Mind hoard
I love the word ‘hoard’, in the sense of a bardic ‘word-hoard’, or here, a hoard of observations you stash in the cupboard of the imagination, a mind-hoard. And I like the absolution from having to understand those bright-shining things you...
Song for a seal
A marvelous moment shared by the poet Elizabeth Bishop, conveying a connection across species and elements, as a seal allows a human to sing for him, a common interest in music binding them across the water-land divide. One seal particularly I have seen here evening...
You’re dreaming still
An extraordinary account by a Russian writer, recounting how she and her sister, surviving as near beggars due to the political exile imposed on their parents in the Soviet Union, managed to think about poetry even while starved of food and kindness.  Their living...
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...
Begin afresh
A soughing sense of spring surging in the dense-leaved trees.  You can hear the branches, brushing against each other in the dancing breeze, whispering like a wish in your ear, enticing you to begin afresh, afresh, afresh. Yet still the unresting castles threshIn...
Teaching the tree
A step in the process of creation, where the Creator takes a moment to teach the tree its leaf. They learned well, and this is the season we see them unfurl their lessons, each perfectly mastered. Everywhere he taughtThe tree its leaf.  Source: Ted Hughes,...
An inmate of this active universe
This current and timeless phrase – with that curious ‘inmate’ alongside the energetic ‘active’ – comes from Wordsworth’s image of himself as an infant, tapping into some greater connectivity than mere wifi systems and smart...
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...
Pebble pusher (ii)
As a life long pebble pusher, I spend some gardening time singling out pebbles for their beauty, whether of form, texture or colour, translucence or opacity, perfection or imperfection. They decorate the edges of paths or flower beds or circle plants and pots, and I...
A matter of infinite concern
As Seamus Heaney describes it, this is a ‘heavenly father’ who makes wonderful use of the quality of omnipotence, by drawing on his boundless attention, energy and bandwidth to cherish every fallen sparrow, egg or other fragile life form, through all...
I sing therefore I am?
Does this line from one of Rilke’s sonnets mean we can say ‘I sing therefore I am’? Easier for gods than humans, Rilke tells us, but let’s give it a go, I am sure the gods rejoice when we try.   Gesang ist Dasein. Für den Gott ein...
A hopeful song
How is it that birdsong can give us such a sense of hope? Today I was walking up into the woods and heard a bird I haven’t heard for years. Hearing it, with instant recognition, transported me to repeated moments earlier in my life when that same song imbued...
The most radiant conditions
This lovely phrase, in a collection of essays by the poet Seamus Heaney, struck me as being in large part what the world is aiming for when it talks about sustainability, sustainable development goals and related rather dry terms. It is combined with an interesting...
While there is still time
Philip Larkin’s simple plea for kindness feels a timely reminder that yes, while there is still time, we should be kind to one another, whether that hint of time’s limits applies to us as individuals, or to humanity more generally.And if it feels as though...
Love is …
For me, if not for others, a perfect definition of love, by a 12th century troubadour.  The image, of wall art in Lisbon, struck me as a perfect illustration.For as all true loversKnow, love is perfect kindness. Source: Guiraut de Borneilh (c. 1138-1215), quoted in...
A people of poetry, music and dancing
Being cautious about characteristics attributed to entire nations which might be more suitably attributed to individuals, I hesitated to share these observations by Steinbeck of his experience of Georgians, during a short visit of a few days or perhaps a week. What it...
The banner of beauty
This is one of those wonder-lines which resonate without your necessarily quite understanding them. David Esterly, whose attunement to beauty was nano-fine, probably did.I enjoy the resonance despite the incomprehension and was reassured to find that even someone as...
Of sweet sleep
Keat’s evocation of perfect sleep is particularly moving considering he was soon robbed of health and ‘quiet breathing’ by the assault of tuberculosis. Â He had also nursed his mother and younger brother through it, losing both of them to its...
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...
The advent of May
There was a time when I could half read poetry in various ancient forms of French, provençal or Occitan, at least enough to have the sense of their meaning and loveliness. This is one I noted decades ago, which is no time at all if you consider that it dates from the...
The rich, running day
Sometimes I wake up and worry about this or that. Then I zoom in on the day ahead and mostly discover that all the things I ‘need’ to do actually bring me pleasure. Whether it’s writing, gardening, buying provisions or something else. That helps me...
Dance the orange
You may have noticed that orange is the signature colour of this website. Why orange? Because its sensory spectrum stretches from brightness to warmth, sunrise to sunset, summer marigolds to autumn leaves to winter persimmons to the saffron gold of the spring crocus....Yes, sign me up!
