When a friend calls to me from the road
And slows his horse to a meaning walk,
I don't stand still and look around
On all the hills I haven't hoed,
And shout from where I am, What is it?
No, not as there is a time to talk.

📷 Steven Zucker A small detail from a large fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Allegory of Good Government. I see three children on a small balcony looking down. Underneath them is a swallow by its nest that's attached to the underside of the balcony. The children can't see it, but it is as if they are waiting for the swallow to reappear.

A collage using a painting of Blake of a naked man bent over with a compass over some geometric shapes on oaper. The shapes have been replaced by an etching by David Hockney of two men in bed, relating to the poems of Cavafy. This to illustrate my abridged translation of Cavafy's poem, Perception.

In the ebb and flow of my youth,
My poetic will was being shaped,
the landscape of my art was being mapped.

That is why my regrets were never permanent.
Those decisions to restrain myself, to change,
lasted two weeks at most.

A collage using a bust that does the rounds as being that of Mark Antony, plus Poussin's Triumph of Bacchus, plus a view of the ruins of an amphitheatre in Alexandria, plus a window frame. This, to illustrate an abridged poem by Cavafy done by me, The God Abandons Antony.

Befitting one worthy of such a city
and as one long-prepared
approach the window courageously
and listen
with emotion
not with cowardly pleas and complaints
listen to the sounds
the exquisite instruments of the mystical troupe
and bid farewell to the Alexandria you are losing.

I did a quick check and I don't think you are following him, so just to let you know he is on Bluesky.

A young man, a few hours before he died,
whispered something about 'home', and 'very old parents'.
But who his parents were or where his home was
in the great Hellenic world, no one knew.
Better that way. For as he lies dead
in this harbour town,
his parents will always hope he is alive.

James D'Emilio's description: In the fragmentary fresco, the three apostles are shown against a rocky landscape on the right. To the left, Jesus kneels with hands together in prayer, as an angel descends from the sky with a chalice.

As I stare I begin to levitate. A silent drone. I'm slightly above, but at a distance, from the sleeping disciples. I view Jesus, arcing over and hovering higher, much higher than the angel, which viewing side-on brings me down to its level.

Pace di Bartolo
📷 @demiliopics2.bsky.social

Bob Dylan - Masters of War (Official Audio) YouTube video by BobDylanVEVO

youtu.be/JEmI_FT4YHU?...

A collage of the earth with a tunnel through it and the moon on spiders legs coming out of it. We see all of this from behind the sun.

I'll believe as soon
This whole earth may be bor'd, and that the moon
May through the centre creep, and so displease
Her brother's noon-tide with th'Antipodes.

Seven details of the goal England scored against Spain last night showing Russo having been clattered to the ground still having the wherewith all to flick the ball up for Hemp to volley.

A collage of a detail from Guernica by Picasso with Jeremy Taylor in front and then the back of the heads of an audience. This to accompany the text from the dedication to Richard Vaughan of his book Holy Living.

to lay aside when the kingdom of the gospel was preached by the Prince of peace. But when religion puts on armour, it may have the power of the sword, but not the power of godliness, and we have no remedy but the fellowship of Christ's sufferings, and the returns of the God of peace.

A collage of Jeremy Taylor in front of a detail from a war scene by Piero Della Francesco showing a horse's head and a soldier stabbed in the neck. In front of these we see the back the heads of an audience.

I have lived to see religion painted upon banners, and thrust out of churches, and the temple turned into a tabernacle, and God to be worshipped, not as He is, the Father of our Lord Jesus, the king of sufferings; nor as the God of peace; but rather as the Lord of hosts, which title He was pleased

Same again. Isaiah kneeling before a Seraphim putting a hot coal to his lips

Clayton & Bell
Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
📷 Rex Harris

Stained glass scene of Isaiah kneeling in front of an angel putting a hot coal to his lips.

Clokey Glass
First Bangor Presbyterian Church, Co Down
📷 Beechgarave

The burning coal.

Stained glass scene of Isaiah sitting before his vision of God and the Seraphim.

Powells
St Mary's, Kidderminster
📷 Aidan McRae Thomson

Just the vision.

Stained glass panel of Isaiah kneeling before a Seraphim whose placing a hot coal on his lips.

Clayton & Bell
Salisbury Cathedral
📷 In Memoriam: Gordon Plumb

The hot coal again.

I've got a feeling he is going to be EdWard Munch (rhymes with bunch) with me from now on.

bsky.app/profile/mark...

British Museum 1931,0413.622.2 Isaiah's lips purified by fire; the prophet is seated on a stone, with a book; a six-winged seraphim is putting a hot coal on his mouth; in the background, God is sitting enthroned with seraphims at his side; after Nicolas de Hoey; stiched together with the 18 prints in the series. 1594 Engraving Producer name Print made by: Carel van Mallery After: Nicolas de Hoey Published by: Philips Galle

Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

British Museum
(see ALT)

Edvard Munch
Waves, 1908

They struck me as very science fictionish. The remake film of Total Recall has a tunnel through the earth but not as big so the moon can travel through.

A collage of the earth with a tunnel going through it, and a moon with a face can be seen in the middle.

She would have done sciences at school!

Atheist Sightings

That Christ was a bastard and his mother dishonest. That St John the Evangelist was bedfellow to Christ, that he vsed him as the sinners of Sodoma. Marlow doth not only hould them himself, but almost into every company he cometh he perswades men to Atheism.

Atheist Sightings

For that which befalleth men befalleth beasts; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; all go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

Atheist Sightings

The bad construction and perverse comment on these paire of second causes, or visible hands of God [fortune and providence] have perverted the devotion of many unto Atheisme; who forgetting the honest advisoes of faith, have listened unto the conspiracie of Passion and Reason.

Atheist Sightings

It appeareth in nothing more, that atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man, than by this that atheists will ever be talking of that their opinion, as if they fainted in it within themselves, and would be glad to be strengthened by the consent of others