Blogging has been sporadic ...

... for a number of reasons, among them my having to restore a semblance of order to my home office and ever-growing number of books. I will have more to say this anon. For now I just want to mention that while putting some books away I happened upon Edith Sitwell's Collected Poems and pausing to look through it I came at once upon this, the opening lines of 'Lo, this is she that was the world's desire':

In the green winter night
That is dark as the cypress bough, the pine,
The fig-tree and the vine
When our long sun into the dark had set
And made but winter branches of his rays,
The heart, a ghost,
Said to our life farewell—the shadow leaves
The body when our long dark sun has gone ...

I think these lines are wonderful. It was a blessing to have come upon them as I did.