Joy,

to be about to kiss and separate,one for the train, the othermore slowly back, but closepeople pass them, one way, the other,they’re still; they’re calm, it’s an important decision butthey’re sensible people, they’regoing to make this together,give each other space, take itslowly so thatyears and children on from nowthey’ll look back and knowthey did the…

those moments when your rawadolescent ego (and how long it lasted…)is hurt to the quick…how you’d like to forget it,it’s so trivial… but you can’t;so then, you’d like to laugh at it;maybe make a jokey verse about it…but that doesn’t work, either…and, as if it mattered…when I was forever desperatefor the approval of any stranger,let…

from an exhausting week’s conferencewhen the conman and his accomplicegot me right at my own front door –I’m mortified by the memory –they could replace my missing roof tilesin a moment, look, the ladder’salready up there, the accompliceis halfway up, now he’s alreadyon the roof in his plimsolls, now he’sshaking the chimney-stack, look, it’s loose…….

in the cause of nature’s greater good.It was tree.First, as summer lingered into autumn,it laid down its arms; the days of empire-buildingover; no longer did it needto fight in serried ranks for space.Then next, laid down the need to breathe;lingered strong upon the branchas old soldiers do, before they fade away;boasted now, beyond loyalty, all…

‘Tell me about your Self itself’The first man said to me‘It is like a rose gardenplanted around a fountain –it is always beautiful,changing, yet unchanging;it is the very centreof my peace and rest…’The second man said to me‘It is like a treasure house of riches –full of more sparkling, deep-coloured jewelsthan anyone’s imaginationcould ever begin…

why then, to be surprised, that Onecan speak to such as me,not in my outer ear, but straightinto my inner ear – nay, right into my soulhis gnosis whispers as it were myselfthat spoke it… whisperssuch sweet things,that though they blessedly inform my later words– as these to you – yet they tremblein their truth,…