17 FEBRUARY 1996, Page 32

Carried Away

You wonder when you will ever write anything you can be pleased with again. Being quite pleased on and off with things you have written at various times. Then the woman you love calls your attention to winter light bright delicate sweet on the silvery white honesty leaves the old glass of the old mirror geraniums bright in their pots the old broderie dressing table cloth the peach colour wall translucent shadows on the wall layers of per- spective of perceived reality in a window corner.

What can you do but celebrate, stop worrying, rejoice. This: write.

Michael Kelly