Let us not compare riots - Haiti is currently facing tragedy as it collapses into cholera-induced anarchy - and the international cyber-rioting against major online retailers continues - so that some paint and such thrown at the future King of England and his wife might seem small beer. Except, let us catch our breath, and reflect: when was the last time that Royalty in England was in such immediate peril? We now have a face for this upsurge of rage against these pitiless penny-pinching prunings. Students of the world unite! Meanwhile, China has shown itself to be Philistine Numero Uno for its bald and bold retorts to the Nobel prize. What a week. Just wait until Burma gets nukes...
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
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Charles and Camilla encountering the (non stage-managed) general public on their way to the London Paladium gave us all a vicarious whiff of what life might have been like during the French and Russian revolutions.
Best wishes from Simon