Seven Days in the Park #5

There are no more sudden storms. The house is quiet tonight and it is only me here now, until tomorrow when the Exhibition downstairs opens up for the weekend. I finally got to meet Dean Atta, as he was leaving, with the exchange being a really significant moment. Most conversations here are, if truth be told: it is a place where observation often outweighs the outcomes.

I spoke to three poets today: one by DM, the second on Zoom and the last one in person. All three are now intentionally relevant as contact points, for vastly different reasons: a friend, a mentee and a performance partner. This is the bit of this job that I now crave more than having work successfully published, if truth be told. The connections, the relationships, the collaborations are all joyous.

The fringe benefits of this space are the gift that keeps on giving.

Quite apart from the Bakery that provided this as a takeaway lunch item today, less than five minutes walk from the House, I have got to learn a surprising amount about how shit works in an arts space since Monday. New friends have been made, relationships have been cemented and old mates keep popping up out of nowhere. I also did an exercise where I was asked to bring a selection of my work to donate to a new poetry library on site. I could pull over a dozen books together.

When all is said and done, actually, a lot of great things have been produced since we started this journey. It is easy to forget the bigger body of work when so much time is spent obsessing on details. It also really easy to decide nothing goes well when you cannot exactly secure the outcome you desire as a poet. This week I have learnt the value of celebrating myself, and the amazing things I have done, and more importantly am yet to achieve. I am a constant work in progress.

I really will miss this view when I have to go home.

However, I miss the kids more, I miss my husband and the dog. I need a yoga ball to sit on and my PC for the word processing and to get back to the project I was halfway through before leaving of finally throwing out things that no longer fit me. I wanna start exercising really hard again. The poetry is pretty much taking care of itself for the next few months. There is time now to genuinely relax and enjoy the ride a bit.

That’s really what I should be doing a lot more than is currently the case.