A Lesson from the Winter Solstice at Newgrange Like the darkness inside the neolithic tomb, the misapprehension is profound. The star that lights this room knows nothing of our needs, of our constructs. It has no sense of its power, of how much we crave and depend on its warmth and illumination. It does not know that we have always…
You’re There It is dark but I feel your hand on me. I hear you breathing as your fingers rest gently on my arm. I lie beside you and do not want to move. This nothing touch is nothing you are capable of any other time. Its rarity moves me. Sometimes I chase this flicker fruitlessly, a will o’ the…
Caramel Mia didn’t enter the kitchen immediately when she got to the end of the hallway. She hovered near the door in silence and watched her mother, who was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of tea. More accurately, a cup of tea sat on the table beside her mother, but it was untouched. Her mother was using…
Stemware, or Advice to Clumsy Parents It doesn’t take much. Just a failure of your fingers to remember to hold on a little tighter, to grip the glass with just a little more care. Are you tipsy, or lacking strength? It wasn’t what you meant but still it falls from your hand, its contents trailing cataract-like through the freeze-framed air.…
A poem I wrote about my father, who recently turned 79 and has been showing the signs of a mind and body slowing down and no longer being cognisant of the happenings of everyday life in real time. Not all the time, but enough to be of justifiable concern. It is old age. It is diminished brain function. It is…
So, as I continue my gloves-are-off approach to all things social media, I have started to write very quickly composed poems – using the lovely Miraquill app – inspired by specific episodes of the podcast. I present the first three here with the relevant episode beneath.
I sometimes think that the only sane way to live is to pretend no one else exists. Only in that way can anything resembling serenity be nurtured. That that is the only place where true strength can be cultivated. I was going to use the word ‘forged’ there, but that seemed too macho. Cultivate is a more feminine word, surely.…
Why De Niro is a Gangster, not a Lover or The Case for Greatness In this episode, I look at the unwitting victims of a biblical exorcism before cruising through Michael Cimino’s 1978 masterpiece, The Deer Hunter, with particular focus on Robert De Niro’s performance in it. A case for greatness is made and De Niro is pitted against Lionel…
The Me, the Here, the Now In this episode I try to unpick the puzzle of presence. I draw a line between perceived safety and protecting the precious parts of ourselves. I argue for integrity and wholeness as the pathways to self-acceptance and the tools for calm and confident presence. I also share a very personal story to illustrate the…
Control. The ultimate illusion. And yet one to which we are all addicted, or at the very least, conditioned. It is the great self-deception of which most of us are guilty. It is a mind game. We are merely toddlers who have learned how to walk straighter and grip tighter. None of this should sound unduly negative or cynical. It…
the ClearOut 