We talked about the whole world.

Update: You can read one of Ned's poems at wantsacracker, where he is known by his other (more :P real) name.

In the morning Gray met one of the Bugsplat Sculpture Trail poets, Ned, and described him to me as a strange and wonderful man. I didn't recognise him immediately when he came into the Bugsplat Visitor Centre in the afternoon, but he introduced himself and we really connected. He went back to his hotel to fetch a book of his poems for me.
(and they're good!)
I asked if we could meet him for dinner and that's just what we did.
At Castenada's. Gray brought the last bottle of our best 2002 Bugsplat shiraz . We talked about the whole world. Music, poetry, life, sexuality, the wheatbelt, John Kinsella's Vegan Dessert. We all liked each other. It was oddly comforting. The intersections in our lives, the shared understandings. He grew up near to my mother's country. One of his poems describes her landscape perfectly. He had a lot in common with Gray - music and prodigy and similar disillusionments as a youth. I guess this is another little relief of some sort. To be able to be so civilised without losing sincerity. It was memorable. He's special. It was a night you just can't organise.