Friday and I wake up after a reasonable nights sleep knowing that I am due at the dentists at 10:45. After a short lay in and chat with my partner I take some paracetamol and get up. With my meds done I wander off to the dentist where I wait to be called. My dentist is smiley and very efficient, and knows my dental and medical history in detail which makes going to the dentist so much easier given my history. I hand my fallen crown to her in its sample vial and she has a look inside my mouth. The decision is that my crown can be stuck back in and so we get on with it. It is a very quick procedure and I am soon back at reception being told that there is no charge. A result.

Back home I settle down to wait for a while before I can have a drink or anything to eat. My partner goes off with her brother to see her mother in the new hospital that she has been moved to. At least the parking should be easier. I make a late lunch and listen to some comedy programmes on the radio while drafting the blog. My Poetry Society quarterly review arrives and idly flip through it. This years winners of the annual poetry prizes are published in a pamphlet, which I leaf through. Its full of poems I do not understand and find difficult to read or connect with. It reminds me of a poem I wrote recently.

505
A tip toe round the tricky stuff poet,
full of tangential adjectives 
and illusions to cruel subtleties.
All nods and winks and introjections
that point a possible way
but averts the eyes at the last
when face to face with reality.
It’s kindness turning it’s gaze away
so as not to witness the implacable
nature of life passing through
and on without the reader.
Its form is flowing, never stopping
to view too close,
to capture conclusion 
only the thought of moving
inevitably towards
what cannot be borne. 
Its impressions 
brushed over and over
till the feeling is 
that something 
was there
but not quite clear what. 
It’s a harsh compassion. 

					505 05-03-2026

I drift along listening to more radio comedy programmes continuing to draft the blog. I know that there is an England football match this evening against Uruguay so I know what I will be doing for most of the evening. Tomorrow is the day of the States of Independence literary event at De Montfort University, which I intend to go to. There is an open mike session and I do not know if I am going to read at it. There are a couple of poems that I might consider reading. There is a well known local artist and poet being interviewed which might be interesting. It will give me a chance to talk to my publishers, Ruler’s Wit and see how things are with them. They have a stock of one of my books, The Cancer Years: Anthology, so I can offer autographed copies along with some of my new business cards. This year I shall probably attend for less time than previously given what else the family has to do this weekend, which is how life is.