Poetry for Christmas

Poetry for Christmas

The nights are drawing in here in London and the Christmas lights have just been turned on. This is a poem for the season, inspired by the Christmas angel outside Geenpark tube station, Picadilly. You can find it, and more poems for mid-winter, in my Poems for Christmas collection. It’s available in paperback and hardback, as well as ebook, and makes a great gift.

This Week’s Poetry to Inspire: Pteronophobia (fear of feathers)

Pteronophobia

Today’s poem, Pteronophobia, was inspired by a trip to Matthew’s Yard in Croydon, where my daughter lives. This creative hub is home to the first fully crowd-funded theatre in the UK, a successful art gallery, showcasing the work of emerging local artists and multifunction space which hosts a diverse range of arts and community events.

Creative Thought For Today: Creativity and Insomnia… And A Poem About Night’s Light and Shade

Inspiration Mediation for creativity and insomnia

One of the things I’ve been noticing about Insight Timer App is the popularity of its meditations for sleep. And there is … Read more

Be More Creative Guest. This week… Osho on Instrinsic Value

“Have you seen Paras cleaning this floor of Chuang Tzu auditorium? Then you will know: cleaning can become creative.

“With what love! Almost singing and dancing inside.

“If you clean the floor with such love, you have done an invisible painting. You lived that moment in such delight that it has given you some inner growth. You cannot be the same after a creative act.

“Creativity means loving whatsoever you do – enjoying, celebrating it, as a gift of existence! Maybe nobody comes to know about it. Who is going to praise Paras for cleaning this floor? History will not take any account of it; newspapers will not publish her name and pictures – but that is irrelevant.

She enjoyed it.

The value is intrinsic.”

“So if you are looking for fame and then you think you are creative – if you become famous like Picasso, then you are creative – then you will miss. Then you are, in fact, not creative at all: you are a politician, ambitious.

If fame happens, good. If it doesn't happen, good. It should not be the consideration.

The consideration should be that you are enjoying whatsoever you are doing.”

A Crowd of Stars

Read WB Yeats' poetry with commentary by the muse

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Read Maud Gonne's words about the poetry she influenced