Mud

‘Mud pleases the noble of heart, because it is constantly scorned . . . You are beautiful, after the storm makes you, with your blue wings!’

Unfinished Ode to Mud, Beverley Bie Brahic’s translations of Francis Ponge, has been shortlisted for the 2009 Popescu Prize for European poetry in translation.

(No living books were harmed in the making of this picture – it was a rogue copy, with pages in random order.)

And then, just when I'd taken this picture, my cousin came round with his son, who is called Francis.