Category: thatch

Thomas Merton is much beloved by many, reflecting the evolution of his thought, precocious for American readers, to be sure. What is unique about his writings i...

Reading Kenneth Rexroth’s complete poetry book. I am interested in style and technique, the expression of sentiment, not so much content. I first encounte...

The front of the hut is covered with sunflowers … well, not covered, perhaps, but enough of them, with enough space to allow them to grow large. I take no...

Saw a red-shouldered hawk this morning, perched triumphantly on a pole feeder. Not having seen one before but knowing this pale white-ish bird with the triumpha...

The development of an ethos of reclusion in ancient China thrived in part because it was more strongly ethical than (any) religion. Ultimately, it was stronger ...

Spring continues in our part of the world. The banana trees that die annually with the frost are reappearing vigorously from the bare soil. Basho, himself a her...

Business around the house means activity outside the house. In a short time, we have seen bear, deer, foxes, no rabbits (still scared off by the feral cats), ra...

The search for authentic eremitism in Western Christianity can be misleading. The Grandmontines were not true hermits at the beginning, except for the temperame...

In searching for an apt self-descriptive phrase, I find James Cahill on the scholar-official or scholar-gentleman who comprised the ranks of the hermits of anci...

There is a felicitous passage by Shunryu Suzuki in the recent collection entitled Not Always So: “Although we have no actual communications from the world...