London again #2

July 11, 2010

It must be said that Clerkenwell is a most wonderful section of London. It irritated me last night, because it was distant from what I wanted to see, and I was not feeling well, but when I rose and walked this morning, I found the most delightful mazes of streets and stately–or whimsical–brick structures–very much the London tourists come to see, but don’t know how to find. Had cappuccino at the Angel Curve café, which I found as if led by spirits. There under the spire of Saint James Clerkenwell I wrote and wrote, and watched runners in red shirts with numbers pinned on, some of whom carried water bottles or were talking on cell phones, and waited for the rain which thinned by the hour in to the most imperial blue sky. I think I could live in Clerkenwell, though I might never stay here on vacation. It is a place one lives and thanks one’s lucky star. Even this odd hive in which we’re staying has a curious beauty about it, and last night was dead still, compared to the almost continuous din of Lucy Cavendish. Across from the Angel Curve is the Three Kings pub. Its three kings are Henry VIII, King Kong, and Elvis. My room looks down into a complicated courtyard, and one can mind any number of people’s business through the ranks of windows, if one has a mind.

Tate Modern Today– very little changed from when I breezed through in November, except that the great turbine room is empty. Tried to get my students to do some performance art there, but nobody took the hint. Watched the World Cup finals in the Duke of York. They seemed hapt when Spain won. Prince Wilhelm looked sad. Before he looked sad he looked almost inhumanly healthy.

Group activities have never been my joy. That opinion is not changed by my being the head of them. London at the end was a mistake, for we are all marking time. But I had joy this morning, which I remember in a poem, if I ever get it transcribed. What I meant to write tonight got sucked away in the struggle to get on the Internet, where there were no personal messages anyway. Almost never are.