In the mirror, as the shadow falls across, then

real leatherpunchbagon a hefty, weightednon-shift standand with a substantialrecoilinscribed in fine gold lettering‘I am sent to try you’that deals withthe humanand the divineaspectstogether(For Tara)

she’ll take it out regularly on her Mom,frequently on her sisters,and later, sometimes on her partner.You got yourself a deal.

‘a lump in my throat’; and a pricking in my eyes,and a sense of the awesome power of that poetand of poetry itself; and self-criticismmixed up with envy, wishing I hadthat sort of poetic power myself;and it seemed to call for some sort offormal acknowledgement of this,some ritual of gratitude – not necessarilythe darkened room,…

His shining, not the beauty of his radiant body;it was the shining beauty of his humility.And his humility – sometimes like gold,sometimes like purest, deepest Maryblue –the colour where the sky meets with infinity,meets with eternity.His humility, like hers, drew all things good:and as you walked with him, all things were good:the mountains, trees, and…

Islam and Christianity?Absolutely nothing. How could it?The God always close to us –as close as His blood, our blood –inside us, and outside us,whom, when we forget,then we must remember –this, our God. In that holy place,we cannot entertaina thought of separation;only when we seek duality, division,a foe to fight a friend,a friend to fight…

go back to those two Greek philosophers,the one, who wept at the follies of mankind,the other, who laughed at those same follies…In order to justify the invasion of Iraqin 2003, on the other grounds to ‘regime change’,i.e. that Iraq had ‘wep-ma-struc’ in Bush-speak,the federal government has made public48,000 boxes of papers captured from Iraq.These include…