Beat

The Loneliness Affliction

In our society there is some confusion over the distinction between being alone and feeling alone. The causative element leading to depression is the sense of isolation, which can affect the sufferer even when he or she is in a crowded room.

..bitten by DESPAIR and SLOTH, i fell wounded, venom coursing though my blood… whilst Mukunda and Moonglow wrestled best they could with ENVY’s evil head….it was Bumble though, who saved me, as in the instant he saw me fall, ANGER had reared his mighty head, the killing blow deliverance…had he not been STUNG by bee….

I want to believe that there’s a reason, a plan, for my existence. I’d like to be the culmination of a million years of a breeding program just to make someone as amazing as me. But I’m not really amazing, and neither are you. Or maybe you are. It all depends on how you judge amazingness, I suppose. And all my novels, short stories, poems, address that issue. The calculation of amazingness.

Bob Dylan didn’t go to his audience and beg to be accepted. They found him, and when they did they found him valid, and their word of mouth spread like a cultural flash flood.

Will Smith, the writer, comedian and star of The Thick of It, would frequently post pictures of Pierce Brosnan on Twitter, with captions such as the following, accompanying a shot of Brosnan painting in his garden with a hat slung behind his neck: You come home to find your new gardener painting your wife in the nude. Why, I asked him, is Pierce Brosnan so brilliant? “Because he’s like a walking Rolex ad,” he said. “Because of the seriousness with which he’ll put on a cufflink or pick up a shot glass. But also because he knows exactly how cool and ludicrous he is at the same time.”

The New Goodbye is a project aimed at demonstrating to publishers the potential of new formats. With the iPad now on the market, giving Apple a reading device of yet more scope, the potential is even greater. What I personally want to show, by using the app as a platform to secure a publishing deal, is that, done the right way, these formats can create demand for a printed book, and will not cannibalise print sales as most publishers fear.

“But we have created something, we have produced it and we’re involved in the warehousing, distribution, logistics, marketing and costing. We lift boxes, fix problems, attend trade fairs. We do absolutely everything. I don’t know how we’ve done it but the pair of us are hugely resilient, we are persistent, probably a bit stubborn, and we don’t like failure, so we put our hearts and souls into trying to make things work.”

At last, the waiting is over, he steps on stage, ACID DRENCHED AND SILVER SKINNED, a comic book hero, biker king, a self-styled messiah, stretching, preacher thin, hidden eyes surveying the “mosh pit” below with a threatening stare, a wolf amongst the sheep….

Every poet is invited to submit one entry, it can use any poetic form, but must be previously unpublished, the poet’s own work and less than 40 lines.
The judges are looking for distinct poetic voices that display originality, craftsmanship and memorability

The white crosses needed constant painting. It was a usual rainy Autumn, and the fat, heavy drops would cause mud to spatter. Damp seeped into the hut, and I found myself dreading the cold nights and the slow days. I think it was November when I came to the conclusion that something had to be done.

It is my impression that making a career out of the intricacies of the law has less to do with wisdom and compassion and more to do with having a somewhat legalistic mindset. And it is my impression that to work in litigation in particular you have to be up for something of a scrap as well. Because litigation, when you look at it, is a form of Robot Wars for pedants.