Anna Świrszczyńska, also known as Anna Swir wrote poems in direct, evocative language that spoke passionately and directly to the heart. She wrote affectionately about the female body, love, pain, loneliness, terror, war, childbirth, child-rearing and the passing of time. … Continue reading The Sensual World of Polish Poet Anna Świrszczyńska
“If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.” – Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou has been one of the most influential literary voices of our time. Born in 1928 she has been in turns a poet, … Continue reading Ten Life Lessons We Can Learn From Maya Angelou
Kawaakari (Japanese) The glow of a river or stream in darkness or dusk, the gleaming surface of a shadowed river (Japanese 川明かり). Kawaakari can refer to the reflection of the moonlight off flowing water, or the gleam of late sun … Continue reading Ancient Word of the Day: Kawaakari
On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings–oh, happy chance!– I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest. In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguised–oh, happy chance!– In darkness and in concealment, My … Continue reading Vespers: Dark Night of the Soul
The Mabinogion is a magical and mythical Celtic classic from the thirteenth century or earlier. It’s thoroughly Welsh and is considered a masterpiece of medieval literature. Although written down during the middle ages, experts think these stories may date from … Continue reading Beautiful maps & beautiful Welsh tales: The Mabinogion
Although similar to the gloaming, grimmelings is a slightly different natural phenomenon at both ends of the rotating sun’s traverse across the sky. Grimmelings – The first or last gleams of the day (Scots, esp. Orkney). From the Norwegian “grimla”, … Continue reading Ancient Word of the Day: Grimmelings
When chapman billies leave the street, And drouthy neibors, neibors, meet; As market days are wearing late, And folk begin to tak the gate, While we sit bousing at the nappy, An’ getting fou and unco happy, We think na on the lang Scots miles, The mosses, waters, slaps and … Continue reading The Gloaming Part 4: Tam O’Shanter
It is the time when crimson stars Weary of heaven’s cold delight, And take, like petals from a rose, Their soft and hesitating flight Upon the cool wings of the air Across the purple night. It is the time when … Continue reading The Gloaming Part 3
The sky puts on the darkening blue coat held for it by a row of ancient trees; you watch: and the lands grow distant in your sight, one journeying to heaven, one that falls; and leave you, not at home … Continue reading The Gloaming Part 2
A personal note Around six years ago, I had the most romantic trip of my life when I went to the Isle of Skye, Scotland with the Polish bear. We cozied up in the most comfortable little croft in all … Continue reading Travel: Roaming in the gloaming in the land of melancholy, with the Polish bear by my side
“So don’t be frightened, dear friend, if a sadness confronts you larger than any you have ever known, casting its shadow over all you do. You must think that something is happening within you, and remember that life has not forgotten you; it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why would you want to exclude from your life any uneasiness, any pain, any depression, since you don’t know what work they are accomplishing within you?” ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet Continue reading Remember, don’t be frightened
“God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody … Continue reading Life as a Roman Candle
I wrote this poem in 2011 during a particularly bewitching snow-storm on Lake Menteith in Stirlingshire, Scotland. I had borrowed a pair of old, worn out and blunt ice-skates that were a size too small. And together with my friend, … Continue reading Travel Poetry: The Crackling Thunder of Frozen Lake Menteith
I wrote this poem because I came across an album I hadn’t heard in years, it reminded me so much of Shanghai where I lived briefly as a teenager that I had this all rush into my head and I … Continue reading Words and Music: Dave Clarke’s World Service & Shanghai
[I will write a poem about a place that I’ve been each week with music to match] Neist Point on the Isle of Skye Swirling batons of time Erasing thoughts and hushing life and death On a clear day you … Continue reading Words and Music: Stases & Neist Point on the Isle of Skye
[Here is a poem about a place I’ve been and seen and drunk in, along with some music to match] Edinburgh City of dreams and sloping pagan peaks in a city Gigantic sea-shanty sized voices with looping arr sounds Turbulent … Continue reading Words and Music: The Disintegration Loops & Edinburgh
In a far off field Your animals put away The rustling of bare branches And dagger winds Although an ivory and lemon sky Keeps up the spirits Of a cold valley day Continue reading Every Picture Tells a Story: Winter’s Ivory Skies
In a far off field Your animals put away The rustling of bare branches And dagger winds Although an ivory and lemon sky Keeps up the spirits Of a cold valley day
Continue reading Every Picture Tells a Story: City of Dreams
Every Picture Tells a Story: Oh child inside Continue reading Every Picture Tells a Story: Oh child inside
When the night scented stock come in And all of the dusk reigns around us A musky smoke Of burning leaves and wet rocks All is cosy, locked in and battened down A sleepy knowingness seeps in A season and reason for … Continue reading Every Picture Tells a Story: Winter’s sudden contemplation
