On representation of the commons. I am the place in which something has occurred — Kathleen Raine There is a river in Quebec, called Mutehekau Shipu, that was granted legal personhood in 2022. Standing beside it, Robert Macfarlane writes that he can’t help feeling a fundamental incommensurability between the discourse of “rights” and “standing” and Read More
Building the infrastructure that makes conscience legible I keep returning to Edgar Mitchell’s account of his return from the moon — looking back at Earth from beyond its sphere of influence, he found himself overwhelmed by an inner conviction as certain as any equation he’d ever solved: that this beautiful blue world is part of Read More
On media, medicine, wikipedia versions of reality, the inversion of protections, and the dissolution of democracy. Democratic societies, in theory, are built on a set of interlocking protections: a free press to hold power to account, independent scientific institutions to establish what is verifiably true, legal frameworks to protect individual rights and dissent, and — Read More
You wake up on your back on the beach eyes open stars ablaze bell clanking rhythmically sound of waves lapping gently
Sentinel silent standing arms reaching holding high green, fierce flower and thorn bee and beetle tumbling, sun rock and sky statuesque shadows lifting long heat dazed quartz and shale breathing, we dream
Sliding along the length of your back caressing high mountain meadows long as the breeze soaring, lost in the aroma the wild flowers of your being sunlight glinting
Big Sur, California, to Baja California Sur, Mexico Elemental, nourishing, a retreat from the driven madness of the world, Big Sur, Esalen in particular, rooted deep in the intrinsic power of nature, held between mountain wilderness and vast ocean, the redwood forests, the remote valleys, the oak lined ridges overlooking the Pacific… Esalen, on the Read More
Were I able to capture within this flimflam frame all the majesty of light and space, scintillating across the oasis before me now
I am not really feeling it myself, and my friend Natalie doesn’t feel ready for what would be her first ceremony either, and we decide to let the idea go. So, we are sitting in Petite Leon café, meeting with a serendipitous group of enthusiastic plant experts from Mexico city, looking to collaborate in regenerative Read More
a poem on gratitude during thanksgiving
a poem on expatriate gentrification and consumerism in Baja California
Creating balance with the inner and outer spaces we inhabit. On his way back to earth, having just walked on the moon, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell experienced a radical transformation in consciousness. As he approached our planet from beyond its sphere of influence, taking in the exquisite poise of earth, moon and sun gyrating Read More
Life, Love and the Human Spirit Ever the irreverent rogue, defiant of establishment and death, there was my father, on the slow road. Nine lives cashed in, prostate cancer in remission, driving himself from his off-grid, country shack to dialysis in Palma, three times a week, until my younger brother Hieronymus (after Bosch, no less) had Read More
Having to pee three times a night is great for star gazing, especially when you live in a field in an oasis in the desert. And then there’s a full lunar eclipse. Gotta be cool, right! So I watch her rise, magnificent, low in the evening sky, sailing through the palms. Silhouetted, their skirts swish Read More
It was perhaps an inevitability, given that I am currently living in an old trailer in a dark field with an obfuscating hedgerow adjacent, perfect for a little bandit to make away with my new TV and silver flute and the lovely pineapple I had been ripening. It’s a poor country. The little shit took Read More
They left I felt their absence every day The curious thrill of knowing, there is this thriving silent throng of dangerous vital existence right outside my door I missed that life force.
I’m sitting here with a cuppa in the early morning sun in my field in BCS. I’m taking in the expanse of tall shimmering palms, stretching out towards the jagged mountain ridges that divide this primal peninsula. There’s a swarm of bees hanging low, 5 meters away from my little trailer home here. I have Read More
Right, so this little sojourn, to which you are invited, is predicated on the ongoing exploration of the idea that there are two fundamental forces in the universe, namely fear, (withdrawal) and love, (expansion) and that we get to chose in which direction we lean each and every moment, mid pandemia or otherwise. Like every Read More
What ever you’re doing – stop. Close your eyes, listen…
What scares me is not death. What scares me is having our freedom to live responsibly taken away. This, it appears, is more ominous and imminent a threat than death by any virus old or new.
The idea of arresting increasing climate related disaster was recently taken up by the Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement in the UK. XR represent a confrontational if disruptive demand to hold government accountable for the denial or dallying of their roles in practices shown to disrupt climate stability. Greenpeace, NRDC, and countless other environmental and humanitarian Read More
What’s not to love about a little love poem ; ) Waiting impatiently to savour the smokey taste tobacco wine chocolate dark traveller’s lips upon mine softly once more to hear that husky voice chattering like water coursing across mossy mountain rocks singing the delirious song of being into my soul under my skin waiting
After an especially dark and internal winter, the light of new creativity and power have been welling up from within those murky depths, the looming horizon becomes present, the Phoenix rises – it must be spring! Here’s a graphic to honour the phenomenon.
Everything you and your mum need to know about the new distributed currency and the decentralised information revolution – how and why to get onboard, in a nutshell. Bitcoin was born out of an extraordinary innovation to resolve the loss of faith in, and the failings of central banks, sovereign states and governments, after the economic collapse of 2008 in particular. It does Read More
I had forgotten how completely and utterly fucking nuts India is. It’s so scuzzy and chaotic you still can’t believe it. But vibrant, colourful and exotic like nowhere else. Hop on your moped and into the foray and it’s adrenalin carnival all the way…
poetry – I mean, who fucking has time for poetry? but, there is a moment when the light hits you and you don’t feel separate a radiance obliterating every atom and purpose as you stand basking, blissful, desolate
an ode to sex, desire, rebellion and fallen women Found this artwork in centre camp at burning man a few years ago (tracked down the artist through the playa vine for attribution) then stumbled across this poem and thought… they belong together! Autobiography of Eve by Ansel Elkins Wearing nothing but snakeskin boots, I blazed Read More
Our one world, will be saved by beauty when we remember, how to see with the eyes of a child into the golden heart, of every living thing. We will feel deeply the earthly memories etched into the mountains of home the forgetfulness in the oceans heave, the forgiving
reflections after watching the haunting film of the same name.
Just as an individual person dreams fantastic happenings to release the inner forces which cannot be encompassed by ordinary events, so too a city needs its dreams. A Pattern Language is the seminal (1977) work of architect Christopher Alexander et al. describing a functional system to meet humanistic needs in the design of buildings, the Read More