Friday, September 18, 2009

In from the sun

I've been in Cyprus since Tuesday, on work trip, and have an evening of travel ahead of me. Its been generally lovely weather and the people have been really hospitable, but it has been work, and after four full days I'm a bit desperate for some "me" time. I found myself talking to the mayor of Paralimni yesterday about George Seferis, as the only Greek poet I know, but I hadn't realised that much of his work was written in this part of Cyprus. I'll have to dig out my "Selected Poems" in English when I get back. Having read alot about the imagists recently, there's something mystical about seeing Greek language on all the signs. (Many early imagist poems were also Hellenist, with titles and epigrams in Greek.) Oh, for a classical education. Yet, despite all the culture shock, the world is the same all over and the local authorities want similar things for their citizens as anywhere else in the world, and see technology as one of the ways of achieving it.

I've written a few lines of poetry, but nothing finished yet, as it's been very much snatched time between the official functions. I arrive back in Manchester in the early hours, and I'll need a bit of time to reconnect with the day-to-day.

The reason for the visit was partly because all projects kick off again in September - we're a service economy; a people ecology - and all that people activity has to take place Monday-Friday, mid September to mid December.

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