Geoffrey Hill and Robert Lowell

These two have occupied large amounts of my leisure time in the last couple of years. Hill's Comus
attracted me because I'm a fan of Milton and Lowell's Collected Poems appealed because I'd read him in my teens and I have some experience of manic depression.
It transpires that Hill is a more interesting writer, he's known to be obscure and difficult but I din't find that with Comus. What I did find was a poet who clearly struggles with himself and works out these struggles on the page. I don't share either his belief or his ideology but I do admire his honesty.
Lowell I found to be accomplished but cynical as if he is manipulating the reader to revel in the role of voyeur. He also flaunts his mental health issues a little too much.

I love the Washington Posts's traffic cam as a kind of Zen thing- they have cameras all over Washington which refresh every ten seconds. I keep a browser pointing to it whilst at work and find that it is a wonderful way of relieving tension/stress.

Introduction

This is going to be used to think out loud and to point others to stuff that they might find interesting or perplexing.
I am very fond of the Arts and Letters Daily page which contains daily links to decent journalism and comment from around the English-speaking web.