This piece was originally written as a ‘monk in the world’ piece for Abbey of the Arts here. I am currently spending a year exploring the elements in the company of the Kinship Photography Collective. My practice group (a special mix of people who are able to meet on zoom during the day in the U.S. andContinue reading “an elemental year: Sashiko”
Tag Archives: presence
I am limited
Last week it was my great honour to have another ‘monk in the world’ post published on the Abbey of the Arts Blog. Here is that post: A few months ago I wrote these words in response to a series of photographs (some of which are pictured here) I made in collaboration with the KinshipContinue reading “I am limited”
Blue Christmas: for mourning
Grief is a response to an irreversible loss… To generate grief rather than sadness, the thing lost must carry great emotional weight, and it must pull back the veil that covers a transcendent aspect of the world. Breathe out to push the fog away from a brilliant pinpoint of light. … Gravity holds my feetContinue reading “Blue Christmas: for mourning”
day 19: for sanctuary
I am making a home inside myself. A shelterof kindness where everythingis forgiven, everything allowed—a quiet patchof sunlight to stretch out without hurry,where all that has been banishedand buried is welcomed, spoken, listened to—released. A fiercely friendly place I can claim as my very own. I am throwing arms opento the whole of myself—especially theContinue reading “day 19: for sanctuary”
Sunday 3: for presence
… dig your toes into the earth and know that you are evolving here and now, even among the untidy mess of the unknown. It’s all becoming mulch for the green growing heart of you, coming home to yourself. Jenneth Graser, Unlocking the Secret Garden (Day 28, 85) On the death of Queen Elizabeth IIContinue reading “Sunday 3: for presence”
day 13: for play
I asked God if it was okay to be melodramatic and she said yes I asked if it was okay to be short and she says it sure is I asked her if I could wear nail polish or not wear nail polish and she said honey she calls me that sometimes she said youContinue reading “day 13: for play”
day 10: for beauty
If anyone happened to be near the fountain which Scripture says rose from the earth at the beginning of creation … he would approach it marvelling at the endless stream of water gushing forth and bubbling out. Never could he say that he had seen all the water … In the same way, the personContinue reading “day 10: for beauty”
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”
Sunday 2: for curiosity
Things – including concepts and bodies – are inexhaustible; they show up only partially. If you can see everything, then you’ve already missed a spot. Bayo Akomolafe, These Wilds beyond our Fences (155) To seek context is already to acknowledge you don’t have the whole story … an ecological understanding takes time. Context is whatContinue reading “Sunday 2: for curiosity”
day 7: for discomfort
She loves the wind. There on the edge of the known world, at ninety, In her tall house, any wildness in the elements Is as welcome as an old friend. When the surgically patched elms and sycamores Crack off their heavy limbs in the freak snow storm Of October, she rejoices; the massy hail ThatContinue reading “day 7: for discomfort”
image into ikon 