Notes For My Son by Alex Comfort

Found in The Presence
(Dannie Abse suggest this poem should be on the wall in the White House and 10 Downing Street and I agree)

Remember when you hear them beginning to say Freedom
Look carefully - see who it is that they want you to butcher.

Remember, when you say that the ild trick would not have fooled you for a moment
that every time it is the trick which seems new.

Remember that you will have to put in irons
Your better nature, if it will desert to them.

Remember, remember their faces - watch them carefully:
For every step you take is on somebody's body,

And every cherry you plant for them is a gibbet
And every furrow you turn for them is a grave.

Remember, the smell of burning will not sicken you
If they persuade you that it will thaw the world.

Beware. The blood of a child does not smell so bitter
If you have shed it with a high moral purpose.

So that because the woodcutter disobeyed
They will not burn her today or any day.

So that for lack of a joiner's obedience
The crucifixion will now not take place.

So that when they come to sell you their bloody corruption
you will gather the spit of your chest
and plant it in their faces.

The Presence by Dannie Abse

The Presence

This journal was written during the year following Joan Abse death in a car accident, and it is moving to come alongside Dannie Abse in his grief.  It is a very honest report of how he kept going, just, it refuses the glib, the book finishes on the anniversary of Joan's death in an arbitrary way, you haven't got to the end of the story  and there is a sense of loss and separation, your privileged access and companionship with Dannie Abse has been terminated, as he writes "there are no happy endings", but he does go on journeying beyond the separation.

A lot of the entries include a thought from the present that sparks a memory which is then told separately - and the shift between the present and the past is key to the experience of grief for Dannie Abse - it is as those he is obsessed with the hoped for past just out of reach.

As a poet many of his reflections include poetry - mostly of others, some his own - and it is a really special way to be introduced to a poem - rather than the cold encounter in a collection here the poem is already remembered and breathed with a rich life and meaning.  I wish that I live life with poetry so closely woven into its fabric.

As a bit of a random thought there was one shocking inaccuracy in the book - when he refers to going to "Barnet village" - having grown up in Barnet I need to point out that it is not and never has been a village.

By the way this is another book read because of a review in Planet.  

Fates of the Expressionists by Michael Hofmann

Found in Selected Poems Michael Hofmann

The Kaiser was the first cousin of George V,
descended, as he was, from German George,
and unhappy Albert, the hard-working Saxon Elector.
- The relaxed, navy-cut beard of the one,
hysterical, bristling moustaches of the other ...
The Expressionists were Rupert Brooke's generation.

Their hold on life was weaker than a baby's.
Their deaths, at whatever age, were infant mortality - 
a bad joke in this century.  Suddenly become sleepy,
they dropped like flies, whimsical, sizzling,
ecstatic, from a hot light-bulb. Even before the War,
Georg Heym and a friend died in a skating accident.
From 1914, they died in battle and of disease -
or suicide like Trakl.  Drugs Alcohol Little Sister.
 One was a student at Oxford and died, weeks later,
on the other side ... Later, they ran from the Nazis.
Benjamin was turned back at the Spanish border -
his history of the streets of Paris unfinished -
deflected into an autistic suicide.  In 1938,
Odon von Horvath, author of naturalistic comedies,
was struck by a falling tree. In Paris
                                                     At the Time
my anthology was compiled, there were still a few left:
unexplained survivors,
                                  psychoanalysts in the New World.

Anaphora The Journal of the Society of Liturgical Study

Anaphora

I have not so far included Journals etc in the scope of this blog but as this (volume 4 part 2) is the first copy of Anaphora that I have received since joining the Society of Liturgical Study it seems to call for some kind of note.

As with the Alcuin Club publications this Journal has a mix of lively discussion on the contemporary liturgy, for example here Coral Wilkinson writes on Church of England Healing Services, and close readings of ancient texts, for example Bridget Nichols on the 5th century collects that accomplanied the psalms.  While there is value and interest in the ancient texts it is the contemporary liturgy that really engages me, (and I would think the same would apply to most people).   

Going Under by Ray French

Going Under

Again this is a book found in the reviews section of Planet magazine, and the quote on the front cover from Matt Haig "A warm, big-hearted tale with a hero you can't help but cheer for" is spot on.

I enjoyed the book and was taken along with it - there is a complete believability about the characters that extends beyond the central one or two and covers all those that crop up - they may appear for only a page or two but they feel rounded.  I realised how good the book was when about two thirds of the way in the tide of events turns against the lead character and I was desperate for things to come good for the lead character, muttering under my breath that I would never forgive Ray French if he allowed tragedy to but piles merciless on Aidan Walsh.  

The book raises some questions about the nature of protest - here the action is out of withdrawal rather than confrontation, and as we live in turbulent times in which act of protest are likely to become a regular feature a general pondering on the relationship between the ends and the means of protests is worthwhile.  As the student who threw a fire exstingisher off the roof top showed, the action of protest, or means of protest can become not just a distraction from the ends, but the most powerful weapon for opponents to ignore and dismiss a cause however valid it might be.   

Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories by Annie Proulx

Close Range: Brokeback Mountain and Other Stories

I decided to read this collection of short stories because I am a huge fan of the film Brokeback Mountain having watched it dozens of times - but there was of course a worry that the original story wouldn't live up to the film, or that the original was even more special and in the future I would look at the film as second best.  Thankfully I can report that neither of these scenarios played out - the original story clearly meshes with the film, the iconic lines of dialogue from the film all seemed to be there and the big open empty landscape that features so heavily in the film means that in making the film there was no need to pad the story out to turn it from a short to a feature.

The rest of the collection is also up there in standard with Brokeback, one of the interesting things is that the landscape comes across more in some of the other stories - one of the really powerful additions of the film is setting the claustrophobic relationship between Jack and Ennis in the wide open spaces.  Several of the stories centre around fantasy, ghoasts and visions, where you never quiet resolve if the incident is a phantom born out to the insanity of the character or a genuine mythical folklore.  Overall there is the same hard grit about the people and a feeling of truth that it every story tellers goal.

Those who have brought this collection and only every read Brokeback (I am sure there are many many people in this category) have miss a dozen treats! 

Cold War: Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946-89 by W D Cocroft and R J C Thomas

Cold War: Building for Nuclear Confrontation 1946-89

This English Heritage publication is fascinating, in large part because it is as an English Heritage work  magisterial in its scope taking account not just the high profile and well known places and structures of the Cold War, like Greenham Common and the Golf Balls of the North York Moors, but all sorts of minor structures and 'backroom' places.

That magisterial scope can at times lead to a monotony of detail - for example the countless plans of very similar structures however this detail might be the delight of a specialist reader (for example the plans show male and female toilets and the relative sizes would be important to someone with an interest in the gender dynamics of the staffing the Cold War).

That said the thematically organised chapters do have an engaging sense of narrative and serve to very accessibly demonstrate the links between the shifting government policies and the build environment.  These structures are prehaps the most effective barometers as for most of the period of the Cold War the defence budget was such that the Forces could build whatever the moment said they needed and policy is not masked by a "make-do and mead" approach.

What is most shocking is the move away from underground bunkers and heavy reinforcements that occurred as the 'MAD' (Mutually Assured Destruction) policy took hold - because taking MAD seriously there was no sense in even attempting survival once the sequence of attacks had begun.  It is this rational / bureaucratic manifestation of the policy's insanity that is genuinely chilling. The book does not pass judgement on the policies, it merely recounts them as the backdrop to the structural remains - but like the tales of a night of drunken excess 'merely' retelling them in the sober light of day is often judgement enough.