The thunder asked

drifting down from cooling, stony hills,a million stars you’ve never seen beforeshine on a million crickets singingas if from eternity to eternityand you cannot say, and there’sno need to say, which is which;the trembling of the stars,the susurration of cicadas,join as in endless praiseof the imagination of their makerwho made imagination tooand though the cicadas,…

and narrow down the nation,the place, the family, the man…It was in his teens, at school,when the national leader aroseto bring the nation to its future,its fulfilment, its destiny; so, likehis fellows, he joined the youth corps,their eyes shining with ideals.When the war inevitably came,the time to show the world,he was conscripted as a soldier.He…

but I knownot tocarpover someone else’sparc

80 mph they say,mischievous, shameless,wild child, it cannot distinguishbetween fun and destructionhere in the parkit does what it can with the boating lake;but the ripples are barely waves,and the boat club has wisely shored its boats,no fun to be had therebut wait – here’s a woman with a covered pramwalking along the path beside the…

in a thousand thousand gardens,in a million fields and valleys,the lilies grow.the lilies of the field – proudyet modest in the grass, proudthat Jesus spoke of them;lilies of the valley – proudyet modest as their scentsings and calls, amongst allthe heady scents of nature,the scent so closeto the wild cyclamenin the hillside grass;the regal lily,…

a front seat at the greatestopen-air theatre in the world:I’m sat here on my coat upon the rockwhich reappears each time the tide recedesleaving the sand so smooth as ifthe sea were demonstrating beautifullythe relation between its ferocity and power,and innocence, perhaps forgiveness; there’sa little runnel of water around the rockwhere I sit, notebook and…