English Madrigal

Poems

A child of winter wanders in the cold,
Unsung by poets lost in golden dreams.
His woolen coat’s unraveling at the seams.

The darkness swells into the starry fold
As bitter breezes blow past wooden beams.
A child of winter wanders in the cold,
Unsung by poets lost in golden dreams.

Oh, friend of mine, by now you’ve gotten old,
But something in your tired eye still gleams.
And while you walk beside the frozen streams,
A child of winter wanders in the cold,
Unsung by poets lost in golden dreams.
His woolen coat’s unraveling at the seams.

J. R. Hartley

Found Objects

If only all commercials could be this charming, intelligent, and sweet.

Birdsong

Short Fiction & Prose

Over the moon and far away, a bird sings from the branches.

His song is a mysterious melody; it sounds like a hundred different songs you’ve learned by heart, and yet, somehow, it is a strange and unearthly music, unlike anything you’ve heard before.

You will listen to his melody, I believe, until you fall asleep, and then you will dream of a beautiful place, and a beautiful face, until it is time to start another day.

Image credit: Crock by Yolande Delasser.

The Conversations of History

Journal & Essays

Farther down the line of human events, there will be a time when people of all nations unite. Until that day, we must work to find peace in our own homes and do what we can to bring light to the troubled souls around us.

We will, in time, begin to appreciate the interconnectedness of humankind. It’s easy to forget how similar many of our longings and desires are. Read the books of antiquity and you will see that people 2,000 years ago were grappling with many of the same questions that grip us now. Why not learn from the conversations of history and use the wisdom they are offering us so generously?

To stand in ignorance is really, in most cases, an unreasonable option, when there are so many resources available for help and instruction. Find the resources that suit your needs and then, whenever you’re ready, incorporate their insights into your own experiments in figuring out how to navigate this crazy life.

Quotations

Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run – in the long-run, I say! – success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it.

Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

River

Music

I love Joni Mitchell. (And listening to Joni Mitchell makes me think of the movie You’ve Got Mail, which I also happen to love.)

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