And life is…
This poem, ‘Into Battle’, was written in 1915 by an officer serving in the First World War, Julian Grenfell. It was published in The Times the day after his death from war wounds. The poems draws on different threads of life as providing strength to the...
Leaning into the light
The candour of this statement struck me, and also reassured me that my own paltry attempts at living a ‘moral and compassionate existence’ are no worse than can be expected of an average human in a human world. I accepted very young that questioning is...
Of stars and Dante
On this day, which many of us celebrate as being connected in some way to light and at very least to peace on earth and goodwill to all, let’s enjoy the little known fact that in the Divine Comedy:Â Dante ends each book with the word “stars”.And so he...
Where I could see an opening
As this strange and straitened year draws to a close, we could do with some fresh openings. These lines are from the end of Dante’s Inferno, as he takes a step away from the torments of Hell towards Purgatory.  In other words, he isn’t yet out of the...
Sunlight time
Time pouring down with the sunlight while diaphanous drakeflies dance on the water. A perfect summer scene and one to share at the cusp of summer. I am still sorting drakeflies from damsel- and dragonflies. It appears that what I have been joyously calling out as...
Still as a stone
Try it, next time you have a quiet moment. Sit, if you will, maybe on a stone, and hold a smaller one in your hand, as a talisman for the history of man. Sense its weight and form. ‘You can sit for a long time with the history of man like a stone in your hand....
An easy load
You’ve put in the effort and now is the payback, and by the bucket load. Dante’s payback for schlepping through the underworld towards the higher realms was the easy task of returning to where the world is bright. Let me know if you have a place that...
A sheer cascade of light
A luminous encounter when Dante finally makes it to heaven. I once saw a human being with such radiance, a child of about 18 months standing on the edge of a swimming pool, naked and joyous, throwing himself from the edge of the pool into his parent’s arms and...Yes, sign me up!
