As the Sufi mystic al-Hujwiri notes, there is a crucial ‘difference between one who is burned by His Majesty in the fire of love, and one who is illuminated by this Beauty in the light of contemplation.’ … The path exemplified by the ascetic al-Hallaj, leads to emptiness pure and simple

I could feel the heat of the day stored under my feet in the sticky tar pavements. Intimations of summer, or environmental disaster. A trickle of sweat drifted down my spine and I worried my shirt might stain. – Louise Welsh, The Cutting Room, Cannongate, Edinburgh, 2002. p. 63 You can’

you must continue to take yourself seriously, you must remain your own witness, marking well everything that happens in the world, never shutting your eyes to reality. You must come to grips with these terrible times and try to find answers to the many questions they pose. And perhaps the

One great part of every human existence is passed in a state which cannot be rendered sensible by the use of wideawake language, cutandry grammar and goahead plot. – James Joyce, quoted in Richard Ellmann, James Joyce, Oxford University Press, London, 1959. – “Irlande, enfant dans le Mayo,” photogra

a salutary corrective to RO. – “The Love Bite,” pencil drawing by Laurie Lipton

Bright ideas explode, unfortunately igniting, of damp squibs, some mediocre ones, like the need for illustrations, fizzling in the arena of relationships, and, when the too close walls come back into focus and the sitting-room (i.e., of the semi-detached) is restored, falling away, in the end, fading after a