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I’ve just found something new in a book that I’ve read lots of times before. When this happens, I have to get over my frustration at not being a perfect reader: thorough, with perfect recall. (Who is that reader, anyway?)  But then I get to remember that the best books offer some of their wisdoms and beauties immediately and then, if you let them, more, irregularly, over years. The book I’ve been re-reading is Derek Mahon’s New Selected Poems . You may have known Mahon’s poem

I have been fostering a fascination with iridescent medium – actually, with many things shiny. (Iridescent medium is a thick, sparkly glue-like additive for acrylic paint. Winsor and Newton made the one I have.) I also love applying varnish to a finished painting, or gloss medium (an additive for acrylics, essentially acrylic paint without pigment). You might have seen this done on Instagram. The effect is a bit like when you wet a stone you have picked up from the beach and