Like a shadow or a friend
Here's a poem about kindness by Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye. She spoke elegantly and movingly at a NAPT conference several years ago. Her premise in the poem, that kindness is in proportion to sorrow, feels relevant to this week. Thursday night and I'm at [...]
A guest, worthy to be here
Here’s one of my favourite poems of all time: Love (III) Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back, Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning If I [...]
All the earth has become a house
I’ve just finished reading a haunting and beautiful book of what might be called meditations - on fatherhood, the natural world, specifically in Wales, and enthusiasms like cycling, painting and rock-climbing. These aren’t in any particular order as the book works cumulatively, visiting these subjects from [...]
The real bedtime story
Time plays tricks. Sometimes it seems endlessly spacious – like on today’s radiant dog-walk on a high ridge through mushroom-filled beech woods or at last night’s wonderful concert by Lunasa at the Canterbury Festival’s Speigel tent, followed by dancing in this romantic, mysterious mirrored space.. [...]
I am done with apple-picking now
These pictures were taken in 2007 when Caroline Carver, Penelope Shuttle, Geraldine Green and I visited New York, Long Island and Woodstock during a warm October, at the invitation of poet George Wallace. As a Maid of Kent, I have a special love of apples and [...]
Wet with a decent happiness
It’s raining, a persistent soft drizzle that the ground is soaking up so I can see the dried out lawn greening in front of my eyes. Rain seems to lead to reflectiveness, perhaps because it literally sends us inward, even the dog doesn’t want to [...]
