Alive With Signs

For the first time in a long time I thought about Maman.

Folkestone, Kent, CT19

I felt as if I understood why at the end of her life she had taken a ‘fiancé,’ why she had played at beginning again. Even there, in that home where lives were fading out, evening was a kind of wistful respite.

Walker's Court, Soho, Westminster, W1F

So close to death, Maman must have felt free then and ready to live it all again. Nobody, nobody had the right to cry over her. And I felt ready to live it all again too.

Brentford Docks, Brentford, Hounslow, TW8

As if the blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world.

Brewer Street, Soho, Westminster, W1F

Finding it so much like myself — so like a brother, really — I felt I had been happy and that I was happy again.

Percy Dalton's, Dace Road, Bow, Tower Hamlets, E3

For everything to be consummated, for me to feel less alone, I had only to wish that there be a large crowd of spectators the day of my execution and that they greet me with cries of hate.

Duke of Wellington, Toynbee Street, Spitalfields, Tower Hamlets, E1

From Albert Camus’ L’Etranger (1942)

Lefevre Park

And some are pretty enough,
And some are poor indeed;

Helena Roden's Flowers, Lefevre Park, Bow, Tower Hamlets, E3

And now again the people
Call it but a weed.

From Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Flower (1864)

Donnybrook Quarter

A sharp pull at the back of the hood revealed her face and her hair, which was tucked into the neck of her sweater. This sudden movement broke her line of vision; she closed her eyes and when they re-focused she was staring at her whole face.

Donnybrook Quarter, Parnell Road, Bow, Tower Hamets, E3

She had pale skin but the stark, bright light bulb that hung from the centre of the ceiling without a shade or cover, made her seem a perfect white. The end of her hair curled underneath the lobes of her ears.

Donnybrook Quarter, Parnell Road, Bow, Tower Hamets, E3

She stared at herself for a long time. She realised her legs were beginning to tremble from standing motionless for so long.