It’s hard to think that just a few days ago we were enjoying exceptionally warm and sunny days for the time of year. This morning the weather is grey and windy and wet, although it is still quite mild.
That was then…
…and this is now.
The cats have made it clear they are not going out this morning. One is at the back door obviously pleading with me to do something about the weather. But he always does that when the weather turns bad. And I suppose it makes sense; he knows we give him food and shelter and all the cushions he can sit on, so we must be gods and can therefore fix anything. Surely?
I want to write a review for a book this morning, but I’m finding it hard to get going. That Sunday morning feeling. Getting up late and taking a long time over coffee, indulging ourselves by listening to choral music by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.
Staring out at the weather.
I am in the process of completing a long poem about a long journey – one that shaped, in many ways, much of the art I practise now. Well, not a long journey in strictly temporal terms, but a bus journey from Delhi to Kathmandu that took about thirty hours, the first of many long bus journeys I have taken in India and Nepal. Sometime afterwards, I had wanted to find a way of recording my impressions of this journey, and toyed with a few earlier poems, and then some watercolour painting, and what amounted to prose in the form of reportage, but nothing seemed to work. This led me to experiment with my painting styles in acrylics, giving rise to the semi-abstract style I have used to paint a number of Indian scenes.
That was another then. Not the then I was talking about, but another. Quite a similar then, though.
I assumed I’d never get around to recording that journey satisfactorily.
But last month we were travelling home on a bus after dark, going through open countryside near home. I was gazing out of the window into the darkness, when I began to understand exactly how I wanted to write that poem, over *cough* thirty years ago…
And now it is almost finished, with just a bit of tweaking to do.
Mick Canning 
I often find that a poem that wants, but struggles, to be written just has to wait for its day. Look forward to reading the one that had to wait 30 years!
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This one had a heck of a genesis! But yes, I was never going to force it. It was really a case of finding a way into it.
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My Dad used to say if it refuses to be built now, forget it, then when you accidentally fall over it later in life, have another go.
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Yes, I think your Dad was saying much the same thing as Peppy. And he was definitely right.
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Thirty Years Ago? That’s such a long time, it must be almost three decades surely? How can you remember anything from those old black and white days? Strange how 30 years is an unimaginable road stretching out into the distance when you’re young but the blink of an eye when you are older isn’t it? I often forget just how old I am.
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Of course, in this case it is still an unimaginable road stretching out into the distance!
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My cat thinks he’s a god! Not visa versa – you’re a lucky man.
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Does your cat not expect you to arrange the weather for him, then?
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No he threatens us with thunder and lightening if we misbehave!
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Well, yeah, that too…
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I have never been to the far East but I was told that this is quite an experience! Beautiful blog! Waiting for the poem
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Certainly an experience, yes. Thanks!
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You must like a challenge. Writing is hard enough, without cramming it into a long poetic structure. Hope it turns out well.
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Thanks, Dave. The challenges rather corner me, unfortunately, and demand I do something about them.
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Sir, I have 2 questions
Question1: Do you have cats?
Question2: did you travel in that bus?
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We do have cats, yes. They own us! And I did indeed travel on that bus. It was very cramped and uncomfortable!
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I am not sure I would ever travel on that bus myself. We call them roadway buses, and they are the subject of many indian jokes. But it must be a unique experience. Not sure if I want that experience though. 😀
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It is quite an experience, yes. And I’ve done a number of long distance trips on them.
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I wonder when you last visited india?
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The last time was 2015
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I see. That seems so long back.
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It does, yes.
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