'Flags are bits of coloured cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.'

Arundhati Roy. 'Come September,' 2002

"And in the cool twilight ... The bells chime faintly, like a soft warm rain."

John Masefield, 'The Golden City of St. Mary'

Tracy J Butler

Philippe Jullian

H W Whanslaw illustration to 'The Ever-Ever Land' 1940s

H W Whanslaw, illustration for 'The Ever-Ever Land' 1940s

Licence my roving hands, and let them go

Before, behind, between, above, below.

O my America, my new found land,

My kingdom, safeliest when with one man manned,

My mine of precious stones, my empery,

How blessed am I in this discovering thee!

John Donne (1572 - 1631), from 'To his Mistress Going to Bed'

He sits aloft, He sits alone,

Scarcely seen and barely known,

And Man and Snake and Owl and Ass

Look for Him in a Looking-glass.

Eleanor Farjeon: 'Martin Pippin in the Daisy-Field' (1937)

"It will cost you nothing," said the Prophet Mahomet, "or it will cost you everything. And everything and nothing are exactly the same as each other, just as inside and outside are, for the inside is the outside of the outside of the inside, and the outside is the inside of the inside of the outside ... And Up is Down," went on the Prophet Mahomet, "and down is up, and Here and There are neither there nor here ... Now is Then, now and then, and Then is Now."

Eleanor Farjeon: 'Martin Pippin in the Daisy-Field' (1937)

The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away,

and the weather is clear again.

If your heart is pure, then all things in the world are pure.

Abandon this fleeting world, abandon yourself,

Then the moon and flowers will guide you along the Way.

(Ryokan (1758 - 1831) tr. John Stevens; 'One Robe, One Bowl')