Love, Poetry and Revolution - Thursday 15th June 2023

Started the day with a brisk walk again, which also serves as a great time for a chat with Q as I follow a reverse route today.  Reverse route because I need to post my nephew's birthday card and I don't want to carry it for the entire route.

Work will be the order of the day until this evening, but in the meantime I'm going to quote this week's poem.  I read it to Q over the phone and she remarked it was the only poem she remembered from school, so I feel it deserves to be here for that reason alone.  It's by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and is called, 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways'.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

It's from a book of poems called 'Sonnets From The Portuguese' and I guess this one is written with Robert Browning in mind? If that is the case, the imagery is very spiritual/religious to me for a poem about a person. Q and I did discuss this and agreed that perhaps the language and references are limited by what was acceptable in the era and, perhaps more so, by the language women were allowed to use. 

Work is done and this evening is the final Idler drinks until October!  Tonight's speaker is Eleanor Catton, whose second novel, 'The Luminaries' won the Booker prize in 2013. She has just published another novel called, 'Birnam Wood'.   After a very interesting discussion which touched on the subject of narcissism with reference to the subject of a very high-profile report published today (no names were mentioned) the Idler rogue subset stayed behind and chatted for another hour.  Eventually, there was two of us, including our San Diego correspondent and we chatted for a while longer.  I had to end the conversation as there seemed to be no action on the dinner front here, and so I had to intervene.  

Dinner made, with help, we watched the first episode of 'Black Ops', which ended with quite a surprise.

Q is out for a work meal tonight with peeps from Michigan (in the US of A) and arrived home just as I was heading up to be poached again.

Yello / 'Lost Again' / 'You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess'

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