So it’s not all reading windows, and competitions, and new publications. Or whatever else people think poetry publishers (even little ones) do.
Much of the necessary and time-consuming stuff is too ordinary to talk about. It makes for a boring blog.
But I’m not averse to boring people. Otherwise they might think it’s all FUN here.
So my August was sorting out the archives in the roof, and getting some of the boxes ready to send to the National Library. It involved dust and cobwebs, ladders and trips to the dump – sorry ‘recycling centre’.
And then there was the self-assessment return and updating the accounts. Lord knows, this takes days and days and days.If I would only do it every month it wouldn’t be so bad, but I start well each year, and then suddenly I’m five months behind.
And then there’s stock-taking. And taking stock.
Ordering new envelopes, all sizes, for despatch and for cards. More boxes!
Ordering new labels, new toner, new pencils, new batteries.
And letter writing (some people do still write them, by hand, and on paper).
Reading poems for non-window people (promises are promises).
A bit of tidying my desk, and in this case ordering a new one, since this one can’t be moved without collapsing. And a new chair, since the current one is the polar opposite of ergonomic.
Getting hair cut. Visiting old friends. Some of them very old.
A funeral or two. Review of black or grey clothes.
Getting teeth scaled and polished (*grins and flashes teeth*).
Working on one small poem of my own. Slowly.
Bramble picking and making jelly.
Watching the crab apples ripening. (Crab apple jelly soon.)
Reading Peter Main’s excellent biography of Ruthven Todd.
Reading Matthew Walker’s rather worrying book about sleep.
Making ice cream.
Clearing and cleaning the freezer.
Making bread.
Drinking Pact coffee.
Thinking.
