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Although travel is exciting, home comforts are hard to beat. My daily morning ritual involves making coffee, feeding the starving cat, opening the balcony doors, sitting down to read or write a poem. The repetition of these tiny acts have brought a sense of calm and purpose to my life.
Tales from Dublin pubs: Clarke's City Arms of Prussia Street
We visited one sweltering summer’s day (admittedly with drink already taken) and found a pleasant exterior with a medieval door and lots of squared windows. On first entering it seemed silent and serene. Light was blissful and motes of dust spun basking in its beams. One can imagine how we were lulled and unprepared for what was soon to come.
Detras del cielo (behind the sky)
A song of growth and revival. Presented to the public for the first time by Mercurius Magazine.
Self-growth
Self-growth. Digital print. 2020. Victor Manzanal.
The ocean gives us all we have
Water, flowing everywhere, touching all it finds: cleaning, carving, healing, seamlessly connected drops, wearing down even the hardest rocks, grinding, softening, world-shaping, water.
Our Oceanic Life
The highest currency of change is song. The ocean, for all her perils and charms, breathes her music into us. Her manifold realities are fraught with songful dreams and dangers.
The sea has as many colours as beauty has moods
Three photographs of the sea. 2020. Thomas Helm.
Say morning, and a bird trills on a doorstep outside a kitchen
Today we are going to meet a great poet, Shara McCallum. I first met her at the 2017 Miami Book Fair. She had recently published her book: Madwoman.
Valse Triste
Valse Triste. Solo work for archtop guitar written and played by David Braid.
The Ego versus Death
It’s been there since birth, that little voice inside me, singing, or shouting, or wailing, me first, me first, me first. The rudimentary mantra of existence.
Tales from Dublin Pubs: O'Connell, J. of South Richmond Street
Barman Freddie (who curses like a sailor and practices an old world pouring technique involving knives and generous spillages) is wont to enjoy his own supply behind the counter, and grows slower to serve and more moody accordingly.
Mercuries #5 - The Animal Drums
The first major poetry-film of the 21st century - Gareth Evans. The Animal Drums…
Two well-known lute solos by John Dowland
David Braid interprets Mr Dowland’s Midnight and Lachrimae.
The Two Theatres of Life
Human life is composed and regulated by a seemingly infinite series of stages, of spectacles that breathe meaning into our invented worlds.
Theatrical picnic: A homage to Heston Blumenthal and Albert Adrià
The creation of food is magic, as much an act of transformation as of necessity. It is little wonder that food is a source of escape and pleasure for so many. People eat to forget, remember, celebrate, commiserate and survive. Food is at the heart of the most sacred and secular rituals. At its core, the preparation of a good meal is a demonstration of love and the desire to give pleasure, a moment of catharsis.
Transform your mind: star fire
Looking up means seeing infinitely further than our day-to-day lives ever allow; such an experience has a deep inward echo, prompting us to contemplate the truth behind humanity and maybe beyond. A celestial realm of possibility, of nothingness; imagination’s pure potential littered with the coded twinkling of ancient fires.
Why debt is slavery
Debt is as much a pandemic as any virus because it touches so many people. It’s estimated that 75% of the world is in debt. Global debt reached $255 trillion in 2019, and in 2008 the time of the global financial crisis, debt was at $97 trillion. In twelve years debt has increased by 163%.
Guided meditation
A guided meditation. For those curious about trying meditation. For those who practice meditation already…
Dreaming of my future husband
Dreaming of my future husband. The wedding shops of Istanbul. 2018. Three photographs by Thomas Helm.
Ikigai: Find your own meaning
Meaningful work is a powerful tool for keeping us sane. In his book that charts his time at a Siberian Labour camp, Dostoevsky acknowledges that although the work is hard there is a salvation in following it through from beginning to end and seeing its use. The way to truly break someone would be to divorce the work from meaning.
The never-ending quest…
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