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It’s Spring!
Hullooooooooooooooooo!
It’s me! I’m out of hibernation and raring to go. I even have a gig lined up but you can only come if you take all your clothes off. You think I’m joking. The lovely British Naturist Society are hosting an event at the Glenmorag in sunny Dunoon at which I shall be reading aloud. Pretty cool first literary gig, if you ask me.
I hope life is treating you well and that you are as excited about Spring as I am.
I re-discovered this poem today during my web wanderings and just wanted to share the loveliness and spread a little love.
As to my ‘regular Sunday blogs’ mentioned below, ahem, once in 2 years is still regular, right?
Kx
The opposite of a book festival
is not a book-burning,
it is indifference. Let them hear
us sing the difference. Love’s words
are louder, brighter than flames. Listen
I have watched Love’s sweat-earned words
plunge readers’ hands into
soft sweatpalmed lyrical hugs,
become part of an always us.
I have seen words introduce someone
to Love. Love is a work of art.
Novel. Novella. Epic. Poem. Story.
Love is an inveterate writer of letters,
emails and txts. I love Love, whose hair
is cut like a haiku, whose mind is epic
as a novel, whose hands are bright and
restless as a bookmark. I love Love.
Love is an us, Love shows us
life is an us. Listen, may this always
be the festival that loves
to make a difference. This festival
reminds us we belong with Love’s words
which, like village halls and ceilidh
places, are physical and inwardly
permanent parts of an us. Let us give
thanks to that which brought us to an us,
let us never forget that the opposite
of a book festival is not a book-burning,
it is indifference. Let us make a difference.
Kevin MacNeil
e = 0
It occurs to me, the more I read and learn, that the crux of life, the answer I have been searching for all along is that everything is nothing.
EVERYTHING is NOTHING.
Sorry for shouting, but it’s just such a difficult concept to grasp, like trying to hold onto a fish, you think you’ve got it then *sloop* it’s gone…
Everything is exactly the same as nothing.
It is a thought that is there in all the great literature, Goethe’s ‘Faust’, ‘Le Petit Prince’, Shakespeare, Burns, Tolkien (yes I am including him, the man’s a genius).
I finished Donna Tartt’s ‘The Goldfinch’ last night and in the utterly devastating final pages one phrase jumped out at me so that I had to read it over and over again:
‘The magic point where every idea and its opposite are equally true.’
Everything is nothing. Black is white. Love is hate. Life is death. Joy is despair.
I have been vaguely aware of this idea, like a black dot floating about on the periphery of my conscious mind for a very, very long time, but it is SUCH a difficult concept to grasp that it has taken me the 19 years since my first attempt at Goethe’s ‘Faust’ to fully assimilate and then to finally be able to articulate it in any meaningful way.
It’s in my book. I have captured it and written it down. A snapshot. ‘L’être (et le) néant’. A glimpse of this greater Truth. The ‘thing’ I have been searching for. The ‘thing’ we are ALL searching for, whether we are aware of it or not. The REASON. The WHY. The TRUTH. As a thought it is still like a slippery fish, like trying to catch a snowflake, you have it then *poof* it’s gone.
It’s too big. It’s too fragile. It’s too important. It’s much too beautiful.
How CAN everything possibly be nothing? How CAN black ever be white? It’s not possible…
But joy can be despair. Life can be death. It is, every day. Love can most definitely be hate.
There is great truth in this insight, but it requires further exploration.
Donna Tartt concludes:
‘I’m hoping there’s some larger truth about suffering here – or at least my understanding of it – although I’ve come to realize (sic) that the only truths that matter to me are the ones I don’t, and can’t, understand.’
Kate
The fairy dust has settled…
Hullo!
I’m so excited to have a REAL website back up; I haven’t used WordPress since the good old Midden days and it feels great to have a proper platform to stand on again!
I’m going to try to give you an update every Sunday (my day of rest) a wee catch up on what’s going on in the world of Kate.
I went to church this morning (weird, I know) and really enjoyed sitting in communal silence with a bunch of pleasant strangers listening to a brass band, the glorious sound of a proper organ and singing some of my favourite carols. Even just the bells ringing at 10am on a sunny Sunday morning lifted my spirits and my heart.
It took me back to the year I spent in Germany living in the Manse of Cadolzburg Castle where the bells tolled every quarter hour of my existence… a sound I grew to find strangely comforting, once I got used to the aural intrusion.
I’m actually supposed to be in Germany at the moment but something held me here in Scotland, so I am happily camped out on the sofa at The Coach House (wearing dad’s yeti-suit as it is fricking freezeballs) packaging up pre-orders and playing with Mr Zig, who, we have recently discovered, HATES the snow! SUCH a big jessie.
Over half of the first edition has already gone out to various locations around the globe, the furthest afield so far is to Kari in California. It feels great to be free of all the pain that went into those poems. Each book I post leaves me feeling a little lighter. Ute, Kevin, Gordon, Duncan, Eddie and Pam, thank you for helping me pull it all together – I hope your copies have landed on your doormats!
I must also thank Dòl Eoin and Grant for the stunning cinematography and digital wizardry involved in promoting a project like this. It has been such a joy working with such talented folk. MORE!!!
I’m a bit of a wordy birdy so I will call a halt here, but please keep popping back as Dòl and I have some more visual treats in store for you…
Much love, stay cosy,
Kate x
Welcome!
You found me!
Welcome to the site.
This page will feature regular updates with new videos by Dòl Eoin, poetry commentary and more.
There will be plenty to see and hear so keep coming back!
Kate