I was going to title this post 'Poor Visibility" - an Eyewear title if ever there was one - but went for the more theologically resonant one instead. Odd times over the European skies today - ash is general over England, and beyond. There was a large volcanic eruption in Iceland on Wednesday. Due to the weather conditions, a plume of volcanic ash has now spread southwards towards northern Europe and is severely affecting all airlines' flight activity in the area. For safety reasons and on the direction from Air Traffic Control Service (Nats) a decision has been made to cancel a number of flights and close all London airports. All British Airways domestic services have been cancelled on Thursday 15 April. On the BBC, they are talking about maybe no flights until Saturday, unless the ash plume, now pretty immobile, moves on. This seems relatively unprecedented, and more than a little sci-fi slash disconcerting. No eye in the sky, indeed. Iceland's revenge on Britain for the banking crisis?
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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Or karma. Anyway, I was thinking exactly the same thing at the same time! Could these events also be responsible for the strange weather all around the world now, including snow in Calgary and Lethbridge (it's almost May!), incessant sunny hot-rariny cold-sunny hot-rainy cold non-stop alternating days here in Taiwan, the extreme fog that was behind the deaths of the Polish President, etc. etc.? I really wonder.
Global warming be damned. I think we are near the end of the world. Perhaps the Mayan calendar, the interpretation of it, and John Cusack helping people to some grotesque ark are all turning out to be true.... Okay, not the last bit.