Tales and Imaginings

  Terminal Deity London, about 1978.

  The Heavens Fall London, 1978; autobiographical.

  The Objective Reality of Purgatory London, about 1978.

  On the Edge Largely written in Aran and London in the 1970s, and given a different sense in 2001; like ‘The Objective Reality of Purgatory’ it reflects my alarmed empathy with mentally troubled street people.

  Visits to the Black Cliff Suggested by nightmares I gave myself in writing about the old cliffmen of Aran (in Stones of Aran: Pilgrimage) in 1981.

  The Absence Aran, perhaps around 1980.

  Orion the Hunter Roundstone, 1996. Published in The Recorder, New York, Spring and Fall 1997, and in The Best American Essays 1998, ed. Cynthia Ozick.Dedicated to John Moriarty, who used to come in at the door described and hold forth at the foot of our bed.

  A Crystallography Roundstone, 1998. Published in The Recorder, Spring 1999. The alarm-clock and dream episode is autobiographical, the rest not.

  Olwen Fouéré in The Bull’s Wall Roundstone, 2000. Published as a Little Critic Pamphlet by Coracle Press, 2001. I thank Cinzia Hardy and Tony Fegan of European Players for proposing a collaboration between Olwen Fouéré and myself as part of the Dialogues Project, and Olwen Fouéré herself for lending her reputation to this notional outcome of the suggestion.

  Realism with a Human Face Roundstone, 2000. Very close to being a factual record of an actual encounter. The occasion described at the beginning was a celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Hubert Butler.

  If Undelivered Please Return Roundstone, 2001. Derived from experiences in Greece in the 1950s and London in the 1960s.

  Three Notes on the Elgin Marbles London, 2001. Published in The Dublin Review, no. 5, Autumn 2001, and as a limited edition with a drawing by Laurie Clarke by October Foundation, Eindhoven, in 2002. A lament for universal damage. In the first note, words in capital letters are taken from explanatory notices in the Parthenon Rooms of the British Museum.

  Copyright

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior permission of the publisher.

  First published 1997 by

  The Lilliput Press

  62–63 Sitric Road,

  Arbour Hill

  Dublin 7, Ireland

  www.lilliputpress.ie

  This digital edition published 2012

  by The Lilliput Press

  Copyright © Tim Robinson, 2012

  ISBN print hardback 978 18 435 10017

  ISBN eBook 978 18 435 12868

  A CIP record for this title is available from The British Library.

  The Lilliput Press receives financial assistance from

  An Chomhairle Ealaion / The Arts Council of Ireland