“The Conversion of Saul” by Michelangelo, Pauline Chapel fresco, Vatican City.
This “I” we each inherit, made spine
of the world, axis, pole,
look-out from the world’s helm
gazing on the universe,
gazing on you,
gazing on death…
“Mummy,” I said,
seven or eight years old,
“I have decided
that I am God.”
We were walking east
along Glebe Road… continue reading
Category Community
West of Caritas
Counting
This poem seems to follow on a bit from the previous one uploaded here. But whereas I wrote “I Insist my Ribs…” over three years ago, “Counting” has been written in the last few days.
I have a vague idea of what was in my mind as I wrote this latest poem. And looking at it now, I’m increasingly seeing… continue reading
Facing West over a Small Field
Here is a link to a poem about the poet D.J. Enright and his French wife, the artist Madeleine Enright. (See one of her pictures, above). They belonged in worlds quite foreign to me, but in the last few months of their lives, I chanced to be their next-door neighbour.
I had moved into a bungalow in south west London,… continue reading
The Lying Toad is Back, the Tousled Look, the Winning Smirk, Our Leader…
The prose piece that follows begins with the mismatch in the UK, between the present Prime Minister’s relative popularity on the one hand, and his long established disregard for the Nolan Principles of ethical conduct on the other. The piece provides a reminder that our Prime Minister has previously been sacked twice for lying and it recommends (again) that lying… continue reading
… The Establishing of Ground
The reference here is to a book and an image I keep referring to. It is called “I and Thou” and is by Martin Buber.
Buber compares two essential ways of reaching out beyond the Self to meet the world : one is I – It (my object) and the other I – Thou (my neighbour).
In I-It mode, I… continue reading
… A Second Song of I and Thou
There are two themes at work is this series of “songs”. One is I and Thou. The other is I and My Shadow. I am alternating the themes each day, like plaiting a piece of string. So for this third song, here is I and Thou again.
Of course I and you are absolutely separate and I must learn to… continue reading
Britain’s Return to Health
I want to talk about the British Labour Party which – despite everything – still occupies the ground I look to for the beginning of this nation’s regeneration and return to health.
But “ground” is one thing ; the withered and stunted vegetation I see presently over-running and littering that ground, is another.
To understand better why the Party is… continue reading
The Parrot Finds Himself Ahead of the Law
Has the parrot started confusing himself with Dr Who ? And his cage with the Tardis ?
One thought here is that – post computers and social media etc – we are settlers in the new country, the new world, which these discoveries have made for us. Essentially, we are still strangers in it and adapting to it – or… continue reading