Poems for These Times: 18 – New Year 2024

5 January 2024 | 2 Comments

Benjamin Zepahniah | Faceless

“You have to look beyond the face
to see the person true
Down within my inner space
I am the same as you…”

Introducing… ‘Tiger Work’ by Ben Okri

1 December 2023 | 2 Comments

Barbara Vellacott reads from and discusses a new book of stories, parables and poems about climate change

Book Review: “Elixir: In the Valley at the End of Time” by Kapka Kassabova

27 October 2023 | 3 Comments

Charlotte Maberly reviews a book about the search for wholeness, and a heartfelt plea to reclaim our spiritual, physical and emotional unity with nature

Book Review: “Work: A Deep History” by James Suzman

1 September 2023 | 2 Comments

Richard Gault reviews a new book which takes a radical approach to contemporary work culture

Introducing… Bernardo Kastrup and Swami Sarvapriyananda

10 June 2023 | 6 Comments

Charlotte Maberly appreciates a wide-ranging video conversation about Eastern and Western concepts of the self and mind

Connecting Threads on the River Tweed

23 May 2023 | 0 Comments

Charlotte Maberly investigates an innovative project which explores cultural engagement as the driver of ecological change

The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth

21 April 2023 | 3 Comments

Jane Clark | reviews a book about the effects of climate change on the great boreal forest at the top of the world

Cold Fingers

10 February 2023 | 4 Comments

Kathy Tiernan, in the midst of a bitter winter, contemplates the history of coal and colonialism in the North of England

Reflections on the Significance of 6 May

12 January 2023 | 2 Comments

Richard Gault explores the transcultural meanings of the date chosen for the coronation of King Charles III

Book Review: “Sacred Nature” by Karen Armstrong

4 November 2022 | 1 Comment

Richard Gault presents a book which urges us to radically rethink our relationship with the natural world

Introducing… Fantastic Fungi

6 October 2022 | 0 Comments

David Hyams is inspired by a documentary which presents recent research into these extraordinary beings, and proposes that they hold the key to our future on earth

Book Review: “Metaphysical Animals” by Clare Mac Cumhaill and Rachael Wiseman

5 August 2022 | 2 Comments

Keith Hammond reviews a book about four remarkable women who brought meaning back into philosophy

Book Review: “The Matter with Things” by Iain McGilchrist

3 June 2022 | 9 Comments

Richard Gault reviews the magnum opus of an extraordinary thinker who lays out a detailed argument for the unity of the world

Reflections: Of the Passage through Eternal Death and Awakening to Eternal Life

6 May 2022 | 3 Comments

Mark Vernon reflects upon the vision of William Blake and what we can learn from it in the wake of the Covid pandemic

With Tushar Gandhi In Mumbai

22 April 2022 | 7 Comments

Robert Hirschfield | meets Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of the Mahatma, in Mumbai

The Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis by Amitav Ghosh

8 April 2022 | 4 Comments

Christopher Ryan | reviews an insightful new book on climate change by the distinguished novelist

Poems for These Times: 17

14 March 2022 | 9 Comments

Taras Shevchenko | Calamity Again

“Dear God, calamity again!
It was so peaceful, so serene;
We had just begun to break the chains…”

Tribute to Thich Nhat Hanh

25 February 2022 | 3 Comments

Roland Ashby | remembers the Vietnamese Zen master, who died on 22 January at the age of 95

Review: Dante’s Divine Comedy: a Guide for the Spiritual Journey

17 February 2022 | 7 Comments

Barbara Vellacott | reviews a new book by Mark Vernon which guides us through Dante’s epic poem canto by canto

Introducing: Firestacks: Time, Tide and Gravity

27 January 2022 | 3 Comments

Fiona Bisset | presents a video about Julie Brook’s remarkable installation in the Outer Hebrides

Touching the Sun

6 January 2022 | 0 Comments

David Hornsby | talks with Professor Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, about two exciting initiatives in space exploration

Thank God for Desmond Tutu

6 January 2022 | 0 Comments

Christopher Ryan | pays a poetic tribute to the South African archbishop and human rights activist who died on 26th December

Introducing: My Octopus Teacher

17 December 2021 | 1 Comment

David Hyams | reviews the award-winning documentary about friendship across species

Reflections: Beside Still Waters

10 December 2021 | 2 Comments

James Harpur | contemplates St Columba, Covid and the Rainmaker, and asks: how can we make our living conditions less hostile?

In Memory of Etel Adnan

19 November 2021 | 2 Comments

David Hornsby | pays tribute to the Lebanese writer and painter who died in Paris on 14th November at the age of 96

Introducing… Living in the Time of Dying

12 November 2021 | 6 Comments

Jim Griffin | presents an unexpectedly life-affirming film about climate change

Introducing… Joanna Macy on ‘Climate Crisis as Spiritual Path’

21 October 2021 | 3 Comments

Jane Clark | presents a short video by the pioneering eco-philosopher and activist

Review: The Ark in the Flood of Time

21 October 2021 | 4 Comments

Richard Gault | reviews three epic tales from a master storyteller

Review: Finding the Mother Tree

9 September 2021 | 1 Comment

David Hyams | reviews Suzanne Simard’s book about the intelligence and cooperative behaviour of trees

Poems for These Times: 16

2 September 2021 | 0 Comments

Jane Hirshfield | The Monk Stood Beside a Wheelbarrow

“The monk stood by a wheelbarrow, weeping.
God or Buddha nowhere to be seen –
These tears were fully human…”

Review: Silicon

28 August 2021 | 4 Comments

Richard Gault | reviews the autobiography of Federico Faggin, the man who invented the silicon chip, who is now putting forward a new theory of consciousness

Making Paradise: Exploring the Concept of Eden

29 July 2021 | 4 Comments

Jane Clark | visits the Making Paradise exhibition at the Aga Khan Centre in London, which explores our notions of Eden as a place of peace and tranquillity

Reflections: Covid Refuge

26 March 2021 | 1 Comment

Robert Hirschfield | contemplates the experience of locked-down New York

Review: The Great Re-Think

27 February 2021 | 0 Comments

Richard Gault | reviews the latest book by Colin Tudge, which lays out a new vision for agriculture and farming based upon principles of unity and compassion

Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi / Warren Kenton

1 January 2021 | 0 Comments

Joanna Lapage-Browne | pays tribute to a visionary thinker whose lifework was to revive the tradition of Kabbalah for the contemporary world

Poems for These Times: 15

18 December 2020 | 2 Comments

Laurie Lee | Twelfth Night

“No night could be darker than this night, no cold so cold,
as the blood snaps like a wire
and the heart’s sap stills…”

Reflections: Wild Cycling

4 December 2020 | 4 Comments

Kathy Tiernan | discovers the delights of wild places during the Covid-19 lockdown

The Idea of the World

31 October 2020 | 17 Comments

Richard Gault | reviews Bernardo Kastrup’s recent book, which aims to re-instate consciousness as the fundamental principle of reality

Reflections: Staying – A Lesson from Lockdown

25 September 2020 | 5 Comments

Andrew Watson | finds guidance in the wisdom of the Desert Fathers (and Mothers) during the Covid-19 pandemic

Reflections: The Transforming Power of Bread

30 July 2020 | 3 Comments

Kawther Luay | contemplates the resurgence of bread-making during the Covid-19 lockdown, and offers two nourishing poems

Poems for These Times: 14

26 June 2020 | 7 Comments

Seamus Heaney | From The Cure at Troy

“… So hope for a great sea-change
On the far side of revenge.
Believe that further shore
Is reachable from here…”

Poems for These Times: 13

20 June 2020 | 3 Comments

Kathleen Raine | The Instrument

“… And it may be that soul extends
Organs of sense
Tuned to waves here scarcely heard…”

Poems for These Times: 12

13 June 2020 | 0 Comments

Ted Hughes | A Green Mother

“Why are you afraid?
In the house of the dead are many cradles.
The earth is a busy hive of heavens…”

Poems for These Times: 11

6 June 2020 | 4 Comments

John Milton | “Adam’s Lament” from Paradise Lost

“O miserable mankind, to what fall
Degraded, to what wretched state reserved!…”

Dante, Erotic Love and the Path to God

30 May 2020 | 1 Comment

Mark Vernon | On the 700-year anniversary of The Divine Comedy, Mark Vernon explores a pivotal moment of transformation in the Purgatorio in which Dante gets a glimpse of the vastness of Divine Love

Poems for These Times: 10

30 May 2020 | 2 Comments

Elizabeth Jennings | Song of Time

“Deliver time and let it go
Under wild clouds and passive moon.
Once it was fast, now it is slow…”

Poems for These Times: 9

23 May 2020 | 4 Comments

Rainer Maria Rilke | The Tenth Duino Elegy

“Someday, emerging at last from the violent insight,
let me sing out jubilation and praise to assenting angels…”

Poems for These Times: 8

16 May 2020 | 5 Comments

Benjamin Zephaniah | The Old Truth

“Rumour has it
Once upon a time
Dere was Peace, Luv and Unity…”

Poems for These Times: 7

8 May 2020 | 4 Comments

Rupert Brooke | The Dead

“These hearts were woven of human joys and cares,
Washed marvellously with sorrow, swift to mirth…”

Poems for These Times: 6

2 May 2020 | 4 Comments

Amir Khusrau | Ghazal 1836

“Green is newly sprouted
and rain comes scattering pearls
and the heart comes
to incline to fields
and flowing waters…”