Great Regulars: I saw him seven months ago

on a cold, rainy weekday in Provincetown, and besides the fact that he did not stand and kept a throw over his lap, he seemed sharp and well. He warmed to talking quickly, his raspy voice ranging over all the old battles (and some new ones) with a self-retrospective quality that was weirdly charming. [--John Freeman on Norman Mailer]

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: From the blogs

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There's something regenerative in the act of boarding a train in one place and disembarking in another, without having actively engaged in the process at any juncture; it transports, in both senses of the word. Perhaps Larkin has it best at the end of The Whitsun Weddings when, the journey "nearly done", he reflects on "all the power/That being changed can give".

from Sarah Crown: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Poetry's railway lines

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