Bit of pear tree

Up in the Smoke yesterday, after dropping a turd at the path lab, I wandered into one of those second-hand book shops that sell Harold Robbins, Barbara Cartland, Danielle Steel ... that sort of crap. But in there was Gwen Harwood’s Selected Poems. Much to be had from this fine and sadly missed lady. Like:

... [he] feels her crazy joke redeem

the dismal day. He takes her arm.
She smiles at him, and he can guess
how bright she was, how full of charm.
— Such intervals! Let music bless
all hopes, all loves, however odd.
Music, my joy, my full-scale God.

(From “A Scattering of Ashes”, 1981)

Just the sort of thing you need on such a shitty day.