How did I manage to skip a week? It doesn’t matter really…
HAVE YOU SPONSORED ME YET?
This weekend was meant to be the last big weekend of training before starting to taper ahead of the big, big run in June. However, this week has ended with an enforced rest after pulling my left calf at the start of yesterday’s training run. 5K in to a planned 32K I felt something going ping (to use the technical phrase) and had to hobble back to somewhere where my wife could pick me up. Yesterday and today has involved loads of RICE…no, I’ve not been to a wedding (and this is where I remember the Tom Waits song that mentions “She’s been married so many times she’s got rice marks all over her face” – different times, Tom, different times), I mean Rest. Ice. Compression and Elevation as per the image below.
It’s quite incredible how tired you get when you’re forced to slam on the breaks. Fingers crossed please for a swift recovery and that it holds up until the end of June.
One benefit to this rest is that I made some headway into my reading pile of books to review. I’m almost finished with the first pass through Patrick Cotter‘s Sonic White Poise (Dadelus Press). I’m very much enjoying it, so I expect the review to be positive (next job this week, David, I promise). I enjoyed discovering Patrick’s (now defunct) blog, and this post in particular on the thorny issue of elitism in poetry. I’m not sure I agree with it all, or that that matters, but have a read and see what you think. Sadly, I don’t think it’s an issue that’s going away in a hurry.
One poem from SWP that caught my eye yesterday, largely because the first line seems so apt for this week is ‘Matador’
I love this poem already for what isn’t happening in it as much as what is. I want to know what questions the neighbours ask themselves when they see a Matador costume on a clothes line? Wouldn’t you want to know more?
I’m trying to avoid getting to carried away with what/how the poets is saying things as I found myself having to “have a word with myself” a couple of weeks ago in relation to a review that’s due out soon as part of a new thing. I can’t talk about the “new thing” yet, but it is exciting to be in “on the ground floor”. However, in writing a review I was really pleased with myself for seeing that the poet in question had changed a word in a poem when moving it from their pamphlet to their full collection.
The change was subtle, one letter, but it was a shift that made me wax lyrical about the poet’s intentions for a few sentences, exploring the reasons behind the change and what it might be saying about a poets voice becoming stronger with experience, etc. However, that was quickly deflated when the editor for “new thing” said (and I hope they don’t mind me quoting) that it was more the “proofreaders that preferred the more modern version (carcass) so I don’t think we can read anything much into that“.
A potent reminder that sometimes a change is just a change is just a change. I welcome that reminder. I’ll welcome the arrival of “New Thing” even more when it arrives sometime in the next month or so.
THE (last two) WEEK(S) IN STATS
54K last week, 13 this due to the incredible exploding calf muscle
1 old school friend not seen in
28 years met for
8 pints
0 x acceptance
1 rejection: Assumed my submission to The North was declined
1 poem worked on: Bullshit Bingo
1 poem finished: Pear Rust (was Gentrification)
7 new Submissions: Bad Lillies, Manchester Review, Poetry Review, Wild Court, 14 Magazine, New Statesman, Popshot
28 poems currently out for submission.
66 Published poems*:
41 Poems* finished by unpublished
29 poems* in various states of undress
554 Rejected poems* Eg I’ve decided they are not good enough
1 Review* written and submitted. 4 to do though, so must crack on
1 week without cigarettes…
9 Days without drinking
1 more week that I’m not having an affair with Eva Green
* To date, not this week. Christ!!
TITLE GIVEAWAY
Horse Casino
Chupacabra
Stale Hand (HT to Edward Bonham-Carter in a work meeting)
A Sudden Craving For Toffos
If The Forks Happen (as written in a work email)
Does It Tell A Picture? (As heard in a work call)
READ/SEEN/HEARD/ETC
Read
Patrick Cotter: Sonic White Poise
Music
VA: Agrim Agadez: Musique Guitare De La République Du Niger
Alexandre Desplat: American Pastoral OST
VA: The B-Music of Jean Rollin 1968-1973
Bob Stanley & Pete Wiggs: Present Three Day Week
VA: Circus Days-Obscure Pop Sike Vol2 & 5
Bud Powell: Live At the Blue Note, Paris 1961
Buffalo Springfield: Buffalo Springfield Again
Matthew Ryan: May Day
Buffalo Tom: Sleepy Eyed
Levitation: Need For Not
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: Superwolves
Thee Oh Sees: Panther Rotate
The Wonderstuff: Eight-Legged Groove Machine
Julien Baker: Little Oblivions
The Staves: Good Woman
LNZNDRF: To A Lake, Green Roses, ST
Big Thief: U.F.U.F.O
Anna Meredith: FIBS
Lottie Kestner: China Mountain
Elbow: Asleep At the Back
New Dynamic Chico Hamilton Quartet: Drumfusion
Squid: Bright Green Field
Juliana Hatfield: Beautiful Creature, Bed
Death Cab For Cutie: Codes & Keys, Plans
Fridge: Eph, Happiness, Semaphore, The Sun
Youth Pictures of Florence Henderson: ST
Pele: A Scuttled Bender In A Watery Closet
Suede: The Blue Hour
There Will Be Fireworks: ST
St Vincent: Daddy’s Home, Marry Me
Gabor Szabo: Nightflight, Mizrab, Faces
Unwed Sailor: Truth Or Consequences
Eels: The Deconstruction
My Morning Jacket: Live Red Rocks 2015, 2012, Chocolate & Ice EP, Circuital, At Dawn, Waterfall, Waterfall 2
My Latest Novel: Deaths and Entrances
Sylvan Esso: what If
Arthur Russell: Another Thought
Bark Psychosis: Hex
Bathyscaphe:-11034m
Bob Dylan/ & The Band: Before The Flood, Blonde on Blonde
TV/Film
Vera S2e1-3
People Who Kill S2
SAS: Who Dares Wins
Fargo S1E1-5
Teachers S1, S2 E1
The IT Crowd S1 E1-2
Waking The Dead S1 E1-3
Eurovision 21 (Iceland were robbed!!)
Zooms, etc
None
Radio/Podcasts
The Archers
Ordered
Stand
A running bladder
Soft water flasks
Compression Top
Hat with neck cover
Calf Compression Sleeves
Headband
Battery Pack
Headphones
Lisa Kelly: From The Ikea Back Catalogue
William Wooten: Looking For the Horsemen
Arrived
Stand
A running bladder
Soft water flasks
Compression Top
Hat with neck cover
Calf Compression Sleeves
Headband
Battery Pack
Headphones
Lisa Kelly: From The Ikea Back Catalogue
William Wooten: Looking For the Horsemen
Lewis Buxton: The Boy In Various Poses
Wear The Fox Hat 
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