Cheddar Gorge, Somerset, England, UK Coleridge and the landscape of vision A psycho-geographical essay by Ratnagarbha  The Quantocks in Somerset saw one of the greatest years of creativity in the history of English poetry when the Wordsworths lived at Alfoxton Park (which is now a Buddhist retreat centre that runs retreats on mindfulness, communication and creativity) and Coleridge was living close by in the village of Nether Stowey. Coleridge and Wordsworth, although they lived in close association in the West Country during their annus mirabilis of 1798 – 79, had very different paths to ..read more

Ronald Corp has written a magical sacred choral setting of the Dhammapada The Dhammapada is one of the most sacred texts of Buddhism, it contains pithy sayings of Gautama the Buddha. Composer Ronald Corp has written a wonderful sacred choral setting of some verses from the Dhammapada. Not himself a Buddhist Corp was clearly deeply inspired by these ancient verses and has written a piece very much in the tradition of British sacred choral music. I was reminded somewhat of the work of the celebrated Scottish Catholic composer James MacMillan. I was inspired and uplifted by these contemplative s ..read more

C. S. Lewis (left) with brother Warnie, date unknown, presumably taken during Major Lewis’s retirement The Inklings, that informal but highly influential Oxford literary group, has had many books written about it. These days it is fairly well known that as well as J. R. R. Tolkien & C. S. Lewis it contained such luminous figures as linguistic philosopher Owen Barfield and the poet and arthurian visionary Charles Williams. Easily forgotten however is C. S. Lewis’s brother major W. H. (Warnie) Lewis. He was a talented writer, on French cultural history, though not by any means a genius. More ..read more

A new book of strange and marvellous poems from Ananda / Stephen Parr The Alchemical Island: Poems 2106 – 2017 pb, 250 pp, £12 – to order email the poet on moon@wolfatthedoor.org Ananda (Stephen Parr) has brought out another poetry collection, his first since the 2015 collection The Paths Between. The Alchemical Island says on the cover that it covers the years 2016 and 2017. Given the great variety and high quality of the work in this volume one can  only wonder and anticipate what richess the poet has up his sleaves from subsequent years. Years, by the way, during which he moved from B ..read more

A new online gallery of my landscape photography is now live. Also includes geopoetic blog posts / photo essays geopoeticblog.wordpress.com ..read more

Paul Hart is an exceptionally fine English nature photographer. He finds haunting, poetic images in neglected corners of small towns and the countryside. Many of the images convey a sense of desolation and paralysis, and the partial capture of nature in industrial farm landscapes. Shown above is a striking image from his series ‘Truncated’ about a plantation in Derbyshire. Below are images from his haunting fenland series, taken in the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire fens. The writer Isabelle Bonnet wrote this about his work in 2020: Hart’s landscapes create a dialogue between art and docume ..read more

The Bodhi choir at Jade Buddha Temple, Houston, Texas Buddhist choral music Sarvadarsin introduces a new web resource of Buddhist choral music: In recent years, Buddhism has spread to the West, becoming the fastest growing religion in some countries, its teachings and practices striking a chord with individuals seeking spiritual growth and inner peace. Previously, as it reached new parts of the world, Buddhism had a transformative effect on the cultures it encountered, as new Buddhists share and communicate the Buddha Dharma in ways informed by their own traditions. One of the biggest new Budd ..read more

Although he is now settled in Cambridge, landscape painter Jonny Church grew up on the Welsh borders and studied at Aberystwyth School of Art, surrounded by mountains and wild seascapes. His evocative semi-abstract works seek to convey intangible atmospheres in nature while referring always to the actual physical presence of mountains, fells and fields in different weathers. Remarkably he seems equally at home in the flat fields and woods of Cambridgeshire or the mountains of Wales. The play of the elements is after all to be found everywhere. I sense a kind of serene dynamism unfolding in th ..read more

Two Rivers, Mudlark Press, £12, pb, pp 68 Cover painting by Ruth Bateman To purchase e-mail s.d.millward@googlemail.com Two Rivers is a new book of nature poems by Simon Millward – a long time Buddhist meditator based in North Devon. Simon Millward is a poet of nature, pure and simple, in the best sense. He resists the siren calls of ‘pressing issues’, ‘personal issues’, or chatter about nature, and instead writes directly and movingly about his experience of nature, the felt presence of the natural world. This poet is very fortunate in living in the beautiful green hills of North Devon. His ..read more

Poetry Collection by Simon Millward Two Rivers, Mudlark Press, £12, pb, pp 68 Cover painting by Ruth Bateman To purchase e-mail s.d.millward@googlemail.com Two Rivers is a new book of nature poems by Simon Millward – a long time Buddhist meditator based in North Devon. Simon Millward is a poet of nature, pure and simple, in the best sense. He resists the siren calls of ‘pressing issues’, ‘personal issues’, or chatter about nature, and instead writes directly and movingly about his experience of nature, the felt presence of the natural world. This poet is very fortunate in living in the beauti ..read more