white flower He said, I am with you always. That means, when you look for God That God is the looking itself, Yes, and the thought of looking And the you that thinks the thought Always, already, all of it; There is no outside. A white flower grows in the silence Let your […]
Blog: Pictures-Books-Reflections
Roses
Posted on by James Woodward
roses my love in secret sent this secret to me give me your self give me your all go like a wanderer take to the road walk calmly into the flames burn without burning burn, burn, as the fire becomes roses my blasphemies are what god is watch the glow of god: see […]
Memories
Posted on by James Woodward
We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life. Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes […]
Baddesley Clinton
Posted on by James Woodward
Baddesley Clinton , is a moated manor house, located just north of Warwick ; the house was probably established during the 13th century when large areas of the Forest of Arden were cleared and eventually converted to farmland. The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and the Hall is a Grade I listed building. […]
Remembering Maya Angelou
Posted on by James Woodward
I started my blogging life in 2008 partly as a way of capturing my experience of a sabbatical in America. In the spring of that year I spent a month in Washington DC followed by three months in Chicago. It was a rejuvenating and very significant time. I managed to get over to Washington […]
A Tree….
Posted on by James Woodward
a tree telling of Orpheus he spoke, and as no tree listens I listened, and language came into my roots out of the earth, into my bark out of the air, into the pores of my greenest shoots gently as dew and there was no word he sang but I knew its meaning. […]
the costs of trying to avoid the inevitable
Posted on by James Woodward
From todays Church Times James Woodward on the costs of trying to avoid the inevitable Should We Live Forever? The ethical ambiguities of aging Gilbert Meilaender Eerdmans £11.99 HUMAN beings generally desire life. Most of us are grateful for the good gift that is our life. Like other animals, we pass through a life-cycle from […]
Tredegar House
Posted on by James Woodward
Tredegar House is a 17th-century Charles II country house mansion in the city of Newport that for over five hundred years was home to the Morgan family, later Lords Tredegar; one of the most powerful and influential families in the area. Described as “The grandest and most exuberant country house” in Monmouthshire and one of […]
her great shining
Posted on by James Woodward
The moon is a sow and grunts in my throat Her great shining shines through me so the mud of my hollow gleams and breaks in silver bubbles She is a sow and I a pig and a poet When she opens her white lips to devour me I bite back and […]
For the small things – Thankfulness?
Posted on by James Woodward
Praises I praise those things I always take for granted:- The tap my sister turns on for my bath Every time I stay, the safety pin – And who invented it? I do not know – The comb, the piece of soap, a shoe, its shine, The name tape and the string, a […]
Words?
Posted on by James Woodward
Oranges Be careful of words, even the miraculous ones. For the miraculous we do our best, sometimes they swarm like insects and leave not a sting but a kiss. They can be as good as fingers. They can be as trusty as the rock you stick your bottom on. But they can be […]
dahlia
Posted on by James Woodward
They brought me a quilled, yellow dahlia, Opulent, flaunting. Round gold Flung out of a pale green stalk. Round, ripe gold Of maturity, Meticulously frilled and flaming, A fire-ball of proclamation. From Amy Lowell, Autumn
petals
Posted on by James Woodward
somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond any experience,your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look will easily unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as […]
Let us return?
Posted on by James Woodward
ultimate blue Let us return to imperfection’s school. No longer wandering after Plato’s ghost, Seeking the garden where all fruit is flawless, We must at last renounce that ultimate blue And take a walk in other kinds of weather. From Adrienne Rich, Stepping backward
Image of the week : Black on Maroon by Rothko
Posted on by James Woodward
This painting comes from one of three series of canvases painted by Rothko in 1958-9 in response to a commission for murals for the small dining room of the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York. The Four Seasons, one of the smartest restaurants in the city, is in the Seagram Building, a celebrated classic modern […]
English Cathedrals : Portsmouth
Posted on by James Woodward
The Cathedral Church of St Thomas of Canterbury, commonly known as Portsmouth Cathedral, is the cathedral of the Diocese of Portsmouth, England and is located in the heart of Old Portsmouth. Around the year 1180, Jean de Gisors, a wealthy Norman merchant and Lord of the Manor of Titchfield, gave land in his new […]
Image of the week: A Busy Life by Dubuffett
Posted on by James Woodward
Painted in August 1953. It is one of the series of paintings known as ‘Beaten Pastes’ (Pâtes battues) executed between March and December 1953 of which Dubuffet has written: ‘These paintings are done with a smooth light coloured (almost white) paste, fairly thick, spread unevenly and rapidly with a plasterer’s knife over layers already […]
A Holy Saturday walk – Windsor Great Park
Posted on by James Woodward
Windsor Great Park welcomes over two and a half million people every year. Windsor Great Park, the only Royal Park managed by The Crown Estate, was once part of a vast Norman hunting forest which was enclosed in the late 13th century. The 2,020 hectares (5,000 acres) of parkland, which includes a Deer Park, is […]
Easter – and the possibilities of transformation?
Posted on by James Woodward
When we read when we read the Gospel accounts of the resurrection we note how varied these experiences were. There is always a mystery, a greater depth, new things to uncover about the transformation possible because of Easter. If we delve beneath the surface of these Easter encounters, we do not find human strength […]