noise – image into ikon

day 9: for silence

I feel the real medium for me is silence, so I could be writing in any language. To inflect the inner silence, to give it body, that’s all we’re doing. You use the voice to make the silence present. The real subject in poetry isn’t the voice. The real subject is silence. Li Young Lee,Continue reading “day 9: for silence”

gospel 5. be. here. listen.

I AM the leap. I AM the ice cold air you gasp in on take-off. I AM the muscles which lift you, the limbs which bend, flex and fly free. I AM the gravity which holds you safe and brings you back down to earth. I AM the same whether this leap springs from yourContinue reading “gospel 5. be. here. listen.”

Christmas Eve 2020

Here, where the rivers dredge upthe very stone of Heaven, we name its colors—muttonfat jade, kingfisher jade, jade of appleskin green. And here, in the glitteringhues of the Flemish Masters, we sample their wine;rest in their windows’ sun warmth,cross with pleasure their scrubbed tile floors.Everywhere the details leap like fish— bright shardsof water out ofContinue reading “Christmas Eve 2020”

Psalms for Passiontide: Passion Sunday: Psalm 51.1-13

A poem full of washing images seems utterly appropriate at this time of pandemic when I am so aware that where some are bored, others are paralysed by anxiety; when some are taking opportunities to get to grips with new technologies, others are pressured to the point of seeming breaking by the demands of beingContinue reading “Psalms for Passiontide: Passion Sunday: Psalm 51.1-13”