WAS my Blog (Hey! I'm not really a blog I'm a magazine - but not your usual sort of) Magazine. BLOGZINE. It's stopped being anything now, as of April 9, 2008.
But what is online stays online, and what's here is what happened while it was happening. The Chinese above, in Pinyin, is huānyíng, and it means "Welcome" and it's meant. The girl (pictured) is my television lawyer, just in case. E&D is (or was) a mix of poetry & reviews and sometimes charmingly gentle rhubarb (sometimes with hot custard); it has a heart of rolled gold & the word 'acerbic' (is that related to 'cynical'?) doesn't come into it. There are music reviews too, of gigs at the local music halls. This bit was on hold for a while because I was in China for two years, but now I'm not, though I'm going back soon. Anyway, everything here is all a kind of mysterious (I'd like to say it's sensuous but it isn't) zone of gentle & benign happiness (whatever the hell 'happiness' is), where headaches disappear & people are friends, & your shoes never need cleaning, & I hope you enjoy it.
This is a re-designed site, launched in October 2006. You can view the original website, and all the stuff published there, by clicking here.
Oh, & if you want to find out about my poetry, please go to my Home-From-Home which is a site almost as heavenly as this one.
Click on this (Yes, this!) to e-mail me. But you don't have to. It's not mandatory.
E&D is no longer accepting submissions of work for publication.
Remember That I Love You by Kimya Dawson
Sample track: Loose Lips [Listen]
Kimya Dawson features heavily on the "Juno" soundtrack, a soundtrack that's as wonderful as the movie. This LP is ok, too. It gets a little trying in places, but it's generally ok.
Dig!!! Lazarus, Dig!!! by Nick Cave
& The Bad Seeds
Sample track: More News From Nowhere [Listen]
2 Poems by Sharon Mesmer
A Motion Sends A Postcard Home
by Rupert Loydell
Ackowledgements by Paul Violi
Lipsmackin' Ashes by Sandra Tappenden
Great Writers and Their Shirts by C.J.Allen
Memoirs #1 - 5 by Jeff Harrison
Secret Lifes by Rupert Loydell
And Then There Were Some
by Jeremy Twill
Snow Ranges and Fair Woods by Jeffrey Side
Lost Vampire Movies by Michael Blackburn
Aubade by Nigel Pickard
Herb Robert by Andrew Bailey
2 poems by Glenn Frantz
Rivers by Peter Hughes
The links below will take you to poetry
at the old E&D website.
One Poem by Nigel Pickard
A Sunny and Happy Day
Click Here for Intelligence
One Poem by Alison Croggon
Great English Inventions
One Poem by J. Allyn Rosser
Which, Of Course, I Don'™t
3 by Sharon Mesmer
A Poem by Paul Sutton
Plethoric Air by Luke Kennard
New Year Letters by Mairead Byrne
A Picture by C.J. Allen
Four Prose Poems by Ian Seed
In Khlebnikov's Aviary by Paul Violi
from "Risk Assessment" by
Rupert Loydell & Robert Sheppard
Bill Zavatsky's
'Where X Marks the Spot'
Kate Bingham's "Quicksand Beach"
Stanley Middleton's "Harris's Requiem"
Anne Beresford's "Collected Poems"
John Barnie's "Sea Lilies"
Jack Gilbert's "Transgressions"
Peter Riley's "The Llŷn Writings"
K.M. Dersley's "Paranoia in Paradise"
Anthony Wilson's "Full Stretch"
Paul Violi's "Overnight"
Charles North's "Cadenza"
3 from Kendra Steiner Editions
2 Tall Lighthouses
Robert Hershon's
'Calls From The Outside World '
Jeffrey Side's 'Carrier of the Seed'
Don Paterson's 'Orpheus'
The links below will take you to reviews
Catherine Wagner's "Imitating"
K.M.Dersley's "Between the Alleyways
at The World's Fair"
Lee Harwood's "Collected Poems"
"Binary Myths"
Paul Hyland's "Art of the Impossible"
Adrian Mitchell's "The Shadow Knows"
Sheila Murphy's "Proof of Silhouettes"
Tim Cumming's "The Rumour"
Roddy Lumsden's "Mischief Nights"
Three from Shoestring Press
Rupert Loydell's "A Conference of Voices"
Nigel Pickard's "One"
Keith Jafrate's "Songs For Eurydice"
Julia Darling's "Apology for Absence"
Dean Young's "Ready-Made Bouquet"
Mike Barlow's "Living On The Difference"
Chris Beckett's "The Dog Who Thinks
He's A Fish"
Present Tense: Poets In The World
John Seed's "Pictures from Mayhew"
& "New & Collected Poems"
4 from Bluechrome
U.A.Fanthorpe's "Collected Poems"
John Ashbery's "Where Shall I Wander"
David Herd's "Mandelson! Mandelson!
A Memoir"
John Mole's "Counting The Chimes"
Robert Sheppard's "The Lores"
Sharon Mesmer's "In Ordinary Time"
Laurie Duggan's "The Ash Range"
& "Compared To What"
Redell Olsen's "Secure Portable Space"
Lisa Samuels's "Paradise For Everyone"
Andre Mangeot's "Mixer"
Paul Violi interviewed by Martin Stannard
Bravo Books by David Belbin
The links below will take you to plays & fiction
After Magritte by David Belbin
The War Council: A Play
Comedy's Dark Hero
Paterson:
Photographs by Mark Hillringhouse
Sunset: Zhuhai, China
Cloe's Sunset
The links below will take you to visual art
3 Postcards
River Photos, Paterson, NJ
Rilo Kiley
Shack
Iron & Wine
Mike Heron
The links below will take you to reviews of gigs at the old E&D website.
The Incredible String Band
The Beta Band
American Music Club
Arthur Lee & Love
Brendan Benson/Hal
Visit The Annexe to read extracts from
Nigel Pickard's debut novel, "One".
What We Did Before October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007
3by3by3
The Argotist Online
Art Zero
Anny Ballardini
Ros Barber
David Belbin
British-Irish -Poets
Andrew Burke
Mairead Byrne
David Caddy
Carcanet
The East Village
Fieralingue
Hanging Loose
Hob Nob Anyone?
InPrint
Rupert Mallin
Sharon Mesmer
Poets' Corner
PoetryEtc
The Poetry Project
Popularity Contest
The Ragged Edge
Reality Street Editions
Dee Rimbaud
Shearsman
Ron Silliman
Stick Cricket
Sunk Island Review
Terrible Work
Timboland
Steven Waling
The Word Hoard
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« A Tall Oak In The Ear | Main | One Million Elephants Couldn't Begin To Understand »
And so .....
I've for a long time based what passes as my philosophy of life on the teachings or casual remarks of three people. First, there is Graeme Edge, the drummer/poet of The Moody Blues. He's really underrated, I think:
to fly to the Sun without burning a wing
to lay in a meadow and hear the grass sing
Great stuff. I wish I could write like that. I wish I could think like that.
Second, there is Constance Morgan. Constance is not a household name like Mr. Edge, and Constance Morgan is also not her real name. I promised her years ago that if ever I had cause to talk about her in public I'd change her name to conceal her identity. Constance was always a great calming influence upon my sometimes agitated, palpitating, restless heart. I can't explain how she taught me to find inner peace when it wasn't really there. I can't explain what I'm talking about. She also taught me that a man (or a woman, come to that) should always strive to be where they belong. She lives in Leatherhead.
Third is Emma Peel, the Avenger (pictured below) who gave this wandering soul an anchor in a sea (nay, an ocean) of watery flow, as it were. Some people have said to me that any philosophy based upon the mumblings of a fictional character, however delicious, has to be fundamentally flawed, but it's them what's flawed, because Emma Peel is no fiction. I saw her once in a Safeway supermarket in West London, so that proves it. She even spoke to me. She said "Excuse me, please." I was blocking her way to the frozen peas.
But anyway, I remember in one avenging adventure she was in a particularly tricky spot and she looked Steed square in the neck and said "Steed, sometimes in life you can't do what you want to do." You don't forget wisdom of that calibre, no matter what the distractions.
Later, when things had sorted themselves out and the world was again a safe place to live, she looked at Steed (in the eyes this time) and said "Steed, you know, sometimes you can stop doing something you don't want to do and go and do something you do want to do." You can't buy this kind of advice. Well, you can buy this kind of advice but it's easier if you just get it for free off the TV.
Anyway, all this is just a lead up to say that "Exultations and Difficulties" stops here. It's been fun, but I'm kind of done with it and feel like stopping. It's as simple as that. Later in the year I'm going back to China to work, but that's not why this is stopping. It's stopping because I don't feel like doing it any more.
Thank you for being here. I hope you've enjoyed it.
April 09, 2008 | Permalink
Oh... so no more difficult exultations or exulting difficulties? Drat. Hear, hear, Emma Peel was the proto life coach. And free.
Posted by: Ariel | April 13, 2008 at 19:02
I first read this post on my RS reader, which missed off the last paragraph. But I just looked on my work computer to see if you'd updated and noticed it - always bury bad news at the end, eh? Pity. I'm envious of Diana Rigg speaking to you in the supermarket. I once stood next to Julie Christie and didn't notice - which only makes for the sort of story that's only worth burying in a comments box.
Posted by: Dave B | April 14, 2008 at 17:59
It wasn't Diana Rigg in the supermarket. It was Emma Peel.
Posted by: Martin | April 15, 2008 at 07:12
Whoa, I remember that actress too!
Posted by: Audiologists ny | July 02, 2010 at 13:43
Whoa. i remember that actress!