Poems
demand the impossible
A poem by performance poet Emma Ireland from Derby, East Midlands, England, inspired by my book 'Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism'. She says she has...
Rumi and love and tolerance
I said after breakfast in the ‘Rumi Hotel’ in Konya to a Sufi from Birmingham in England: ‘The reason why Rumi is so important today is because he taught tolerance and...
Today is a gift
The past is history.The future is a mystery.Today is a gift.It’s called the present.
Poem: I am the salmon which leaps in the pool
In early Celtic poetry, there was no gap between human beings and the rest of the natural world. With the coming of Roman Christianity and Western philosophy it was...
A poem: The Tree House
High among the pine needlesbuilt out of spare planks and driftwood,I lie lazily in the shade.Its spiral ladder is rough-hewn. Its trapdoor is held by a hinge of bent...
Poem: Quiet and calm
This poem was written last autumn during my voyage along the south Turkish coast in my small yacht "Celtic Gold". Aperlai Creek, southern Turkey Quiet and calmunder the...
The wild wind from the north
Instead of fighting the cold, wintry blast from the north like you might fight the violent and cruel sea in Poseidon’s worst moods, with hunched shoulders and frown...
Thoughts on a Sunny Winter’s Day
Society invigorates, government depresses. There is no such thing as a good government; it is a contradiction in terms. The more politicians there are, the more discord...
Little Things
My daughter Emily and her eight-month old baby Theo recently came to stay with us in Devon. We did several firsts for him together: rowing on the river Tamar, watering...
Peter Marshall’s impressive history is a well-argued and absorbing account of astrology’s grip on the imagination, and an eloquent defence of its importance in our lives … fascinating
Gary Lachman, The Guardian
Reading about anarchism is stimulating and funny and sad. What more can you ask of a book?