's Day : And a Happy Solstice 2 U!

Still sporadic with the blogging these days - a fractious time. Another week and a bit and I'll hopefully be ensconced in a new office/studio - then we'll see what happens. But for now, it's Father's Day and verging on the Solstice, so a good time for reflection, perhaps.

Here's a little something from two years ago today.

Father’s Day

Processing around the foot of the bed
The children circle with a tray,
Which displays a bespoke breakfast
For the day that’s in it.

There’s toast and chicken soup, a coloured glass
Of fridgedoor milk, handprinted cards.
An egg-carton-spined butterfly, big as a gull, nestles
Four hundred grammes of angular Swiss chocolate.

Later, flock abroad, I return to bed
With coffee to crack the seal on my gift;
This rainy Sunday morning - mock-mourned by
The easy lament of a lone woodpigeon
Who then becomes quiet.



© PJ Nolan 2007

Redemption? Please. As much as you can spare.



Janey Mac, it's a while since I posted here. Not 100% sure exactly why that is? A culmination of various stresses and strains that have seen written output drop off undramatically. Partly seasonal, I guess - in that I tend towards visual work when the year gets brighter - and boy, has it been brighter recently! What was that big blue thing in the sky? Oh, the sky, you say? I see.

So, with our lease running out, I've been looking around for a smaller (cheaper) office - I think we've found a good one. Been painting quite a bit too. Been keeping a tight, slitted, watery eye on finances (emphatically small 'f'). Also, a glut of various familocentric activities - birthdays, communions, covert guerilla actions, yaddah yaddah. Stretched thin - but not in any buff sense - as borne out by the displacement factor upon my annexing of the kids' paddling pool (Archimedes would be shocked).

This whole recession has been encrusting itself on my consciousness too - pricing issues, projection anxiety, accusing spreadsheets - luvverly work if you can get it - the problem is in the getting? And also the remitting? So, shackled by the woes of the western world, I went along to see the stage version of the Shawshank Redemption a couple weeks back. Here's my review for the Evening Herald.

It's a good enough night out - no major surprises - except maybe that there are no major surprises. Peter Crawley reviewed it for the Irish Times and also contributed to The View. His thoughts about it being a potential musical seem quite on the money IMHO - I could see this rocking along nicely in the West End, if the songs were solid. And there's plenty of meat in the writing for some cracking numbers. Perhaps.

Anyways, I'll try and up the ante a little in the next week or so. For one thing, I've a couple of awards from fellow bloggers that I really should acknowledge and pass along. In facta, I'm considering bringing the full power of my sad little virtual dominion to bear in smelting said tributes down to one fused alloy - a killerwatt medallion of accord - then dispensing it throughout the Ethersphere at my whim. What do you think? Hubris Immaculata? Welllllll, we all have to flail sometimes. Ciao :-)