Several days ago I answered the phone to a lady calling on behalf of the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB). She was conducting a survey and as I am myself blind and I was, at that juncture at a loose end I agreed to answer a few simple questions. At the end of the survey the lady asked my age and on me confirming that I am in my 40’s she announced that
“I’ve been doing all the men in London in their 40’s today and I’m very tired”. Now what can one say to that …
The sound of the surf, swish, swish as the great waves come and go fills my head. The tide sweeps all before it, the great waves flattening sand castles and all our human works. At first the moat fills with water but the castle still stands grand and tall against the tide’s mighty roar. Slowly walls subside the whole being taken back by the great ocean, returning to whence it came.
Standing on the cliff edge the roar fills my ears. The hypnotic sound of waves breaking and receeding is all that can be heard. The world is drowning being taken back by the great atlantic. All will eventually pass but not quite yet for slowly the tide receeds but tomorrow he will return in all his mighty glory and anger reminding us that we are mere men. Time and tide wait for no man, both keep rolling, humans attempt to run and hide but, eventually all will be brought low like the puny sand castles we built as children.
Slowly I replace the conch shell on the shelf in my living room. The sound of the clock reasserts itself and distant twittering of birds is heard.
Thus far all of my books have appeared under my given name (either K Morris or Kevin Morris). I am, however considering publishing a future book under a pseudonym. In the ideal world I’d publish and be damned but we do, unfortunately live in a world which is far from ideal. Indeed if we lived in such a world the matters dealt with in my proposed book would never see the light of day because, quite simply they would not have occurred.
I will write my book and if I feel it to be good enough it will appear as a self published work under a name other than my own. Just possibly, at some point in the future I may consider revealing my identity in terms of the planned book but I very much doubt that this will be the case for many years to come, if ever.
Walking in the woods after rain. Damp grass caressing my naked feet, the scents of nature heady and pervasive.
Losing myself in the dark mystery, moving ever closer towards that which can not be expressed.
Time appears to stand motionless. That old gnarled log on which I have so often rested stretches it’s bulk across the leaf strewn path. Once part of something living it now acts as a convenient bench while, imperceptibly it decays returning to what it once was, rich earth which will give rise to new life.
Long before me these trees have stood. I will go and they will remain. I am part of something beyond myself, a living organism in nature’s mysterious plan. Yet I deny this on occasions. Hiding behind my computer’s screen or my head full of noise ear glued to my mobile. All seems paltry as I walk here. The technology with which man surrounds himself is a silly toy. Nature laughs at us. She waits, Man will go but she will remain.
The real melts away like summer snow to be replaced by the insubstancial, that which we can not grasp.
From a very young age my grandfather and others bought me spoken word cassettes. These ranged from Stevenson’s Treasure Island to Brontae’s Wuthering Heights. I still possess most of them. They stand neatly stacked on a bookcase in my living room.
As a child I remember marvelling at the fact that a strip of thin magnetic tape could contain famous actors reading the classics of English literature. Later I wondered how CDs could hold on their round plastic surfaces the classics of world literature.
In retrospect both cassettes and CDs can be seen as a move from the substancial to the virtual. Granted the words of readers where contained on tape or disk, however language remained encased within plastic, one could take down from one’s CD rack Oliver Twist, look at the picture on the box, remove the disks, place them in a CD player and watch the small round disk move as words poured forth from the speakers. Now this is being replaced by virtual readings provided by companies such as audible.com which can be listened to on a variety of devices ranging from PCs to I-pods. Language is still contained within a flat cigarette lighter shaped I-pod but it somehow seems less real than holding a cassette tape or a CD.
I’ve recently started to record some of my poetry on Youtube which means that it is potentially available to people anywhere in the world unless you are unlucky enough to live in North Korea where access to the internet is confined to the security services and other top officials in the regime. Gone are the days when one had to pop into W H Smiths to buy a cassette or CD. Now all that is needed is a connection to the internet and bob’s your uncle, you can hear me reading (or attempting to read)! My work.
Everything that is solid melts and vanishes to be replaced by the virtual. Perhaps we are going full circle by returning to an earlier pre-print age where people told each other stories while huddled around the camp fire. The most important thing is that literature survives whether virtually or encased within the pages of books. In fact I hope (and I believe) that the virtual will never wholly replace the real, but it is, in the final analysis the survival of literature and art which matters rather than how that manifests itself.
For my Youtube channel please visit https://www.youtube.com/user/101drewdog
Me reading my poem entitled ‘Rain’. This poem was inspired by me standing by the window you can see in the video, listening to the rain. It is a lovely, sunny Wednesday evening, but the same window, and the same garden, on which the rain fell several weeks ago!
Me reading my poem, ‘Young Lady, Older Man’.
Me reading my poem entitled ‘The Ice Maiden’. I am not telling who the lady in question is!
Me reading my poem entitled Birds,
I now have a Youtube channel on which I will place videos of me reading my work. So far there are 3 videos all of me reading my poems but it is my intention to add to my channel over time. For my Youtube channel please visit http://www.youtube.com/user/101drewdog/videos. I hope you enjoy my videos, my books and the material on this blog.
Kevin
K Morris - Poet 