A slow effervescence of wind-lifted rain / on knuckle and cheekbone / sweet / occasional prickling / that is met as I walk above the creek, having come down a lane / and out to the back / of the long yards at the edge of town / fragile assault / in the steamy afternoon.

Almost to the end James hoped that he and Stevenson might meet again. ‘Is it all a fable that you will come some month to the Mediterranean? I would go to the Pillars of Hercules to greet you.’ A bold offer, but what James really wanted was not to venture forth, but to go back.

In my twenties – living frugally so that I could write and travel, via a very-part-time day job – buying a literary magazine was a big thing; the early editions of HEAT I have on my bookshelf usually tell a story of writing obsessions at the time.

In all weather, but most often in winter, when the days are so short and so cold that seven-tenths of a guard’s life is lived in the dark, or half-dark.

the goldfish pepsi / bumps into / her double in the / mirror glass of the tank / would she try to eat herself / for breakfast we could / play her the tape of dorian / gray

Many persons are fluent in more than one language, but my setting out some years ago at the age of fifty-six to teach myself Hungarian provokes comments and questions from those who get to hear of it.

standing under the ex-wife’s house concrete pillars covered in / the hieroglyphics of grubby little hands pieces of antique chairs hang / that we had planned to restore together arm-rests of that old coach,

Guan Wei’s artist’s book Method for Eggplant Cultivation is accompanied here with three preparatory sketches for the work.

Eggplants first appeared in Guan Wei’s work more than a decade ago. They appeal to him for their colour, shape and sheen and because they have an element of danger. According to Guan Wei, eggplants are considered slightly poisonous in China, a liability eliminated by cooking them with garlic.

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HEAT 5. Eggplant Dreaming

Contents

Essays

Fiction and Drama

Poetry

Art

From the issue

The Creek

‘A Whole Province of One’s Imagination’On the friendship between Henry James and Robert Louis Stevenson

On ‘The Wall’ by David Brooks

The Wall

Two Poems

The Angel’s SonWhy I Learned Hungarian Late in Life

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Method for Eggplant Cultivation

On Guan Wei

Editor

Designer

HEAT 5. Eggplant Dreaming

Contents

Essays

Fiction and Drama

Poetry

Art

From the issue

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