28 February 2007

Root

Thinking is a withdrawal from life's immediacy.
An immediate mind embraces and engages – it does not think.
The thoughtful distance is necessitated by a lack of root.
A root allows you to channel life through you and stay immediate – connected.
It is absolutely without violence and without effort – without spirit even.
It's the place you spring from and go back to.
A place of utter contentment.
All the buried places
will eventually find you

Pam Rehm, Small Works


I read this little book – one of the most beautiful I have ever come across – on the shore of Lake Galilee yesterday. The setting gave the poems a weight, intensity & depth remarkable even for them.

27 February 2007

Short Form

Here's a video clip of me doing Short Form in Ra'anana last night.

19 February 2007


Photo: Scott Radcliffe

14 February 2007

The hea(r)t of the moment.

13 February 2007

If my works are of any interest, it is first and foremost because I observe Nature with awe and very closely, and because it awakens a polarity of feeling in me. This is far more important than that virtuosity which constant, dedicated work will almost invariably lead to. I cannot emphasize sufficiently the need for an artist to be honest in his work. Only honesty can give him the high courage he requires to take the work upon him in all modesty.

Henri Matisse

12 February 2007

Birthday

Dear Steven

The first 48 are the worst...

Respect your foundation, open your heart.

The embracing of destiny swallows fear and its offspring time and pride.

The thrust within you will become more and more revealed as reaching out
to the consequences of your true nature.

The thinking calculating mind will find its own remote sanctuary, and will keep you fluent in the language most speak.

The language of connection is pure compassion, and that is how you will save the world.

Who else is there?

Feel your shoulders broaden and the necessary strength invade your bones from the heavens and the earth.

Such bountiful activity is the essence of peace and the miracle-touch of life.

Love

John

11 February 2007

08 February 2007

A New Life

Dear Steven

We have woken to a white cityscape ripe for melting as the hard structures made by fear ache to be melted by two hearts becoming one.

Love

John

07 February 2007

Round Chapel class


Back row, left to right: Roxanne, Liam, Darren, Rob, Max, Simon, Tamsin, Peter, Barbara, Wayne, Pip.
Front row: Chris, Kate, Jo, Abigail, Monica, Lyndy, Leonor.
Absent were: Elizabeth, Shaun, Sara, Sarah, Peter, Nicolette, Gene, Nigel.
Love to you all.

06 February 2007

Ireland

Please note dates above for next Irish Workshops, and click that link for more details.

The ones this past weekend went well. Fintan entertained us afterwards.

05 February 2007

04 February 2007

Back to the drawing-board.
Faith is immediacy or spontaneity after reflection.

Soren Kierkegaard

03 February 2007

Into spirit a
spirit of the place what's around here a spirit
of romance a nymph.

John Taggart

Photo: Lyndy Stout 3ii07

02 February 2007

This snow,
that wafts softly down —
I could eat it!

Issa

Stunning poem this, indicating the passionate & muscular engagement we need with the natural to make proper sense of it – incorporate it – bring it into the body – put it to use.
The older I get the more I realise that character means more than knowledge, and that love means more than energy.