"The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison, was the miracle." ~ Anaïs Nin Breton Window, Dining Room 🎨 Raymond Wintz (c.1927)

"Walk slow, don’t rush. That place you have to reach is yourself." ~ José Ortega y Gasset

Softly read... • Mary Oliver •

"Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter." ~ Marcel Proust The Park at Yerres (1887) 🎨 Gustave Caillebotte

Sir Laurence Olivier reciting Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare is very much an understated masterclass in performance poetry. (Absolute goosebumps.)

"To be simple is no small matter." ~ Gustave Flaubert Willow on the Banks of the Seine 🎨 Gustave Caillebotte (1891)

This is brilliant 🤌🏼✨️ Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges talking about what the task of Art boils down to. (Watch all 97 seconds.)

"Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Morning (1916) 🎨 Elioth Gruner

"The words of the master are not to be understood. They are to be listened to as one listens to the wind in the trees and the sound of the river and the song of the bird. They will awaken something within the heart that is beyond all knowledge." ~ Anthony de Mello 🎨 Arkady Rylov (1904)

You can invite THREE of these amazing 19th-century ladies over for tea ☕️ Whom do you pick? 🤔 Top (L to R) A: Anne Brontë B: George Eliot C: Jane Austen D: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Bottom (L to R) E: Charlotte Brontë F: Emily Dickinson G: Emily Brontë H: Elizabeth Gaskell

"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." ~ Carl G. Jung

"I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way, we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value." ~ Hermann Hesse Flowery Meadow (1916) 🎨 Arkady Rylov

A poem by Philip Larkin

"There were several ways of understanding her: there was what she said, and there was what she meant, and there was something between the two, that was neither." ~ Henry James The Garden at Petit Gennevilliers 🎨 Gustave Caillebotte (1893)

Going fleet-footed over the...

This is a poem I wrote.

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew." ~ St. Francis de Sales 🎨 Janus la Cour (1874)

A little poem to round off the day from Lucy Maud Montgomery

"If you live in harmony with Nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to what others think, you will never be rich." ~ Seneca, 'Letters from a Stoic' The Pine Forest (1901) 🎨 Gustav Klimt

Stop here for a while, and read... • David Whyte •

It’s officially finished! Montage video anyone?😉🙏🙌 #THANKYOU #DebutSoloExhibition #Exhibition #ExhibitionMontage #WhenBeastsSpoke

"The poetry of the earth is never dead." ~ John Keats Flower Meadow in the North 🎨 Harald Sohlberg (1905)

Leaf-counting with Mary Oliver 😄

"Do not wait for life. Do not long for it. Be aware, always and at every moment, that the miracle is in the here and now." ~ Marcel Proust La Seine à La Grande Jatte (1884) 🎨 Georges Seurat

Pause, and listen to me read... • Siegfried Sassoon •

⤵️

Flowers from my garden for #SixOnSaturday: honeywort, clematis, perennial cornflower, peony, wisteria, and blue gromwell.

"Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humour, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence, and nothing too much." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is a poem that always makes me emotional 🥹 • Laura Gilpin •

Is there anything more beautiful than bluebell woods? (Other than Poppy sitting in a bluebell wood, of course!) 💙

Recited here by me, this was written 187 years ago today by Emily Brontë.

A #DawnChorus poem from the 14th century by David Ap Gwylym.

Linger for a moment upon... • Patrick Kavanagh •

"If you find someone who makes you smile, who checks up on you often to see if you're okay. Who watches out for you and wants the best for you. Who loves and respects you. Don't let them go. People like that are hard to find." ~ Franz Kafka 🎨 Stanislav Zhukovsky (1927)

Prepare to smile... • John Clare •

"The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing ... to find the place where all the beauty came from." ~ C.S. Lewis, 'Till We Have Faces' 🎨 Harald Slott-Møller (1913)

Hey you,

On this May Bank Holiday Monday, give yourself the joy of hearing Sir John Gielgud recite one of the most famous sonnets in all of poetry. • William Shakespeare •

Otterly Fantastic! 🦦🫧🫧🫧

Your Sunday Poem 🤌🏼✨️ • Mary Oliver •

"It is always what I have already said: always the wish that you may find patience enough in yourself to endure, and simplicity enough to believe; and that you may acquire more and more confidence in that which is difficult." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke 🌿

Tarry for a moment, and read... • Siegfried Sassoon •

The full moon rises on 1 May. In Algonquian tradition, May’s #FullMoon is the Flower Moon, marking the height of spring when blossoms flourish. Other traditional names include Hare, Planting & Budding Moon. In 2026 a second full moon, a Blue Moon, follows at the end of the month.

As befits the current weather here in County Cork, I shall say goodbye to the year's fourth month with... • Patrick Kavanagh •

A.R. Ammons 🫡✨️

A delightful little poem from John Clare 🦊

"I would like to step out of my heart and go walking beneath the enormous sky." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke The Green Door, Brittany 🎨 Raymond Wintz

"If your choices are beautiful, so too you will be." ~ Epictetus An Evening on the Beach 🎨 Laura Knight (1909)

So sweet 🐧✨️

Gently read to yourself... The Bluebell by Anne Brontë 🧵