Caroline Hett

Happy Days, Act II on Derrynane beach.

Make a band edible: Fleetwood Big Mac

Home now after swimming the 2KM Christiansborg Rundt and the Kruger Relay in Copenhagen. Lovely time with friends and family in a beautiful city.

Walking the cobbles of Nyhavn thinking about Samuel Beckett and I pass this. Synchronicity?

This seems the perfect day for us all to read Julian Stannard’s excellent poem The University of Lanyard #Lanyard

‘It’s a national reclamation’: the 12-year festival bringing Samuel Beckett back to Ireland

Vase of flowers from the garden, everything apart from the cotinus grown from seed. My garden would like some rain now please.

I wrote about how the young Andy Burnham's admiration for Philip Larkin was all part of his grand plan to rule the UK

Michael Hofmann accompanied me to the lido.

I love the way Michael Hofmann describes Wallace Stevens as “the Matisse among poets” and “imitating a whole orchestra, not despising the triangle.” (Behind the Lines by Michael Hofmann, published by Faber & Faber.)

Today at the lido: 18 degrees in the water. Cycled 10KM here and about to cycle the 10KM home after a gorgeous swim. Forgot to bring a sandwich.

After two months using the leisure centre’s sweat-drenched yoga mats, I finally rested my third eye on my own mat.

Christmas treats.

Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh is very special to me. Such a joy to find Humphrey Jennings—my latest poetry crush— looking at the same rafters in his poem ‘Blythburgh’.

Dreamt I was with Humphrey Jennings on the terrace at Tate Modern. HJ was filming Hieronymous Bosch’s Ascent of the Blessed against the backdrop of St Paul’s at night. It was my job to turn on and off off an enormous floodlight. (I blame @jntod.bsky.social ’s wonderful poetry Substack.)

Now finished the unfinished autobiography tra-la.

Having a very serious holiday romance with Louis MacNeice. It started with Selected Poems (ed by Auden), then raced on to his unfinished autobiography. My marriage is now in tatters; LM poems sound so goddam good read aloud.

The violent fascist riots in the UK may be over for now. I begin to hope so. But it’s not sufficient to say they were ‘not British’. White supremacism is woven into history, culture, language. Here’s a thread of UK-based poets who have written about how this can be found in everyday situations.

Been thinking about this. Malcolm Lowry and also Jean Rhys. After Leaving Mr Mackenzie is a work of genius.

What has gone wrong, that we should all seem to be made of paper and straw? John Cheever, Journals, The Sixties Wonderful book.

I know I make a symbol Of the foxglove on the wall. It is because it knows you. from Dear Bryan Wynter by WS Graham

I write about myself with the same pencil and in the same exercise book as him. It is no longer I, but another whose life is just beginning.

The warmth and light beginning to go now. Coffin on its way. Fade. Gone. (Gardening Samuel Beckett style.)

“Great quiet over land and sea. No transistors. No excrutiating 2-strokes. Stone & stones everywhere, often golden, outcrop & innumerable walls.” Samuel Beckett, Letter from Malta

Roquefort salad with pancetta, walnuts, mixed leaves and cherry tomatoes. In your face, Monday.

Yesterday at the lido: 12 degrees in the water, swimmimg felt heavenly. Today at the lido: 11.5 degrees in the water, swimming felt difficult. Like swimming in different seasons, just one day apart. #coldwaterswimming

“Nice roughish sea today. Let it batter me twice.” September 1972 letter from Malta to Barbara Bray from Samuel Beckett.

I made a carrot cake. Delicious.

If you read only one thing today, make it this beautifully written piece by André Naffis-Sahely for Poetry London. poetrylondon.co.uk/i-will-be-su...

Seven more reasons why I should be banned from second-hand bookshops.

Today at the lido: 17 degrees in the water and light rain. The painful ‘ice-cream face’ stage comes at around 14 degrees and below. I love everything about the lido. Just look at the paintwork. ♥️

What’s the best order to read Samuel Beckett for a non-completist?