Owl

Short-eared Durham owl
meditating over the dale’s edge,
shadows the fields and folds in elegant diurnal flight.
On windside,careful sight, may swoop to prey and away
Your yellow broad-eyed look, at once both sharp and distant, holds me.
Oh,silence,
oh ,wind on green,
Oh. earth,
sky.
Immense your held vision;
Widening, centred,
pied geometer of flight,
sketch your  height and descent.
Trees bunched by drystone wall
call heart home.

Floating into sleep

My room is warm and comforting and light
This feels like kindness , brings my skin delight
I remember being held in loving arms
And soothed by songs as sweet as any balms
Let the lamplight run across the eyes
Let them soften to a wider gaze
Let the hair be free from sprays too strong
Let the skin enclose us softly, strong
We can’t deny the skin is often pricked
Or beaten by a parent who’s too strict
More fragile than a leaf from any tree
This frail membrane is our boundary
Floating into sleep in reverie
I lose myself while God imagines me

Something I read in the newspaper


I recently bought soft, wearable-at-night headphones (cozyphones) and started using (free) sleep/hypnosis apps. I would strongly recommend this to anyone who suffers from insomnia. Just try lots of different apps and you will find one that works. Some are noises, such as owls hooting, water rippling, etc. I don’t find these so helpful (although if I lived in a noisy environment, I think they would help), but the hypnosis apps are surprisingly effective.