Uncivil Savant
Newsletter (Digital)
Welcome to Uncivil Savant. In late 2022 was drawn to write at Substack as my writer friends one by one migrated here and formed a neighbourhood that I wanted to join. Before coming here, my writing was mainly found in Dark Mountain, on my occasional T’ai Chi blog, and in private posts on the Long Table, which grew out of A School Called Home. Apart from that, my writing had mainly been found in long conversations with friends over many months or years by email, as we shared our ideas, and wondered about our work in the world. Thanks to encouragement from friends, after five years stashing everything away on my hard drive, I made a leap into sharing things publicly and created Uncivil Savant. Source
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Recent Articles
Search ArticlesBy the Crow
Crow. Chinagraph pencil sketch for cover of an early single, 1998 Here are some things for you from a piece from March 2023 that I wanted to share again for those who’d missed it. The post continues musical themes from the last few months, in one of my semi-regular breaks from essaying. First, a poem and some avian drawings.
Episode 116 - Retrace Your Steps
Uncivil Savant Podcast Episode 116 - Retrace Your Steps 1× 0:00 Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -10:34 -10:34 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Episode 116 - Retrace Your Steps Metanoia for moderns The tchk tchk tchk of the wren in the crabapple tree supplies the sound effect for my mind as it skips across the surface of things. I pick up another thought and skim it. It flies away too fast for me to notice where it sinks.
Retrace Your Steps
metanoia for moderns Article voiceover 0:00 -10:34 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Sketch of The Haar playing at Allen Valleys Folk Festival The tchk tchk tchk of the wren in the crabapple tree supplies the sound effect for my mind as it skips across the surface of things. I pick up another thought and skim it. It flies away too fast for me to notice where it sinks. No matter, another thought lies glistening on the strand, unconsciousness lapping centimetres away.
Episode 115 - How to Open an Invisible Door
The sun refuses to relinquish summertime hours, the bumble bees on the marjoram flowers are not complaining. We take our breakfast bowls outside and move the metal chairs into the light beside the crab apple tree. Morning warmth feels like a blessing.
How to Open an Invisible Door
This week’s photos are from last week at the seaside with my siblings The sun refuses to relinquish summertime hours, the bumble bees on the marjoram flowers are not complaining. We take our breakfast bowls outside and move the metal chairs into the light beside the crab apple tree. Morning warmth feels like a blessing.
Episode 114: The house that Trust Built
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -15:25 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Today’s 6am lineup went like this: robin, gull, pigeon, me. The set list was lost; no matter, we improvised. A scant hour of song for the holiday weekend. For three months I’ve been away with trees and rock, gums and roses. Turns out the beauty is in the doing, the being, the singing, the making moves, turning our energies towards real life.
The House that Trust Built
Near Edinburgh Airport, last week, with no filter… Today’s 6am lineup went like this: robin, gull, pigeon, me. The set list was lost; no matter, we improvised. A scant hour of song for the holiday weekend. For three months I’ve been away with trees and rock, gums and roses. Turns out the beauty is in the doing, the being, the singing, the making moves, turning our energies towards real life.
Episode 113 - Beauty is Essential
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -5:54 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. There was a thoughtful piece on beauty by Anja Byg this week about things I have mulled over for many years too (and which Ted Chiang wrangled meaningfully in his short story “Liking What You See: A Documentary”.) For me, the crucial pivot which supports the always-ambivalent weight of beauty is how it makes us behave.
Beauty is Essential
Sorting pigment rocks found on Tyneside. I find colourful stones deeply beautiful. NB this week’s piece comes from a room full of packing for travelling away to teach. I’ll add a voiceover as soon as I have moment to do so. The images are from some of the last fortnight’s beauty quotient.
I Was Beside Myself
Archive essay When I published this essay in March 2023, I was diving into the reading needed for future essays. I was enjoying many other writers here, as we all grappled with the Machine, and how it famously co-opts our attention. Substack was then a place for long-form essays and a few niche newsletters. I loved it and was not distracted by it, just revelling in a few great writers and treating myself to essays with a quiet breakfast, most days.