In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: Language

  • The Deployment of Force

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    Still on the subject of feet and their deployment, I ask myself this question : where am I to stand in the hallways of The Lie ? Here is my answer : on the hyphen between I and Thou, my surfboard in the endless storm.… continue reading

  • The Establishing of Ground

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    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…

  • Britain’s Return to Health

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      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…

  • What does “Advisor” mean in Toadland ?

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    Semantics – the study of words and their meanings – is an important subject, after all. I used to hang back from it as being peripheral, academic, finickity, pedantic. But now, especially in this era when the Lie is so greatly in the ascendant, I see more clearly that being alert to how words are…

  • High Noon is Nearly Upon Us. Where’s the Sheriff ?

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    Around the world, the hoodlums and outlaws are running amok, in their suits of armour made of lies. By contrast, the sheriffs seem downcast, overwhelmed and on the run. I feel downcast and overwhelmed, too. Might it mean that I’m a sheriff, in disguise ? But there is no star in my cupboard. The picture…

  • What is a Hyphen to do in 2020 ?

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    There’s A and there’s B, but that’s not all. There’s also the connection between them. What is it ? They are sharing more than just the air. They were born to share more than just opposite sides of the same wall. A hyphen-line, a connecting scratch on the page, a fragile raft of some sort…

  • Poems for Public Display

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    I never stop yearning for good poetry to reach past its traditional catchment areas – those shelves in the bookshop marked “Poetry,” the university literature department, the dedicated arts festival, the shy, solitary and possibly eccentric brain – and find a valid place for itself in the public square, the waiting room where we all…

  • The Parrot Seeks Respite from the Flood

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    Last week “Prime Minister” Johnson tried to take political advantage of the terrorist attack in London. This despite the appeals of the father of one of the victims, expressly not to do so. But how could Mr Johnson resist ? He’d lose one vote, no doubt, but might well have gained rather more than one.…