Poems from All Kinds of Disorder TALES FROM THE BRIGHTON FESTIVAL (Open/Not So Open House Exhibitions) To Harry, the annual bloom of open houses in the hotbed city is a dream come true. He leaves his bags of materials at the church centre and goes armed with a toothbrush like a votive candle, settles himself in a new-bought sofa to absorb the ambience, and if challenged to explain an unharmonious presence, in the manner perhaps of Kaspar Hauser, announces gravely: Yes, I am an Art Lover. His eye is immaculate, his taste informed but catholic, his attention to detail unparalleled. He particularly likes bathroom interiors, toilet seats and brushes, various kinds of tile and grout; averse neither to the traditional nor avant-garde, he appreciates all two or three-dimensional artefacts, puzzled only why some bear price-tags and some not; but when interrupted in his state of trance he can come back at once with a variation: Yes, I love Works of Art. Sometimes he spends several hours; others, if he is made uncomfortable by savage voices no one else hears or visions that don't sit easy among watercolours of the garden or Cubist portraits of the children he takes a breather on the street. There is always another haven within reach; somewhere to overhear his hosts explain inspiration and technique in intimate surroundings where the void with no art is shut out. It's hard on Harry when festivities are over, doors and windows close and each shangrila returns to anonymity. He feels obliged to demand entry on his own terms and expresses his disappointment creatively; impromptu performances with a cast of professionals as doctors, do-gooders, law officers, concluding with a violent exit from a somewhat disturbed set. Harry is not impressed by the anaesthetics of the closed ward. The composition is clinical, material and treatment, to his mind, soporific, and the overall effect, drab. But Harry harbours his exuberance. Next Spring he will be back at large, the streets festooned, as bar and theatre thrum, and for an art lover like himself so many places to call home.