Paul McCartney Tackles Poetry

Jan. 3 -- Paul McCartney has been writing verse his whole life — but for the first time, he’s writing it for a book rather than an LP.

The former Beatle, who’s in the midst of a mini-Beatlemania revival after the release of the greatest-hits collection 1, will publish Blackbird Singing, a personal epitaph to his late wife, Linda, with more than 100 poems.

“It was Linda who wanted Paul to get them published,” playwright and poet Adrian Mitchell told The Sunday Times, which revealed the details of McCartney’s latest artistic venture.

Getting Personal With the Pen The collection includes bittersweet reflections on Linda’s struggle with breast cancer before her death in 1998.

In one poem, McCartney writes, “Sadness isn’t sadness, it’s happiness in a black jacket. Death isn’t death, it’s life that jumped off a tall cliff. Tears are not tears, they’re balls of laughter dipped in salt.”

Beatles biographer Hunter Davies isn’t surprised with McCartney’s entry to the print world. “He always had literary leanings,” he says.

“But he probably felt a bit inhibited because he and John [Lennon] were always in friendly rivalry and John had his books published. I find his new poems rather moving and touching.”

The book of poetry will follow Paintings — a collection of McCartney’s artwork, which was published last month.

He has been painting for the past 20 years but only went public with an exhibition in Germany in May 1999, followed by shows in London and New York.

Reuters contributed to this report.