Welcome to the void

Posted by Simon Parke, 3 Jul 2020

And when you finally arrive - and only the smashed and broken do - there is no hope to welcome you at the door

No baubles, no balloons or ‘You’re jolly good fellow!’ loudly sung

It’s bloody awful and you need to get out

This is the worst. How did it happen?...

Every night to let go

Posted by Simon Parke, 30 Jun 2020

Every night to let go

Of every rage and thwarted move

Every past and future thing, which gather to oppress

They keep us awake, like drunks in the street

So every night to let go

Of every dream conceived…

The Mirror and the Light reviewed

Posted by Simon Parke, 30 Jun 2020

In hardback, this is a big book; a physical monster. Don’t take it on holiday – it will use up most of your baggage allowance; and it’s also brilliant.

I almost add ‘of course’ to the end of that sentence; as if such a thing is inevitable from Hilary Mantel, twice Booker Prize winner; though nothing is – a truth which King Henry’s advisers knew well…

Things fall apart?

Posted by Simon Parke, 23 Jun 2020

‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre.
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.’
WB Yeats in ‘The Second Coming’

And if I am to live well today; if I am to bless and be blessed in return…

God's apology

Posted by Simon Parke, 23 Jun 2020

God saying sorry to me; and yes, that is what happened

I was dismayed as you

I’d always been told it was the other way round: me saying sorry to God…