15 NOVEMBER 2008, Page 47

T AKING THE E DGE O FF

Training the bellows on a splinter of sparks one early morning of poxed snow a low moon malingering in blue-haggard light and every cell recoiling in the hollow of the year on a concrete floor, it seems the whole technique of staving off the cold, and loneliness and the rest, is to find an angle on the thing, such as all is provisional, or else providential, or there but for the grace of God

go I, whatever

it takes to trick the mind of a resourceful animal training the bellows on a splinter of sparks it can blaze into irrational happiness or at least, at least, it can take the edge off.

Stephen Romer