I got up this morning and did the usual BP and weight check (not too bad, but not good yet). I showered, did the dishes, made coffee, and studied Greek. I haven’t done Greek for two days while composing. Today I do not plan to seriously compose, but I will look over the two first drafts at the organ. I don’t have the time I usually like to take between compositional activity. I think of it as a gestation of sorts. But today (and maybe tomorrow) I plan to give my composer brain a bit of a rest.

I was startled last night that when I sat down to do a little playing at the piano I was so discombobulated from writing that I was rubbish. I don’t remember that happening before. No matter. Today I plan to do some serious prep for this evening’s rehearsal. I’m thinking I won’t get too clever in the order for rehearsal and concentrate on being prepared to do my part well or at least better than last week.

I did some poetry reading this morning. I have been rereading T. S. Eliot. This morning I read “Gerontion.”

Somewhere I have a little drawing I did about this poem that probably dates from my teens or early twenties. It’s odd to think how much influence Eliot has had on me. Today here is the line that leaped out at me:

I am an old man.
A dull head among windy spaces.

The poem begins with the description of a boy reading to an old man. When I first read this poem, I was closer in age to the boy but not quite that young. Now I am definitely the old man. Also, it is this poem that gave me the phrase, “Christ the tiger.” My Christology, such as it is for an old atheist, is definitely influenced by the Christ in Gerontion. Jes sayin.