It’s already been two months, my mother says, can you believe it? I can and can’t. But we are always moving even when we think we’re not, the earth spinning at 1500 feet per second while orbiting the sun /
at 100,000 feet per second while the sun and the earth and all the planets in the solar system whirl around the center of the Milky Way at incredible speed Even this, our galaxy among its cluster of galaxies, moves through space, sliding toward a central point. It is a wonder...

 

Cornelius Eady has published more than half a dozen volumes of poetry, among them Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (1985), winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets; The Gathering of My Name (1991), nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; and Brutal Imagination (2001), a National Book Award finalist.

In the elbow of the snug, our absent selves make ready – open cases, ease bellows, tune strings – spread the rosin; some chit-chat about weather, the match, a bit of world news thrown in. Flute enters, shrugging off the raingear, bicycle clips; Banjo tries to order drinks, plink-plink of a coin on an empty glass. A few are already warming up fingers, loosening wrists, softening lips; taking off into a gentile O’Carolan set, maybe a jig or two, before letting rip with a few high tempo reels...

We, by nature, have definite expectations of those a certain age. Cynical, I guess, but realistic. I was only walking down the main drag of my home town this morning – a quaint seaside town in north-west England – surveying…

Greetings enthusiastic music students, and congratulations. You have chosen the entertainment industry as your profession. I have been in it for the last forty-seven years, and I can tell you it’s truly a fantastic industry. The number of options and…