Some Holiday Reading

Cabo de Sao Vicente

I'm off to Portugal tomorrow evening for a week.  To Olhos D'Agua which is near Albufeira in the Algarve.  It is going to be around 30 degrees so the warmth will be a bit of a shock but it will be a welcome one.  I've packed some books to read and a notebook with pens and pencils.  I hope to write a few pieces.  I have Being Human the latest Bloodaxe anthology to read.  I haven't allowed myself to look at it yet.   I also have a collection of short stories by Chekhov, Shutter Island, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and a copy of The SHOp to muse through and over.  I won't have my laptop with me.  I also plan to take some nice photos.  Below is a poem by Maya Angelou who wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings which I have started already. 

Touched by An Angel 

by Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

Cape St. Vincent