from 'the hermit's thatch'

The ancient hermit was not only not consecrated, but not even authorized, to enter eremos. The hermit was not living a sanctioned office, nor even living a socially acceptable life by the standards of his contemporaries, for Christianity emphasizes duty and social service.
Rather, the hermit is a rebel, but not a revolutionary. The hermit does not intend to overturn institutions but to check them and assert contrary values. The hermit expresses dissatisfaction with both secular and religious contemporaries, with their practices and pretenses. This rebellion may be expressed, at first, involuntarily, circumstantial, accidental.

maybe this is true . . . .
for me, the call becomes so deafening
nothing on earth could drown it out

you

I say 'you'
and, briefly I know who I mean!
(you swing into view)

the word echoes and echoes;
not here but close to where you are.

not for the first time
but for the first time in several long days.

nigel helps
and perhaps isaiah?

realisation

I am singing the office slowly again
how still you are:
treelike

enemies

in me:
illness and fatigue:uncertainty.

in you:
steadfastness and joy

days of chaos

my excuses?
illness, lethargy, a very messy house
and the deepest sense of inadequacy
I can ever remember
(short memory)
the cares of this world:
my worst enemies!
today I struggled back
and daylight returned.