'Like this tired, troubled earthI’ve been reaching since my birth’ - Stevie Wonder, A Place In The Sun Further and further away from homemy travels took me, firstto Manchester’s urban emptinessto deep-dive into verse. I sing the mountains in between always returning to this first scene Then to Newcastle, where I exploredthe ruins of the ancient... Continue Reading →
Dear Politicians of My Country,I saw the news today:a new variant of the virus, you saycomply or die. You have no need of terroriststo scare us into submission anymorethis invisible foestrikes fear into our core. Though it will spell the end for some of usit takes the focus off the sum of all fearswhich may well... Continue Reading →
I should have been writingglued to my desk in darkness butthe Sun calledjust to say‘Can we steal away now:over the mountainsI’ll lead youand nothing more you’ll have to dothan follow your heart’s desire say, wouldn’t you just love to?’ And what was I to do:I, who am so much a fool for winter sunlightthat I’ll brave... Continue Reading →
Back when I lived in Catalunya the people bemoaned the plague of them:Els mosquits - the mosquitoes which had invaded the townin such large numbers thatyou couldn’t go out at middayas within a few minutes, your armsand legs would be full of enough weltsto leave you itching for a month.‘There were never so many,’ one woman told... Continue Reading →
We should listen to the quiet peoplethough it seems they don’t have very much to sayin this world obsessed with who can shout the loudestperhaps the quiet people know the way. We should listen to the dreamers:we have lost capacity for abstract thoughtthinking only in terms of profit marginswhich in the end will lead to... Continue Reading →
I thought at first it was a man-made formfor nothing natural I ever saw so noble:how ironic that the Noble Pen Shell is a natural Mediterranean marvel. In less than the fifteen years since I first came hereits population, all but disappearedin fact, this area is a conservation zonewith efforts made to halt the steep... Continue Reading →
"Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, further westwards, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling too upon every part of the lonely churchyard where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses... Continue Reading →
The feast of Samhain and we are gathered in the mead-hallthe warriors, drunk on meadbellies heavy with meatpound the long oak tablesand boast of their exploitswhile my maids clear away the platesand I glide between the protagonists of this chaotic scene: a peace-weaver with heavy footsteps heading for the bedchamber.I’ll not be disturbed by him... Continue Reading →
Campbell’s condensedthe Primordial Soupinto a can for your convenience. Of courseit isn’t quite that simple:millions of years of evolution biodiverse branching of the tree of life came first then came the industrial revolutionof one particular species calling itself homo sapiens or‘Wise men:’ They found the cheapest wayto feed the masses for the greatest profit, spraying away the competition,... Continue Reading →
Največje je nebo,zato ker vanj lahkospraviš sanje. Največje je drevo,zato ker v njem lahkognezdijo ptice. Največje je morje,zato ker se na njemširi obzorje. Največje je beseda,zato ker z njo lahkopreden greš spatpoveš: Svet, imam te rad! The biggest is the sky,for up there way on highwe store our dreams The biggest is a tree,for there... Continue Reading →
