Drunkards Ledger – 17th December 2022

Are good intentions always the best?
The drunkards put it to the test
What reactions would their honesty bring
When told that they had said the wrong thing?
Camaraderie broken without moderation
A bitten tongue is an undesired sensation
But there’s a skill to an honest liar
That the drunkards’ needs require
Words remain and legends born
When from the heart they were torn
Never accounted on the ledger’s expense
A friend that chose to take offence


The Outsider…is the one man who knows he is sick in a civilisation that doesn’t know it is sick.

Colin Wilson

Today I’m feeling:
Tired and a little down
Today I’m grateful for:
Amy’s quick recovery and not needing my help too much to prepare for her dinner party this evening. I was still exhausted and got back into bed at 11am after vacuuming and doing a few other chores to help Amy. I read for a while and slept, getting up again around 3.30 and feeling a bit better.
The best thing about today was:
Reading Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet. I look forward to reading it again in the future.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
I pretty much relinquished control today and let myself be directed by Amy. My brain was barely functioning during the morning so I had little reason to push on with things that I wanted to do.
Something I learned today?
Utopia is closed tomorrow! My backup coffee place in Black Smooth but I’ll have to remember to take a book with me.
Do you have a daily routine?
A flexible one as I try to have lots of little tasks that I would like to do every day but also don’t beat myself up if I miss them. In the morning I do a very brief stretch and exercise, I used to meditate for 5 minutes too and may get back to that. I shower and feed the cats and feed myself before heading off to school and hopefully one or two coffees. Things are flexible after this. But in the evening I strive to play guitar, follow up on emails and write this journal, read a book for about 20 minutes, and then read comics before sleeping. I’m not a fan of doing the same thing every day so including some or all of these tasks is an aim and each starts anew.

Amy took this picture because this was her in the hospital (yesterday) getting her first rabies shot and her bite wounds dressed. She’s in less pain today but has a bit of swelling. I hope it fixes up quickly.

The Rock Of Truth – 21st June 2022

Standing on the bank of the river
Sympathies for those floating by
Your tears will cleanse your heart
You cannot comprehend my cry
I am the truth as rock
Stood for a million years
Listening to your sad songs
Whispered between your tears
Empty is your heart and hand
A touch so inviting and smooth
Your house without mirrors
To view your soul to soothe
Long you looked in ridicule
Shackled to the ebb and flow
Grabbing onto sparkling gold
And screaming to never let go

Imagery inspired by a Khalil Gibran short story


Our diversity is not a reason to hate each other. Quite the opposite, we must admire and respect it.

found at Khimushin Alexander, original unknown

Slave Driven – 26th May 2022

Having walked through shadow and light
Seeing the slaves in misery and distress
Even those with strength and faith
Struggle to make sense of this mess
The apprentice, artisan and employer
The soldier, governor and king
All enslaved with submission
Of another’s tune to sing
Chained to the parent’s past
Urged to yield oneself to tradition
Words create empty echoes
When failed to express contrition


Certain types of persons are terrified even to poke a big toe into genuinely felt regret or sadness, or to get angry. This means they are afraid to live.

from The Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Once The War Is Over – 18th May 2022

When it’s decided nothing is decided
What is left over will remain divided
Rewritten histories and redrawn maps
Humanity adjusts to new handicaps
Once the war is over it’s only just begun
Here comes another, and another one
Victory propaganda, revisionist extolling
Amounts to nothing as the tanks keep rolling


I am here, living, and in the depths of my existence there is a thirst and hunger, and I find joy in partaking of the bread and wine of life from the vases which I make and fashion by my own hands.

Yusif, The Tempest by Kahlil Gibran

Get Lost – 25th April 2022

How can you be lost
If you don’t know where you’re going?
How much does it cost
To be comfortable with the not knowing?
You take the first step
Outside the familiar loop of each day
And don’t you forget
You got ‘here’ but ‘there’ is a different way

*inspired by The Tiny Wisdom


Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.

Khalil Gibran

Two Hermits – 6th March 2022

When evil enters the heart
The mind speaks not plainly
But would force charity out of others
When desire was a brotherly fight
The bowl was never divided
And their love remained intact

Another Khalil Gibran parable.


Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence.

Lu Xun

Sleepwalking – 3rd March 2022

Meeting you, asleep, amongst flowers
I curse you for destroying my youth
You are my enemy, I could kill you
The misty veil cannot hide the truth

And I too, your daughter, sleeping
Wish that you could also be dead
Standing between my freer self and me
My life will not echo all you have said

The cock crows, dew evaporates
Eyes open to the love of daughter and mother
The human condition, the order of nature
There is nothing else to be placed above her

Based on another Khalil Gibran parable


Discovering you were wrong is an update, not a failure, and your worldview is a living document meant to be revised.

Julia Galef

The Week That Was – 8th April 1979

The Scarecrow – 26th February 2022

The crows are building
Nests under my hat
I’ve thought long and hard
About this
And I’m no longer scared
To be alone

Based on the titular Khalil Gibran parable. I found almost every one of his parables poetically inspiring. More coming, I’m sure!


…a fraction of atoms cohered into the elements necessary to form the complex structures necessary for life…the tiny improbable fraction of a fraction of a fraction with which we have the perishable privilege of contemplating the universe in our poetry…

Maria Popova, paraphrasing Alan Lightman

Where Go You, My Friend? – 25th February 2022

I am not what I seem
I have masks to protect you from me
I stay alone in my house
And it will this way forever be
I am simply understood
Because I am a mirror in my ways
Yet you should not trust my deeds
Or my thoughts that reflect your plays
I hide from you my darkness
My skies of purple shadow
As you ascend yourself to Heaven
It’s down to Hell that I go
Your steps are taken with caution
Whilst my madness removes my care
There’s direction to your movement
But I feel it’s not going anywhere
My friend, you are not my friend
But how shall I make you understand?
My path is not your path
Yet together we walk hand in hand

Inspired by a Khalil Gibran parable, with the last four lines lifted word for word. I found this short parable very affecting and particularly relevant to my thoughts on friendship.


Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.

Ralph Waldo Emerson