real life
my beloved girl know I need you know I crave to ease your pain know I will never leave you know I can’t breathe without you know that we are gypsy wed that we are more delicious than mushroom rigatoni know that this very moment light breezes are skipping and playing across the bay in front of our future home passing time until we arrive know that the 100-year cottage awaits us too know that suppliers of lentils, tofu, chickpeas, […]
In the film Gloria Bell, John Turturro sits on a sofa with Julianne Moore. It must be a Saturday afternoon. There is that ease Saturday afternoons have when you are in love. Not your first love, not your second. Those loves that happen when everyone has already set their life: children, parents, grandparents; work and career. When mortgages are no longer scary and you have a personal and political identity. When society treats you fairly and considers you an asset. […]
though your dress conforms, your manners comport, though the offences you give, may be measured at naught, though in society’s net, you are inevitably caught, may your garlic wild heart, question all that it’s taught though your surface be steady, placid and still, may your lungs stretch to bursting, may you feel your own fill, and when dubious duties beset and make fraught, may your star-burst heart drive waves of sharp thought may your days be full of […]
You take out the rubbish, the news still playing in your head. You hold back threats of war, famine, disease, ignorance, murder, hate – the daily plurality of disasters that threaten, diminish, and kill our world. And then there’s interest rates, that disconnection notice, the real risk of redundancies. And you’re not getting any younger. You think of the young girl, who quietened her fear of missiles by painting, by creating her own dream life, to be like her father, […]
And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth. – Raymond Carver On our journey, we visit so many places, live so many lives. We each set out to find, that place that lays inside. All the world plays through us, this electric hectic mind. Til we become us, find arrival, upon own our arriving tide. A […]
They had emerged from their past non-lives, certain of one thing. They were meant. Two in 7 billion. They were always meant to be together, to be one. And they had no doubt. The velvet petals, the skipping hearts, the whispered words, the eternal dance – all of the promise of all the world, moved and grew, inside them. But they had to be real. On any measure, money was tight. ‘Aye, well – there’s the old McGlynn place. It’s […]
We are no longer countries, no longer villages, no longer tribes. All of our fates, are running into one. We are disfigured by a pandemic that has lasted a millennia – of believing ourselves entitled to desecrate our only home, of insulting our common human soul. We are one village now. All of our futures hang together on a few fine threads. We are all this desert woman, apprehending unspeakable dangers ahead. But we have wisdoms. We have strengths. […]
Our guest – Trevor Jenner He is a celebrated author, traveler, explorer and fascinated observer. The English born Trevor Jenner is a champion for the people, the animals and the landscape of Ethiopia. His publication, Ethiopia Traveller’s Handbook, has received glowing reviews. Joanna Lumley, OBE FRGS, says: Absolutely stunning book. It has made me think of all I missed and reinforced my determination to return to Ethiopia. The book is a masterpiece, a masterclass on what every handbook should be. […]
This image would make teachers of photography courses, warm inside. There is, it appears, a skilled eye and hand at work. The image composition has structure’s strong bones. Its exposure is perfect, though taken long before automatic cameras and editing software. The scene has a distinct line in, texture, layered interest, rich deep colours, recurring patterns, converging lines, foreground interest, shadow detail, and on and on. In short, the image is a photographic masterclass. But it is likely that the […]
We are programmed to reach for a person who makes us feel safe, loved, affirmed. This is human. Instinctual. Universal. It is in a toddler’s reaching arms. It powers decisions which we make deep into adulthood. During our years, this yearning will lead us into situations that can feel the most damaging of our lives. That can feel as if they are the end of us. Demolished. Standing alone. Then, we are forced to reach into ourselves. To consider […]
