‘If a thief helps a poor man out of the spoils of his thieving, we must not call that charity.’— Dante There are lines in Dante that feel less like poetry and more like a divine diagnosis — a sudden flash of God’s own X-ray slicing through human pretence. This is one of them. It’s … Continue reading A Reflection on Dante’s Warning Against False Charity
Tag: Life
The Room in the Tower: A Dream with Teeth
For years I dreamt of a house that hated me. It wasn’t merely haunted — it was hostile. Its walls bowed with resentment, its staircase groaned in complaint, and the air inside was the colour of rot. Every visit was the same: I would wander through its ruined corridors, knowing instinctively that one door was … Continue reading The Room in the Tower: A Dream with Teeth
The Devil in the Duomo: Reflections on the Monster of Florence
They say every paradise has a pit beneath it. Florence, for me, has always shimmered like a painted heaven — that impossible marriage between reason and rapture. As a child, I was bewitched by her domes and frescoes, the polished glow of Botticelli’s Venus, and the ghostly gaze of Savonarola who once tried to burn … Continue reading The Devil in the Duomo: Reflections on the Monster of Florence
The Darkling Thrush
Some poems sound like bells tolling at the turn of an age, and Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush is one of them. Written on the eve of the twentieth century, it stands like a weathered milestone between centuries — one hand resting on the grave of the Victorian world, the other reaching hesitantly toward the … Continue reading The Darkling Thrush
The Girl at the Crossroads: The Legend of Kitty Jay
The wind remembers what the Church forgot. Two for the price of one. Today I managed 2.5k words of my book; today’s project was a sombre one so it’s fitting that I pull out these two old essays and share them with you here. I came upon her grave quite by accident, though I suspect … Continue reading The Girl at the Crossroads: The Legend of Kitty Jay
Wording 