Moss-Gardening in Paradise
Prose and Poems from the Wild Edge
This collection of writings comes directly out of my years in the woods, which provided me with a strong and sustained experience of what Arthur Rimbaud wonderfully called the ‘derailment of the senses’ — not derangement, de-railment: a shifting out of the patterns of perception shaped by participation in the linearity of life in industrial modernity. Unapologetically lyrical and often mystical, they combine descriptions of my life on the land with glimpses into the interiority of that life.
Holy Mountain
My woodland home sat in a deeply wooded valley at the feet of Carn Ingli Mountain on the North Pembrokeshire coast. The Welsh name Carn Ingli translates into English as Mountain of Angels, and the mountain is considered by some to be an ancient place of pilgrimage and sacredness. I would often walk her higher slopes, losing myself in her deep-time presence, letting my senses unravel and expand into wild mystery. This poem attempts to speak some of that experience.
Honey In The Heart
I awaken, as if on wings of birdsong, from dreams woven upon singing waters.
It’s dawn, and the sun’s early light is slowly filling the jungly woods.
The music of the morning pours bright and clear through my open door from the woodland clearing in which my little wild hut sits…