Immortal diamond
Gerard Manley Hopkins was a poet I encountered on my parents’ shelves as a child. A…
Going sane writing
Adam Phillips says somewhere, perhaps in one of his intriguing essays, perhaps in an interview with the…
Quotes to write by, 2.
From The Journals of Kierkegaard, 1834-54: And this is the simple truth: that to live is…
List: my lacunae in Bloom’s Western Canon
I admire Harold Bloom and his scorn for the New Schools of Resentment. I recognise my…
From Seamus Heaney
From Seamus Heaney “Here is the great paradox of poetry and of the imaginative arts in…
Gathering flowers for the mind
This morning I pulled down from my bookshelf a cardboard box that contains a hundred or…
“Citizenship is a spiritual experience”
The most insightful and curious article I have read in the weekend papers is by Paul…
Donald Trump and America’s wounded pride
Today I watched live the speech made by Donald Trump to accept the Republican nomination for…
Quotes to write by 1.
From Niccolo Machiavelli’s letter to the magnificent Lorenzo de Medici in presenting his The Prince: Nor…
The start of a series of lists
Once a week on a Tuesday I will post a list, with Borges as more of…