Within These Walls
Tag: humanity
Earthly Rhythms
Your Imagination
Nourishing A Thought
A Pleasant Surprise!
Recently, I was thinking about which book to read next and I have decided that I would like to read some of the classic titles from yesteryear, by authors such as Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and the like.
I was scanning my own bookshelves to see what I could find (in that vein) and came across a few such books by other authors.
In my travels I came across a Poetry book that was not with my Poetry collection. It was tucked away in the Biographical section and I must admit that I had forgotten all about it. It is now back in its rightful place.
The book in question is, ‘Quatrains of Omar Khayyam’ translated by E.H. Whinefeld. It is quite a small, thin book and in fact measures 10 cm high, 15 cm wide and 8 mm thick.
Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet who was born on 18 May 1048 and passed away on 4 December 1131.
What is a Quatrain? It is a stanza of four lines, especially one having alternate rhymes.
The Introduction goes for 26 pages with the balance of the book containing no less than 395 Quatrains and was printed in 1920.
I thoroughly enjoyed flipping through the pages this afternoon, sampling some of the poems. I’m sure I will be revisiting it again soon.
Written by David Johnson
23 August 2020
A Fine Writing Instrument
Staring Into The Flames
Rebirth
What Is A Poem?
Rediscovered Gems
We all like to be organised to some degree, I believe.
Sometime ago, I re-organised one of my bookcases. This particular one is in what I like to call my ‘Escape Room.’ It is where I do my Watercolour Sketches; Oil paintings; read, write my speeches do my photographic editing and meditate, hence the word ‘escape…’
The bookcase is 1.83 metres (6 feet) high and contains Art magazines, books on theoretical Art; Photography; Public Speaking; Art ‘How To’; Religion; Leadership; Communication; Writing; Thinking and a smattering of other subjects.
Over time and especially last year when I had 4 committee/leadership positions across two organisations as well as everything else I was involved in, the bookcase became rather disorganised through tiredness which led to a lack of discipline on my part i.e. not returning the books to the appropriate sections. Am hoping that I am not the only one that this happens to…
Recently, I decided it was ’time to re-organise again’ and given that I have divested myself of all those roles I am now reading more again and am enjoying increased time on other enjoyable things like Sketching, Painting and Poetry.
Whilst re-organising the shelves I was able to re-acquaint myself with books that either I had:
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not looked at in a long time
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or forgotten about
It is indeed amazing what we have on our bookshelves. Rediscovered gems.
As I look across there now I see titles that I cannot wait to get my hands on again. So much to read, so much to inspire.
I can ‘hear them calling me now…’
Written by David Johnson
July 2020
