A short break

There'll probably be no more posts until at least the weekend. I've got some matters to sort out and things to do (some of them nice). See you when I get back.

In the meantime, here's a lovely link for a spare five minutes or longer, the poetry section of the writer Jeanette Winterson's website. She shares poems she has come across and enjoyed, and I have found her taste and mine are very similar. There are some old friends and also new ones I am very happy to have met and look forward to getting to know better. (Why am I talking about poems as if they are people?).

The current featured poem, The Ball, is by the Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska. Here's the last few lines. The whole thing can be found at the first link above.

... let's act like very special guests of honour
at the district firemen's ball,
dance to the beat of the local oompah band
and pretend that it's the ball
to end all balls.

I can't speak for others -
for me this is misery and happiness enough:

just this sleepy backwater
where even the stars have time to burn
while winking at us
unintentionally.