Hi folks I am reading in Bridge Hotel Newcastle on Weds 24th at Bridge Hotel
near High Level Bridge, as part of a big line up for Amnesty.from about 7
pm.  As I crashed the car on Skye last week, it will be difficult to
persuade my husband that this is a good idea - but I expect to be there!

Here is a little something I have jost written for c & c

First Book

With your hands you open things,
with your eyes you see words
and pictures, letters, colours.
In your mind you recognise,
in your fingers, feel
and with your heart, taste
An Apple

Your book is the past and the present,
the past is the present.
You pulled books all over the floor
out of a box.
You totter round the room
bearing one at random,
at the beginning of a story
printed on seven pages of pasteboard
that may be as simple as it seems.

Or it may open cages,
enliven dragons,
stir up a tide of questions
in the nursery of your soul,
all that the great men
and wise women of the past
have wished downwards
to new beginnings
in you,

as you carry the proud smile
of ownership of concepts,
gripping and pointing.
If ever computer
is read under a tree
or carried in duffel pocket
I shall call it An Apple
and remember you,
baby grasping
your first taste
of knowledge.

Sally Evans