Culture Articles
I AM
I am the adder under the stone, I am the mouseling, wary, alone, I am the sea-wave ready to strike, I am that rusty clapped out bike.
Through the eyes of the children: a lament
We were taught to look for the good in everyone. But when your eyes are filled with the blood of your brothers; your ears echo with the cries of your sisters; your head overwhelmed with numbers beyond counting of splinters of dreams scattered profusely over broken pavements, how then are...
John Dee
What’s known as his ‘magic mirror’ is polished obsidian that reflected his obsessive probing the dark surface for a glimpse of angels harbouring divine secrets drawn from all times past and those even yet to come.
Listening as Quaker Practice, by James McCarthy
This little Kindlers book is a gem. It explores listening in depth from a Quaker perspective and draws on many Friends’ experiences.
Queer Holiness, by Charlie Bell
Unlike many who hold forth on the topic of LGBT+ people and the church, Charlie Bell is eminently qualified to talk about it. He is a consultant psychiatrist and academic, and also a curate at a south London Anglican church.
Twist of Love, by Rosemary May Wells
Rosemary May Wells’ fourth collection of poems is the companion to her first, God is an Onion. It encompasses global and everyday life events, as well as people and friendships, and the natural world and the local area. All this is done with warmth, love and grace.
Feet
Firmly grounded, side by side, orderly. While others dangle nonchalantly, mid-careless-air, an imper- ceptible swing to them.
What’s Eating the Universe? And other cosmic questions, by Paul Davies
This book, written with Paul Davies’ trademark clarity and humour, answers many questions we may have about contemporary physics. For example, does it still believe in anti-matter? Somewhat embarrassingly, we read that the first anti-matter particle, the positron, an electron with a positive charge, was discovered ninety years ago. On...
Meeting for Zooming
The screens reflected in their eyes, each sits in a familiar room, Friends – silent, chatty, busy, wise – united by the Quaker Zoom.
Until We Reckon: Violence, mass incarceration, and a road to repair, by Danielle Sered
The movement for prison abolition has a strong voice in this book. Danielle Sered offers pragmatic alternatives, meeting the needs of survivors and suggesting ways for people who have committed violence to repair harm. She argues that reckoning is owed not only by people who have caused violence, but by...