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Website of poet Elizabeth Rimmer


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  • sunny morning

    Today is sunny again after yesterdays heavy rain, which is good, because this afternoon a man is going to go up on our roof to see why our chimney liner bangs in the wind. he wanted to go up last night at ten o’clock (in the rain, in the wind, with a torch that wasn’t working)and I think invoking the dreaded health and safety was for once quite in order. If all goes well we will be able to light a fire for the first time this year on Friday when the hearth cement dries out. Only a month later than the firm originally promised. And I will be able to get all the books back in the sitting room, and roll back the carpet and take off all the dust-sheets. Winter can start.

    Of course all this dealing with tradesmen takes a toll on the work, which is heading nicely towards the concept stage (ie no actual words written yet)and so does family history.

    This photo is of Grace Dieu House, which has figured in family history since my great-grandmother’s time.
    I discovered last week that my great-great-grandfather, who features in The Green cliffs of Moher was on the White Star Line ship The Atlantic which went down in March 1873, with the biggest loss of life at sea right up until the Titanic.And I’m still digesting the profound impact of seeing where I came from – both country and people. It explains so much, fills in so many gaps, makes sense of so many anomalies. It would be too much to say I felt I’d come home – I didn’t. But it showed me the sub-conscious bench-mark I’ve carried with me for what home should be like.


  • back from holiday


    I have been to Ireland and found my heritage, in terms of family history, culture, and some art forms I am surely going to incorporate into my work over the next few months. The weather was lovely, which was the first time you could say that since May, and we saw the Bru n-a Boinne and Tara, Glendalough, Cashel, Dublin,Kilkenny and Waterford. I can’t believe how much we packed in. There was music, history, landscape, some very kind and friendly people some good, and some very very bad food, a lovely cottage, and a pub session. Yes, I did sing. And if you push it, I’m going to do it again.
    The picture is by Paul Rimmer, and features the waterfall at Powerscourt, which is apparently the highest in the British Isles.


  • playing with Lucy

    Not much work is getting done today as I am spending it with my grand-daughter. Saracen Woman is recovering from the shock it got from agents. Note the change in title. Who was I kidding – it was always Mab’s story.
    The next novel is growing at the back of my mind. I’m thinking of calling it Recusant. It’s going to be a bit Jungian, and about music.
    But I’m also thinking about poetry for Lúcháir. There are several poems about water happening.


  • well done daughters

    Naomi graduated last Thursday, and it was brilliant. She got a first! She didn’t tell us, at first because she was waiting for confirmation and then because she expected it to be announced (which it wasn’t). So afterwards she said, Oh, you haven’t seen this’, and flashed the certificate and there it was.
    An utterly wonderful moment.
    Katherine and grand-daughter were there too, which was lovely.
    Looking over poems this morning, trying to work out what needs revising, what could go on the lúcháir blog and what could be sent out. It’s a whole new way of thinking and constructing thought and playing with language, and now my brain is waking up again after all the arthritis nonsense, I am loving it.


  • after the gap

    Blimey it’s a long time since I posted. It isn’t that I haven’t been working, though – at least it isn’t only that!
    We had family shenanigans, as some of us went to see Bruce Springsteen in Cardiff ( and yes, they were as impressed as all the people who have written in to Radio 2 were) and we all went to a silver wedding celebration. This involved mixing Granny, a five-month old baby, a lot of relations who don’t see each other very often, and someone’s new significant other – a recipe for trouble if ever you heard it! Actually, no. In fact it was all very enjoyable, though it felt like a very long journey home.
    Then there was all the catching up with the NHS. Don’t know why it is, but when you get one appointment you often find you have several all in a bunch. Like buses.
    But I have been working very hard on the revisions for Saracen Women, which are almost complete. I have discovered the temptations of cut and paste, which gives you the illusion of easy editing, but in fact just encourages you to think in terms of cool little pieces instead of a smooth flow and careful construction. It’s beginning to iron out, and I am beginning to feel pleased with it.
    Lúcháir is up and running now, though I have been rather slack at posting (same reasons, lame excuses). However, I am just going to remedy that one.


  • too much stuff

    This house is full of stuff. We have junk everywhere. Our papers now clutter three rooms and today I have community council work all over the sitting room floor and the kitchen table as well. We have Dom’s spiderman toys. We have half of Naomi’s stuff – and where we will put the rest when she finally comes home I don’t know. And we are both exploding out of our work spaces. I have had so many schemes for rationalising and de-cluttering, but I have reached the limit. I am going to have to get rid of books. There is no alternative.
    If it isn’t hurting, it’s not working.
    I put this on facebook, and SallyE got back to me saying there’s a good jumble sale in October. I wonder if I can persuade her to take things now?



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