In all our sanctuaries we sit at risk

Category: Poetry

  • What’s a “Carer” ?

    Posted:

    Each of us surely wants to be acknowledged as a “caring” person, even while so much that is uncaring is happening all round us – perpetrated presumably by aliens. The Head Rude-boy of Blingland has presided over changes in the Benefit system that disgrace us all, even while they continue sufficiently popular with his constituency…

  • Wrestling with my Shadow

    Posted:

      My shadow dogs my path. It dwarfs me, this daemon, this desolate god. Could I live shadow-free ? Would I fly ? What would be left of me ?   Here are some more thoughts on the shadow :   First Sightings   I can say this with real pride : no one but…

  • I and Thou and Charlie

    Posted:

    In the early 1990’s, I wrote a series of poems called “I hyphen Thou”. The poems explored the image of the hyphen and were suggested by a book by the philosopher/theologian Martin Buber called “I and Thou.” The idea of the hyphen is an old favourite of mine. In fact I run a small charity…

  • Let the bird of paradise speak loud from his cage

    Posted:

    I want to recite to camera a long poem, originally by John Skelton. And I want to do so from the top of the Tyndale Monument, a tall tower on a hill near Bristol.  William Tyndale and Skelton both lived in the reign of Henry VIIIth but they have more than that in common. The…

  • I See Everywhere the False

    Posted:

      I see everywhere the false, the masked, the sleek and hollow, the bought and the creatured.   Their words twist the wind tug at my mind and steal from me the hymns of my life the sacred.   True words die the moment they pass between these creatures’ teeth.   Humanity is on the…

  • Resurrection

    Posted:

      You have left petals on old stones and memories that chase   the rhythms of my blood and activate my bones   and through my gathering shadow guide me.   Are you re-born in me or have I eaten you,   perforce, that I take your scent with me through my days   and…

  • Word Play

    Posted:

      May words work. May mine look you in the eye and having found you out work on you right there. Fraud and felon play with words, seeking only to deceive and buy and bend you to their will. I must work a cleaner way my words releasing you to where you belong. Words must…

  • Where in the World does Poetry Belong ?

    Posted:

    I run a project called “Poems for…” It  offers poem-posters free of charge for public display. Many of the poems are bilingual, with over fifty different languages represented so far. The poems go to schools and libraries and healthcare waiting rooms across the UK and in fact all over the world. Here below is a…