In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: Poetry

  • The Photograph

    Posted:

    “He first deceased : she for a little tried To live without him, liked it not, and died.”     There they stand, those old antagonists, posing at the head of the high-walled city, that vast coronet of ruin.   Above them, the daily familiar blue glare of God’s regard, far beneath them, their radiant…

  • Trace a Fraught Frontier

    Posted:

    Where’s the fraught frontier between Mercia and East Anglia ? Guards were stationed here gazing out from within. And within was somewhere to die for. And without was someone to kill. I explored it once, that fraught frontier, now footpath between nettles. It was sunday and Cambridge families were out walking there after a good…

  • To Stand upon the Earth

    Posted:

    This is the last of a daily succession of poems I’ve been uploading “from our seclusion.” They are all excerpts from two series of poems I wrote in the 1990’s, one on Martin Buber’s concept of I-Thou, the other on Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow. They belong together, I think, in some way. The…

  • The True, the Between, the Forming

    Posted:

    This is the penultimate seclusion song of this series, in which the hyphen between I and Thou has alternated each day with the shadow.… continue reading

  • Learning to Dance with my Shadow that Haunts me

    Posted:

    Shall I teach my shadow how I like to dance ? Or must I learn the dance-steps my shadow knows ? Or should we learn a new dance, altogether ? … continue reading

  • The Frail Haven Between I and Thou

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    … continue reading

  • The Deployment of Force

    Posted:

    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