Monday Morning. I wake with Gorecki’s Symphony No3 Op.36 in my head because the second movement was inspired by a Jewish girl. She was imprisoned by the Gestapo. Gorecki was moved by the words she wrote on the walls of her cell.

Got a message first thing this morning saying my article Towards A Walk In The Sun: poetry and revolution, is published in Baaba Maal’s online magazine D’accord.

“Revolutions happen when the collective spirit of a people rises up to say “no more”. But how does the spirit speak? In the recent Arab Spring. poems from the Abul Qasim Al-Shabi were chanted through the streets of Tunisia Poems by Tamim Al-Barghouti were read out in unison by the masses in Tahir Square at the heart of the Egyptian revolution. The pen may be mightier than the sword but together they are unstoppable….

I cycle into London town, to Portland street and meet my friend Kate Daudy bathed in sunshine. She’s very cool. She’s an artist. She’s brought a snow suite from one of Ozwald Boateng’s window displays, for me. It’s amazing. We have coffee. We catch up. She makes me laugh. I make her laugh. That’s how it is. And then we step into the brand new as yet unopened BBC building. (continued)