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Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese – a poem for June ’18.

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair,…
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Posted in Blog on Thursday, June 7, 2018
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Dizzying obsession – a component of genius.

Given our preoccupation with the dangers of fruitless obsession, and the emphasis we put on the virtues of a balanced life, we sometimes forget that dizzying obsession is also, as Isaacson writes, “a component of genius.”

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Posted in Blog on Thursday, May 24, 2018
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Talking clutter.

I was recently asked to by Time Inc to be interviewed for a special publication they were launching titled ‘Declutter Your Life’. It is now available to buy from many newsagents and supermarkets. “When we think of clutter, we think of the unnecessary…
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Posted in Blog on Wednesday, April 11, 2018
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“Hope” is the thing with feathers.

A poem for March, from one of my favourite poets, Emily Dickinson. Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Although part of a prominent family with strong ties to its…
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Posted in Blog on Thursday, March 22, 2018
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A great start to 2018 – on air with Chairman Kato.

On the radio ….. I had the pleasure of being the guest of Chairman Kato on his Netil Radio show recently, a delightful mix of conversation, music and readings. He knows my work well and asked profound and searching questions that had me…
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Posted in Blog on Wednesday, January 10, 2018
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Rumi’s This Confused Story – a poem for September ’17.

This Confused Story by Rumi Don’t burn a blanket because of one flea! Don’t waste a day on trivial irritation, some gnat’s headache. Take your attention off the forms and focus on what’s inside. If you’re on this way, choose companions who are…
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Posted in Blog on Saturday, August 19, 2017
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Painter, auteur, enigma, murderer.

What would you make of a woman who killed her grandfather – and did a portrait of him as he lay dying?  Here’s an article on “something crazy special.” “In February, 1943, eight months before she was murdered in Auschwitz, the German painter…
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Posted in Blog on Tuesday, July 18, 2017
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Poem of the month – July ’17.

Because he doesn’t just think it, or know it: because he lives it. Please call me by my true names by Thich Nhat Hanh  Do not say that I’ll depart tomorrow Because even today I still arrive. Look deeply: I arrive in every second…
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Posted in Blog on Monday, July 10, 2017
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Greek poetry in the shadow of austerity.

In my recent post on Anna Pasternack’s “Lara” I bemoaned the fact that, in the West today, we are not as sensitive to poetry as the Russians were – and are still. It turns out I may have been wrong. Here’s an article…
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Posted in Blog on Tuesday, June 27, 2017
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The untold love story.

Midway through my friend Anna Pasternack’s meticulously researched and profoundly moving “Lara” – an account of her great uncle Boris’ relationship with Olga Ivinskaya. What is striking is how utterly different their world was from ours – and I don’t just mean the…
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Posted in Blog on Wednesday, June 21, 2017
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Poem of the month – June ’17

Poem of the month for June is for my father … In The Next Room by Canon Henry Scott Holland  Death is nothing at all: I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I and you are you” Whatever we were…
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Posted in Blog on Tuesday, June 6, 2017
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Poem of the month – May ’17

I love the scathing intensity of Kabir, the passion that makes his uncompromising bluntness so endearing! KABIR: Friend, Hope For The Guest While You Are Alive.  Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive. Jump into experience while you are alive! Think……
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Posted in Blog on Wednesday, May 10, 2017
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Poem of the month – April ’17.

I have always loved the raw energy of Rilke – and nothing exemplifies this better than the dramatic end of this poem! Imaginary career by Rainer Maria Rilke: At first a childhood, limitless and free of any goals. Ah, sweet unconsciousness. Then sudden terror,…
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Posted in Blog on Tuesday, April 4, 2017
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Composed upon Westminster Bridge ….

After the events of Wednesday let’s remember what Westminster Bridge has been in the past – and will continue to be in the future, impervious to the attempts by terrorists to tarnish our associations. Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth.…
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Posted in Blog on Friday, March 24, 2017
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Reality is not what it seems.

Reading Carlo Rovelli’s deeply engrossing and brilliantly written “Reality is not what it seems.” Very reassuring to see just how tentative, uncertain and sometimes downright incapable the likes of Einstein were on occasion. Rovelli rightly sees this as a virtue: “True genius,” he…
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Posted in Blog on Sunday, March 5, 2017
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You don’t get anywhere by NOT ‘wasting’ time.

Have been reading Carlo Rovelli’s “Seven Brief Lessons on Physics” which opens with the observation that, in his youth, Einstein spent a year “loafing aimlessly”. As Rovelli remarks, “You don’t get anywhere by not ‘wasting’ time.” So very true. And so utterly forgotten.…
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Posted in Blog on Wednesday, February 8, 2017
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