Category: Silent Eye School

Light on Black

I will not tread upon your words Whose worth is in these hills and lakes Where golden flowers charmed the breeze That carried you to greatness ➰ But armed with eyes of fingered glass Which sense and frame intensity I reach into the now of gold To capture black’s propensity ➰ To frame in light what lies beyond And host a soul that only … Read More Light on Black

Isolation or Soul-Elation?

Caroline Ormrod is one of the Companions of the Silent Eye working through the first year of the three-year journey towards the real nature of the individual Soul. I am delighted to be her supervisor for this process. Her brief and light-hearted bio is appended to this post. Recently, along with her weekly email ‘journal’ of progress and experiences, she sent me a short … Read More Isolation or Soul-Elation?

Circles around Sedgwick (1)

It’s a Viking word, Sedgwick. It dates from the time when the Lake District was part of the Danelaw, the half of England under the rule of the Norsemen, and means ‘place by the river’. The river in question is the Kent, which flows from Kentmere lake through Kendal on its way to the estuary at nearby Arnside, then out as a major channel … Read More Circles around Sedgwick (1)

#ShortWrytz : Dreams of Trees

The river is just below. Close and beautiful, as always, but he’s photographed it a hundred times and the winter’s challenge is to find a new place; a place hidden in the old, hidden in the usual. And then, as he turns to seek elsewhere, it’s there. Devoid of leaves, its tall structure is all there is, but its presence is magnificent and dark … Read More #ShortWrytz : Dreams of Trees

#ShortWrytz : Hope in the Sky

I have always looked for the key ‘moments’ as the turn of the year progresses. My favourite is the first day when you feel like ‘spring is in the air’. But, prior to that, there are certain nights in March when you feel that there is ‘hope’ in the sky – and sometimes that comes in the darkness rather than in the day. Here … Read More #ShortWrytz : Hope in the Sky

Wisdom breathes out?

We seem to be wrestling with the recognition that an age is coming to an end, and that strange forms are filling the world with casual madness, behaving as though nothing hangs over, us; no piper calling for the line to the clifftop. The word ‘wisdom’ is to be used cautiously. It is subjective. One person’s wisdom is another’s folly. And yet, looking back … Read More Wisdom breathes out?

Voices in the Mist (2)

Continued from Part One. From a distance it looks too stark to be a monument. The eye is, initially, disappointed as the form makes its modernistic impact. Both the height of the pylons and the width of the base ( a massive 6,000 tonnes of steel-reinforced concrete) look devoid of detail… but this is an illusion, for the Canadian National Monument on Vimy Ridge … Read More Voices in the Mist (2)

Voices in the Mist (1)

We had never been to the First World War monuments and graves in northern France. As a young man, I considered them part of a national mindset that glorified war. But, over the decades, that view was moderated and I realised that such places are the result of something much deeper in the national psyche. And not just national. Like a vast whirlpool, WW1 … Read More Voices in the Mist (1)

Three ghosts of Christmas present…

Christmas Eve, a lost near-blind dog escaped onto the fells… and a head-torch… What could possible go more wrong?

The Opening

I know the words The long-learned words With which this view is framed These slats of wood I crafted round The Opening… ➰ Yet there it lies, unshut before me The rawness of the world Behind my words I kneel, now Afraid to stop their flow’s intent In widening my wood ➰ One day the words will be unspeakable The splinters brushed aside By … Read More The Opening

Big Bubbles

Once there was an ocean A bright blue ocean That shone shimmering gold As its waves crested and fell And the bubbles danced with joy ➰ Then a bubble grew bigger And gathered other big bubbles We’re not bubbles they cried We’re a cluster of bubbles And they rose to the top of the waves And flew off into the bright sky ➰ Higher … Read More Big Bubbles

Fear and Love in the High Peak – part one

It’s not the best of photo resolutions, but the above image says it all. Briony saluting the Derbyshire landscape in her own way at the end of three days of the Silent Eye’s Tideswell-based workshop: Sue and Stuart’s creation; and a wonderful experience for the group of souls who braved the provocative title for the weekend… Rites of Passage: Seeing beyond Fear …and decided … Read More Fear and Love in the High Peak – part one