Michael Valliant
@mvalliant306.bsky.social
Writer; father; Episcopal Priest; soul adventurer; creative nonfiction; storytelling; mysticism; comics; poetry; skateboarding; trail running; fountain pens, notebooks, life
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Eliot, from “Four Quartets”
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Eliot, from “Four Quartets”
November 1, 2025 at 12:25 PM
“We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Eliot, from “Four Quartets”
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.”
—T. S. Eliot, from “Four Quartets”
Reposted by Michael Valliant
Keats, born 230 years ago today, on the measure of compassion www.themarginalian.org/2019/07/02/k...
Keats on the Measure of Compassion
“The best of Men have… a kind of spiritual yeast in their frames which creates the ferment of existence — by which a Man is propell’d to act and strive and buffet with Circumstance.R…
www.themarginalian.org
November 1, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Keats, born 230 years ago today, on the measure of compassion www.themarginalian.org/2019/07/02/k...
Reposted by Michael Valliant
the hallowed seam
October 31, 2025 at 11:49 AM
the hallowed seam
Reposted by Michael Valliant
“How surely gravity’s law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the center of the world…
This is what things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the center of the world…
This is what things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke
October 28, 2025 at 11:21 AM
“How surely gravity’s law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the center of the world…
This is what things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the center of the world…
This is what things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke
Reposted by Michael Valliant
Many, many warm thanks to Court Harler at Flash the Court for publishing my prose poem "What It Takes, What It Gives." It's had a long journey to here, and I'm so grateful to see it published.
The work that inspired the piece is Lee Krasner's Palingenesis.
flashthecourt.com/2025/10/03/w...
The work that inspired the piece is Lee Krasner's Palingenesis.
flashthecourt.com/2025/10/03/w...
October 3, 2025 at 1:35 PM
Many, many warm thanks to Court Harler at Flash the Court for publishing my prose poem "What It Takes, What It Gives." It's had a long journey to here, and I'm so grateful to see it published.
The work that inspired the piece is Lee Krasner's Palingenesis.
flashthecourt.com/2025/10/03/w...
The work that inspired the piece is Lee Krasner's Palingenesis.
flashthecourt.com/2025/10/03/w...
Reposted by Michael Valliant
be not afraid. focus instead on the bright day coming, when all will be returned to a way long before. the atomic love is all. it causes the wind to blow, the flowers to lean towards the sun. it is the sound of the waves whispering to the shore.
October 10, 2025 at 8:36 AM
be not afraid. focus instead on the bright day coming, when all will be returned to a way long before. the atomic love is all. it causes the wind to blow, the flowers to lean towards the sun. it is the sound of the waves whispering to the shore.
Yesterday I was handed a perfect fall leaf, deep red and wonderfully shaped—shared because we love and appreciate these things and the moments and wonder they give us.
Holding a gifted fall leaf up to the setting sun is its own prayer of thanks and wow.
Holding a gifted fall leaf up to the setting sun is its own prayer of thanks and wow.
October 10, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Yesterday I was handed a perfect fall leaf, deep red and wonderfully shaped—shared because we love and appreciate these things and the moments and wonder they give us.
Holding a gifted fall leaf up to the setting sun is its own prayer of thanks and wow.
Holding a gifted fall leaf up to the setting sun is its own prayer of thanks and wow.
Reposted by Michael Valliant
“I feel a thousand capacities spring up in me. I am arch, gay, languid, melancholy by turns. I am rooted, but I flow.”
― Virginia Woolf, The Waves
― Virginia Woolf, The Waves
October 10, 2025 at 4:33 AM
“I feel a thousand capacities spring up in me. I am arch, gay, languid, melancholy by turns. I am rooted, but I flow.”
― Virginia Woolf, The Waves
― Virginia Woolf, The Waves
Reposted by Michael Valliant
The grace
in letting go
How a leaf
loves the air
as it falls
in letting go
How a leaf
loves the air
as it falls
August 13, 2025 at 2:12 PM
The grace
in letting go
How a leaf
loves the air
as it falls
in letting go
How a leaf
loves the air
as it falls
Reposted by Michael Valliant
Another in my series of libraries
Stonyhurst College library, Clitheroe
#SomethingBeautiful #LoveLibraries #EveryLibraryMatters #Libraries #Library #LibrarySky #libsky
Stonyhurst College library, Clitheroe
#SomethingBeautiful #LoveLibraries #EveryLibraryMatters #Libraries #Library #LibrarySky #libsky
October 10, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Another in my series of libraries
Stonyhurst College library, Clitheroe
#SomethingBeautiful #LoveLibraries #EveryLibraryMatters #Libraries #Library #LibrarySky #libsky
Stonyhurst College library, Clitheroe
#SomethingBeautiful #LoveLibraries #EveryLibraryMatters #Libraries #Library #LibrarySky #libsky
Reposted by Michael Valliant
What a tender and nourishing piece from @mariapopova.bsky.social.
My heart is breaking about so many things, and I also know we must find sustenance in the midst of it as a “a countercultural act of courage and resistance.”
My heart is breaking about so many things, and I also know we must find sustenance in the midst of it as a “a countercultural act of courage and resistance.”
Joy — like music, like love — is one of those entirely unnecessary miracles of consciousness that give meaning to survival with its bright allegiance to the most alive part of us www.themarginalian.org/2025/07/04/m...
October 9, 2025 at 12:19 AM
What a tender and nourishing piece from @mariapopova.bsky.social.
My heart is breaking about so many things, and I also know we must find sustenance in the midst of it as a “a countercultural act of courage and resistance.”
My heart is breaking about so many things, and I also know we must find sustenance in the midst of it as a “a countercultural act of courage and resistance.”
“When you forgive, you are free to move on in life, to grow, to no longer be a victim. When you forgive, you slip the yoke, and your future is unshackled from your past.”
—Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu, “The Book of Forgiving”
—Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu, “The Book of Forgiving”
July 7, 2025 at 12:26 PM
“When you forgive, you are free to move on in life, to grow, to no longer be a victim. When you forgive, you slip the yoke, and your future is unshackled from your past.”
—Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu, “The Book of Forgiving”
—Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu, “The Book of Forgiving”
Reposted by Michael Valliant
I talked with poet and writer Maggie Smith about finding possibility in between-states and the freedom of having your life implode.
Illustration by Harriet Lee-Merrion. @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social @tricyclemag.bsky.social
tricycle.org/article/on-n...
#creativelife #authorinterview
Illustration by Harriet Lee-Merrion. @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social @tricyclemag.bsky.social
tricycle.org/article/on-n...
#creativelife #authorinterview
On Not-Knowing and Making This Place Beautiful
Ann Tashi Slater talks with best-selling author Maggie Smith about finding possibility in intermediate states and the freedom of having your life implode.
tricycle.org
July 1, 2025 at 1:27 PM
I talked with poet and writer Maggie Smith about finding possibility in between-states and the freedom of having your life implode.
Illustration by Harriet Lee-Merrion. @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social @tricyclemag.bsky.social
tricycle.org/article/on-n...
#creativelife #authorinterview
Illustration by Harriet Lee-Merrion. @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social @tricyclemag.bsky.social
tricycle.org/article/on-n...
#creativelife #authorinterview
Reposted by Michael Valliant
Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier.
We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt 🌺
We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt 🌺
July 7, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier.
We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt 🌺
We do not have to become heroes overnight. Just a step at a time, meeting each thing that comes up, seeing it is not as dreadful as it appeared, discovering we have the strength to stare it down.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt 🌺
“Curiosity is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions.”
—Tom Robbins
—Tom Robbins
July 3, 2025 at 1:10 PM
“Curiosity is what separates the truly alive from those who are merely going through the motions.”
—Tom Robbins
—Tom Robbins
Reposted by Michael Valliant
We all have to live with ourselves. . .eventually (if not immediately) that truth is meaningful.
July 2, 2025 at 11:40 PM
We all have to live with ourselves. . .eventually (if not immediately) that truth is meaningful.
Reposted by Michael Valliant
July 2, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Michael Valliant
‘The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.’
~ Carl G. Jung
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
~ Carl G. Jung
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
July 3, 2025 at 1:02 PM
‘The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.’
~ Carl G. Jung
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
~ Carl G. Jung
writingforwellbeing.co.uk
Reposted by Michael Valliant
"We need beauty
because
it makes us ache
to be worthy of it."
- Mary Oliver
Artist: Alberta Tiburzi
because
it makes us ache
to be worthy of it."
- Mary Oliver
Artist: Alberta Tiburzi
January 12, 2025 at 4:28 PM
"We need beauty
because
it makes us ache
to be worthy of it."
- Mary Oliver
Artist: Alberta Tiburzi
because
it makes us ache
to be worthy of it."
- Mary Oliver
Artist: Alberta Tiburzi
Reposted by Michael Valliant
start small.
let the driver merge,
let the cashier breathe,
let the stranger’s silence mean something
other than indifference.
#poetry #poem #art #digitalart #mentalhealth #compassion
let the driver merge,
let the cashier breathe,
let the stranger’s silence mean something
other than indifference.
#poetry #poem #art #digitalart #mentalhealth #compassion
March 10, 2025 at 9:40 PM
start small.
let the driver merge,
let the cashier breathe,
let the stranger’s silence mean something
other than indifference.
#poetry #poem #art #digitalart #mentalhealth #compassion
let the driver merge,
let the cashier breathe,
let the stranger’s silence mean something
other than indifference.
#poetry #poem #art #digitalart #mentalhealth #compassion
Reposted by Michael Valliant
