Time turns around : Spring Sprung Sprong

What the... ? Where was I? Where am I?

Haven't been doing much blogging in the last while - been a bit swamped with one thing and another. That's not to say I've been mad busy, or anything like that. Just gridlocked amid the tangled logistics of the self and the occupied space. Or some such something. Hooped by 'The Fallow'. Frozen in the headlights of time. It happens.

Nothing much gets written at times like this. Nothing much gets made at all. Except, bizarrely enough, mistakes; errors of judgement rattling like seeds among the wilted vegetation of the mundane. And then - just like that - green shoots! We hope.

Nick Laird had an interesting piece on 'The Fallow' (I'm getting to like his occasional columns more than his poetry - almost - but definitely more than Utterly Monkey) in last Saturday's Guardian, which somewhat relates to the above. See here.

I still have a little more to write about Poetry Now - hopefully I'll post that soon. But for now, I'll clock in and out quickly with a mention of an interesting reading at the Irish Writers Centre this Wednesday, featuring Kevin Barry (who I haven't yet heard read his wonderful short stories) and the serene Catherine Phil MacCarthy (one of a number of individuals working steadily to turn the fortunes of the centre around). Should be well worth a visit - hope to get there myself.

The image above is entitled Estuary I and is one of three paintings I've just submitted for this years RHA Annual Exhibition. This is a study for a finished painting (which, for some reason, ended up bearing little enough resemblance to the initial studies). Fingers Crossed!

Finally, best wishes to blogpal Emerging Writer aka Kate Dempsey, who's nominated in the Emerging Fiction category of the Hennessy X.O Literary Awards, to be announced at TCD on April 20. You can check out all the shortlisted writers and their work here. Go Kate! You can catch the talented Ladygirldiva herself reading in Trim this Thursday.