Book 68 - Adrian Mitchell "The Shadow Knows"

Adrian Mitchell "The Shadow Knows : Poems 2000 - 2004" (Bloodaxe Books)




Many years ago, Stephen Drennan recommended the poetry of Mitchell to me. This is the second book of his i have read.

Much of Adrian's work has an overt political theme, often pacifist: all of it, I suspect, has, at least, an underlying theme of humanism, not in some pseudo-religious sense, but that of human beings caring for their fellows. This is why I admire him as a poet and a man.

Because of this humaneness he was given the title Shadow Poet Laureate - Shadow in the sense that MP's in the opposition party who have responsibilities matching those those of official Ministers are given names such as Shadow Foreign Secretary when they deal with foreign affairs. Adrian loathed the lap-dog role of Poets Laureate and gladly accepted the honour, seeing himself as following in the footsteps of Blake, Byron and others of that ilk. Much of this volume is the product of the Shadow Laureate. In consequence it is more overtly political and anti-authoritarian in content.

If you are a yes-man it may upset you, but then you upset me, yet you should read it, as an atheist should read the Bible. If you care for your fellow men grab a copy , read it and then read it again. It won't change this corrupt world in which we live, but it will make you feel less lonely.

A Washington Morning

The morning song today, if a little bit late with it, is the original version , as far as i know, of Breakfast In Bed (done by UB40 , The Pretenders , numerous reggae versions and Dusty Springfield of course), so i give you Baby Washington , and IMHO the best version.

Enjoy

Whitstable Visit

On this very hot day i traveled over to Whitstable to do another charity shop visit. Picked up some books, and a literary game  for my five pound shop. These are -



That first book is called "Masters Of Time" , a cosmology book on black holes, wormholes, twisters, string theory, and the mysterious fifth force of dark energy.

The card game Ex Libris looks fun and needs 2 to 4 players.It comes with a note pad as well for players to jot down their guesses to each first line or last words.

Whilst in Whitstable i visited The Peter Cushing, a classic art deco theatre which is now a pub and tried another cider in the on-going festival.



It is decked out with posters and photographs of the horror movie actor which this pub is named after.
I then spent the rest of the day lounging about in this splendid sunshine topping up my tan.

Old Branch Lines

The last time i chatted to Julian at Fine Records we  hot talking about rail lines ans in particular the village of Mayfield , which use to served by a branch line running down to Horam and Heathfield going on to Polegate. It was the railways which enabled the village to expand.

There was a railway station on the now closed Eridge to Polegate cross country line (the Cuckoo Line). It was built by London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and closed under the Beeching Axe in 1965. The station building is now a private residence, and the track lines have been completely removed. .

I mention this because i havebeen  perusing the book i got for my brother -



It was a sad day when some of these branch lines closed down.

Geeky Funny Door Signage

Here is another picture i took in Whitstable. The signage on the door was quite amusing and geeky!



It warns people of some of the symptoms that might affect them if they enter -


1/ Awesomeness induced coma
2/ Instantaneous nerdgasm
3/ Loss of bladder control
4/ Mental regression to your 13 year old self
5/ Brain freeze

You have been warned.

The reflection of myself in the pic di not help the readability of the section in blue, but i thought it was a arther apt description of the geeky nerdy stuff that the guys in The Big bang Theory would go for.