John North

The Herb Farm Press is running a SPRING HAIKU COMPETITION!

The top three #haiku will be chosen as winners, announced and shared on Friday 20th March (Spring Equinox) and each winning writer can choose a Herb Farm tea of their choice!

Find out more here: theherbfarm.co.uk/page/the-her...

The Herb Farm Press is running a SPRING HAIKU COMPETITION!

The top three #haiku will be chosen as winners, announced and shared on Friday 20th March (Spring Equinox) and each winning writer can choose a Herb Farm tea of their choice!

Find out more here: theherbfarm.co.uk/page/the-her...

Nettle stings, Nettle tea, Romans & Urtication.

#gardening #seasonalliving #wildplants #romans #cumbria

Lovely. I quite agree with your sentiment. We meet people on the path, not religions. But I suppose they can be the signposts in this metaphor!

Well hey there I'm basically rewriting the Dream of the Rood!

And I suppose Christ would be a green heart nailed to a tree. A world tree, branches stretching up to hold the sky and stars, and roots reaching down to break apart the rocks of the earth and drink deep of the wellspring, time, history and the rich clay of rebirth. Which I kinda dig. Bring on spring

Another early morning wee small hours before dawn thought: I've come to think of God as a heart. A beautiful, leafy heart, gently beating — the way a canopy seems to breathe, a green lung in a summer wind so light you can barely tell it apart from the feeling on your skin of simply existing. 💚

I've often thought the practice of seeking to write poetry leads eventually to prayer. And that the practice of seeking to pray leads eventually to Lao Tzu. And I suppose then one stops seeking. And starts writing poetry.

Yeah! Thanks for the inspiring haiku, it was fun to riff!

Thank God for Bad Bunny ✊ Viva la revolución! #superbowl

Only then did I realise fate had lined it up like bloody magic #superbOwl

It's a common complaint here in the UK that we don't get to watch the full US broadcast version and miss out on the ads (due to the fact we tend to find them unbearably funny) On the flip side, you'd probably find our English pundits attempts to talk about the game in between plays similarly amusing

Heraclitus still dreams
though they aren't the same stars
and he's not the same man

I guess I should be drinking a Bud Light or something but as kick off approaches I'm actually still enjoying a pretty wonderful 2008 Ye Yun Mi Xiang Liu Bao from a tea friend @path-less-taken.bsky.social #superbowl #tea 😹

Late night Superbowl! It's become something of a tradition, although I boycotted last year. I don't want to boycott this year. Americans I know and the America I've been to is a wonderful place and I pray it gets through this truly horrendous situation. Bless you guys, keep up the fight #superbowl

:)

Thank you!

My wife and I's book for children is on Amazon!

It uses familiar Cumbrian places and animals to tell a story about environmental destruction, sadness and hope.

amzn.eu/d/08BCapiS

The talkative steam
of cup warming to the task,
its mouth breathing ghosts.

#poemsabout #mouths
@alanparrywriter.co.uk
@thebrokenspine.co.uk

tethered to the sky
the pulse you heard before birth
beats in you always

Poetry - December 2025/January 2026 - The Way of Tea John North. Writer. b.1990. Based in Cumbria

A belated Happy New Year — and perhaps a more seasonally apt one, with early February and the lunar new year close at hand

I recently designed 3 tea blends for a private spa. They specialise in TCM and seem really serious about herbs and teas!

We've hand-packed 360 teabags this week. One of the blends was pretty ambitious with five ingredients. Here's four of them; there's two in each bowl. Can you guess what they are?

The Seated Statue of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Nikko This majestic statue depicts Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate, seated in a position of authority at the Tōshō-gū shrine complex in Nikko. He is portrayed in formal courtly attire, featuring a voluminous, dark patterned robe with intricate gold detailing and a traditional black headdress. In his hands, he holds a bow, while a quiver of arrows is visible over his shoulder, symbolizing his martial prowess and his role as a unifier of Japan. Below him, he appears to be seated upon a tiger skin, further emphasizing his power and status. The ornate background and the weathered patina of the statue reflect the artistic grandeur of the early Edo period, a time when Nikko was transformed into a site of immense spiritual and political significance.

Statue of Ieyasu Tokugawa in Nikko, Tochigi prefecture, Japan. Photographer Bernard Languillier of Flickr. Ieyasu Tokugawa was the founder and first shōgun of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Holding dark dry earth
and the sudden stink of horse —
ashwagandha root.

#haiku

Just imagining the words McDonald, Trump, America and FIFA on the same page, never mind actually seeing them, is enough to bring on a vividly strong impression of vomit

Yes - has society become more about what individuals and companies can steal rather than what they can give? Inhumanity and dog-eat-dog attitude celebrated? It's desirable to get rich and hurt people? Government is corruption and that's the expectation? Seems like it eh. I think you have it right.

Hello! Well done for sharing. Yes, I've moved from outraged disbelief to actually beginning to try and work out how pragmatically we might deal with living under facism in the west. The UK is very much not immune to this kind of takeover. It's best to prepare for battles before they begin, isn't it!

I've been blending herbs and teas for about a decade. In December I started to share them with the world! You can check out what I do at theherbfarm.co.uk

a black and white photo of a woman 's face with a hat on ALT: a black and white photo of a woman 's face with a hat on

Here's looking at ewe, kid.

Ewe looking at us? Because we’re definitely looking at ewe..