10 10 07

FISH PRICES
Fleetwood - 22,500 kilos on the market. Witches 30p-£1; monkfish £2-£3.80; flounder 20p-60p.
Fraserburgh – 14 boats landed 1,005 boxes. Monkfish £90-£200; witches £40-£60. Boats – Virtuous, New Dawn, Celestial Dawn, Arcana
Peterhead, 9 boats, 2 consignments, landed 3,205 boxes. Monkfish £2.20-£3.40; witches £1-£2. Boats – Lapwing, Budding Rose, Harvest Hope, Fruitful Bough, Fair Morn

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I like the story I once heard of William Stafford. He said his habit was to write a poem every day. When asked how he managed to write so much, he thought a moment & answered “Some days I lower my standards.” The story may be true, is possibly apocryphal, but comes to mind writing this journal. I have too many words. What’s written here is spontaneous, I’ve nothing to lose but the words. It may be a broadcloth journal, from cutout bits from poems; the poems are the holes in the cloth from which they’ve been cut. Like the Jain image of the released spirit, a negative, since they’re not yet written. In the surrounding material are many repetitions in the pattern, like speech. What goes down here is only words. Attributed to Allen Ginsberg, (but certainly first articulated by Chogyam Trungpa, the Tibetan refugee who co-founded Samye Ling Tibetan Centre in Eskdalemuir) on spontaneity: First thoughts, best thoughts. If I think anything it’s probably: Having thoughts? Think again.

All words. I’m having a clear-out, there’s too many for my storage space. I’ve an incomplete set of oddities if anyone would like them, previously enjoyed (as car-salesmen say): unguent & ungulate. Some are words related to religion that I really should bin, like zealot & apocrypha, but they can be sold these days to newspapers. I have trouble getting out the word aspen, also, nearly always saying poplar instead. I blame Linnaeus. The botanic name of aspen is Populus tremula: the trembling poplar. I left a poplar for an aspen elsewhere in this journal. If you find it, it’s yours.