The Inky Pilgrim
Issue 3
11th March 2025
Dearest friends,
Welcome to The Inky Pilgrim issue 3.
Only a year on the heels of issue 2…
If you’re in the northern hemisphere, then I hope that spring is beginning to tickle your fancy, and if you’re south of the equator I hope that early autumn is bringing your land some welcome rain.
I’m sending this issue out just to those of you who kindly sent me money at the end of 2023.
I had hoped that my book of hitching-around-Britain poems would be complete by now, but – long story short – God had quite a few laughs at my various plans last year. So, Sweaty Pilgrim or One For The Road – or whatever it’s eventually going to be called – currently feels a long way off.
In the meantime, I’ve pulled together my favourite hundred poems from the last thirty-five years of writing and performing and self-publishing. It’s called “One Hundred Poems For All Seasons” and will be published on my birthday – Thursday April 17th. I’ll probably be doing a launch on Wednesday 30th April in Oxford, so, Oxfordites: pencil in that date.
Welcome to The Inky Pilgrim issue 3.
Only a year on the heels of issue 2…
If you’re in the northern hemisphere, then I hope that spring is beginning to tickle your fancy, and if you’re south of the equator I hope that early autumn is bringing your land some welcome rain.
I’m sending this issue out just to those of you who kindly sent me money at the end of 2023.
I had hoped that my book of hitching-around-Britain poems would be complete by now, but – long story short – God had quite a few laughs at my various plans last year. So, Sweaty Pilgrim or One For The Road – or whatever it’s eventually going to be called – currently feels a long way off.
In the meantime, I’ve pulled together my favourite hundred poems from the last thirty-five years of writing and performing and self-publishing. It’s called “One Hundred Poems For All Seasons” and will be published on my birthday – Thursday April 17th. I’ll probably be doing a launch on Wednesday 30th April in Oxford, so, Oxfordites: pencil in that date.
You will all receive a free, signed copy of this tome.
What else in Stephenland? Well, my big news is that, after a decade of mainly solitudinous living, I am beginning a phased re-entry into the world of civilisation. I’m moving back/forward to Oxford for at least a couple of years, and am currently applying for jobs there, while savouring my last month of full-time cabin living. It’s a massive chapter change in my life, but I can feel in my bones and my soul that I need the medicine of human company and culture right now, as well as the structure and discipline of normal work.
Wish me well.
I’m going to broaden the readership of this here Inky Pilgrim (currently standing at a grand total of twenty-one people), and intend to publish one a month.
In the meantime,
What else in Stephenland? Well, my big news is that, after a decade of mainly solitudinous living, I am beginning a phased re-entry into the world of civilisation. I’m moving back/forward to Oxford for at least a couple of years, and am currently applying for jobs there, while savouring my last month of full-time cabin living. It’s a massive chapter change in my life, but I can feel in my bones and my soul that I need the medicine of human company and culture right now, as well as the structure and discipline of normal work.
Wish me well.
I’m going to broaden the readership of this here Inky Pilgrim (currently standing at a grand total of twenty-one people), and intend to publish one a month.
In the meantime,
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Once in a lifetime
All winter and all spring I worked hard
not in a showing off kind of way
but I knew my extra sweat and labour were noticed
it was the least I could do
a bit like an advance payment
of my gratitude to come
For adventures such as these are only granted to people like me
once in a lifetime
if at all
And although I was hungry to strike out alone
beyond the confines of my all too familiar life
not to mention
to cross a sea and to journey through foreign lands!
I also knew that my family and my village
would be travelling with me
and that during the depths of winter
they’d be expecting my fireside pilgrim tales
with eager ears and flame-lit eyes
Once all the fields were planted
it was time for me to go
I felt as excited as I did a boy on Christmas eve
and yet as fearful too
as I did on Hallowe’en
The day before I left
my grandmother presented me with a leather money belt
punch-patterned with scallop shells
to wear beneath my tunic
She also showed me how to cut slits into the soles of my boots
and gave me some coins to sew within
special coins she called them
although she never once
mentioned
robbers
My whole family escorted me to the parish bounds
my father even hugged me
which he never did
You’d better be back in time for harvest, lad, he said
My little sister cried
but I promised I’d return with a special present for her
which made her smile instead
I felt like a ship leaving harbour for the very first time
a vast and dizzying ocean before me
And even though my belly and my heart and my breath were all trembling
I could feel the weight of those coins in my boots
and somehow that weight felt like love
and protection
and strength
and hope
all rolled into one
Whenever I turned around
they were all still waving
But once they were out of sight
and the church tower had disappeared into the swell of the land
I felt myself expanding into something
like a giant
who could cross a river in a single leap
or climb a hill in six or seven confident strides
And I found myself singing a song
I’d never heard sung before
and I felt the presence of the Lord
almost tangible beside me
In all my years faithfully, prayerfully attending church
never once had I experienced anything like this!
I am with you always, I could hear Him whispering
Even to the very ends of the earth
Oh how I laughed out loud to the sky and to the hedgerows and to the
deep drovers’ road that was now carrying me south
because everything suddenly seemed so
inside out and upside down
and yet so
clear and simple
and magnificent
and funny and
free
All winter and all spring I worked hard
not in a showing off kind of way
but I knew my extra sweat and labour were noticed
it was the least I could do
a bit like an advance payment
of my gratitude to come
For adventures such as these are only granted to people like me
once in a lifetime
if at all
And although I was hungry to strike out alone
beyond the confines of my all too familiar life
not to mention
to cross a sea and to journey through foreign lands!
I also knew that my family and my village
would be travelling with me
and that during the depths of winter
they’d be expecting my fireside pilgrim tales
with eager ears and flame-lit eyes
Once all the fields were planted
it was time for me to go
I felt as excited as I did a boy on Christmas eve
and yet as fearful too
as I did on Hallowe’en
The day before I left
my grandmother presented me with a leather money belt
punch-patterned with scallop shells
to wear beneath my tunic
She also showed me how to cut slits into the soles of my boots
and gave me some coins to sew within
special coins she called them
although she never once
mentioned
robbers
My whole family escorted me to the parish bounds
my father even hugged me
which he never did
You’d better be back in time for harvest, lad, he said
My little sister cried
but I promised I’d return with a special present for her
which made her smile instead
I felt like a ship leaving harbour for the very first time
a vast and dizzying ocean before me
And even though my belly and my heart and my breath were all trembling
I could feel the weight of those coins in my boots
and somehow that weight felt like love
and protection
and strength
and hope
all rolled into one
Whenever I turned around
they were all still waving
But once they were out of sight
and the church tower had disappeared into the swell of the land
I felt myself expanding into something
like a giant
who could cross a river in a single leap
or climb a hill in six or seven confident strides
And I found myself singing a song
I’d never heard sung before
and I felt the presence of the Lord
almost tangible beside me
In all my years faithfully, prayerfully attending church
never once had I experienced anything like this!
I am with you always, I could hear Him whispering
Even to the very ends of the earth
Oh how I laughed out loud to the sky and to the hedgerows and to the
deep drovers’ road that was now carrying me south
because everything suddenly seemed so
inside out and upside down
and yet so
clear and simple
and magnificent
and funny and
free
Whoever brought me here
will have to take me home
Rumi
will have to take me home
Rumi
