My Small Boat

If I keep a green bough in my heart, then the singing bird will come.

Willie Willie Harry Stee
Harry Dick John Harry three;
One two three Neds, Richard two
Harrys four five six… then who?
Edwards four five, Dick the bad,
Harrys (twain), Ned six (the lad);
Mary, Bessie, James you ken,
Then Charlie, Charlie, James again…
Will and Mary, Anna Gloria,
Georges four, Will four, Victoria;
Edward seven next, and then
Came George the fifth in nineteen ten;
Ned the […]

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements.

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

Pythagoras Theorem
The square of the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides.
A Proof
Take a square of sides length a + b inscribed by another square connecting the points a distance a from each consecutive cornert of the first square.
Let the length of the sides of […]

But neither 30 years of 30 centuries affect the clearness or the charm of geometrical truths. Such a theorem as “The square of the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the sides.” Is as dazzlingly beautiful now as it was on the day when Pythagoras first […]

Love Without Hope
Love without hope, as when the young bird-catcher
Swept off his tall hat to the Squire’s own daughter,
So let the imprisoned larks escape and fly
Singing about her head, as she rode by.

The trouble with normal is it always gets worse.

It is only possible to succeed at second-rate pursuits - like becoming a millionaire or a prime minister, winning a war, seducing beautiful women, flying through the stratosphere or landing on the moon. First-rate pursuits - involving, as they must, trying to understand what life is about and trying to convey that understanding - inevitably […]

Prayer (to the sun above the clouds)
Sun that givest all things birth
Shine on everything on earth!
If that’s too much to demand
Shine at least on this our land
If even that’s too much for thee
Shine at any rate on me

One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.