Math Jones

@mathjones.bsky.social

747 Followers 585 Following

"Alas, the poet can only say so much. So very much." Leominster, Here(&Now)fordshire, UK. Posting random thoughts on poetry, on mythology, Paganism, Heathenry. Oh, and that also. https://linktr.ee/mathjones

Photo of wind-chimes in silhouette against white & lilac curtains. The lower-most part of the chimes is shaped as a raven.
Screenshot from an Instagram account, @mathjonespoetry. A metallic background with text superimposed, in an early computer font which suggests transition. Text reads: meaning changes
Photo of the book cover, for The Honest Forger, new poems & photographs for Iolo Morganwg, from www.cultureanddemocracypress.co.uk. Illustrated with a stained glass design, of a sun, or a flower, radiating warm colours.
Text of a poem, full of nonsense words: The flight of the hungalump, by Math Jones. Text reads: The glimp of the pixicleana, & the glike of the horoborosch, Had them flixing together in tempo, Till the hungalump went Bosch! The conductor dropped their pisola! The composer chocked on their flosh! & the orchestra all juckled under, When the hungalump went Bosch!!! This musical contra-coblation Had the classical world all aswash, Still, there followed a standing aplaition For the hungalump going Bosch!!!
Text of a poem, full of nonsense words: The flight of the hungalump, by Math Jones. Text reads: The glimp of the pixicleana, & the glike of the horoborosch, Had them flixing together in tempo, Till the hungalump went Bosch! The conductor dropped their pisola! The composer chocked on their flosh! & the orchestra all juckled under, When the hungalump went Bosch!!! This musical contra-coblation Had the classical world all aswash, Still, there followed a standing aplaition For the hungalump going Bosch!!!
Photo of a small stone marker set on a lawn of grass, an arrow pointing to the grave of J.R.R. Tolkien, Author. [The grave not shown.]
Screenshot of part of a poem, Pooka by Math Jones, featured in Mugwort Magazine. Text reads: The pooka slipped in at the funeral feast. No one saw. No one was sat at the seat it'd take, the seat left empty for the subject of the Wake, and no one said a word of greeting or guard, but it was felt by all, I'm told, sitting blithely once, now cold. And those who were big pushed rank, grew bigger still to ward their share...
Photo of me on a bare theatre stage, stood in light, with the audience barely seen in the darkness. I've an arm raised dramatically, pointing towards them.
Photo of an old wooden door in an exterior stone wall. Text superimposed reads: His secret fear: 'If you open me, I shan't exist'. Locked Door. Math Jones.
Photo of a miniscule figure in bronze: they are seated in an ornate throne, carved with birds, whilst wearing a decorated dress. The style is Old Norse.
Modern day replica of a gullgubber, showing a figure in profile, with sword & spear, & a helmet topped with a boar.
Photo of a book: Frith Heart, A Little Book of Inclusive Heathen Devotional Practice, by Suzanne Martin. Illustrated with Thor's Hammer flying like a comet, & its tail is a rainbow.
Photo of a reproduction bracteate, a rectangular bronze, showing a figure in tunic & trews & a figure in long, pleated dress, with long hair, embracing & kissing. Of Scandinavian origin, Viking Age or earlier.
Photo of a business card for eaglespit by Math Jones. Text reads : Heathen poet & scop. eaglespit can be found here: mathjones.bandcamp.com or via this linktree: linktr.ee/mathjones
Photo of a book; Sabrina, Discovering The Goddess Of The River Severn, by Brett Hollyhead. Illustrated with an original painting of a woman amidst water & flowers.
Photo of four ritual pieces. To the front, part of an antler, with a bell tied on by pink ribbon. To left, a seated figure of Thor, capped & bearded, holding his hammer on his lap; from an archaeological find. To right, an original design of a figure of Odhinn, standing in cloak & hood, holding a spear. His face is half hidden. Between & behind, a large block of wood, carved through pyrography, to a likeness of Loki: complicated knotwork, a leering face & long, lolling tongue marked with bindrunes.
Photo of a book: The Lost Beliefs of Northern Europe, by Hilda Ellis Davidson. Illustrated with a bronze figure, a woman kneeling in a grass skirt, arms up as if holding something. Large round eyes, glazed in trance?
Photo of a ritual hammer against a wooden background. The hammerhead, half-seen, is solid metal. The short handle has a band of brass around it, embossed with the thorn rune. The rest of the haft has been skillfully carved to a bearded face, broad grin, wearing a cap or helmet. Suggestive of Thor, or Thunor.
Photo of a book: Myths & Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian & Celtic Religions, by H.R. Ellis Davidson. Illustrated with an ancient carved stone figure.
Photo of a woman’s face carved from wood. She has long straight hair falling to each side from a crown. A smooth & peaceful face.
Photo of a book: Gods & Myths of Northern Europe, by H.R. Ellis Davidson, illustrated with three figures from a Viking tapestry.
Front cover of a book, The Knotsman, by Math Jones, published by Arachne Press. A man in profile, dressed in breaches, tunic & a wide brimmed hat, strides, long-legged, across a landscape of knotwork & bones. Drawn to suggest a wood-cut print of the Seventeenth century.
A montage of photos of myself in animated performance, gestures, looks, pulled faces, in the warm & inviting bookshop, Script Haven, in Worcester, UK.
Landscape photo of ancient hillfort, green & rugged, under gathering dark cloud.
Photo of a framed print of a painting. In a richly coloured & primitive style, a powerful female figure in robes & furs holds a staff & shield. Her long hair is surrounded by a golden glow, & a snake-like circle makes an aurora around her.
Photo of a framed picture, scratch board, where scratches on a black overlay reveal white beneath. Picture shows a robed & hooded figure, long beard, holding a staff and a boardgame: tafl. In front of the frame is a wooden bowl crammed full of pieces: arm-rings and bracelets, woven cords, a hessian pouch.
Photo of a very thick hardback book, illustrated with two ravens by Arthur Ransome: The Poetic Edda, A Dual-Language Edition, ed. Edward Pettit. The book just happens to have a plush toy of Kipper the Dog stood next, his paw on the cover.
Photo of a silk-screen print, showing a brawny figure holding a hammer (Thor) in a boat, his foot bursting through. Below, caught on a fishing line, a writhing serpent (Jormungandr). All in a primitive style.
Photo of a book: Hrafnagaldur Óðins (Forspjallsljóð).
Photo in a garden, with a birdtable in the distance. The photographer's feet & legs can be seen stretching away, crossed, & sat on a small footstool. Perched on the toe of a slipper is a white & brown feathered pigeon, facing the photographer, its head coquettishly to one side.
Photo of a round shield with metal boss, covered with red suede. Pictures are painted on the shield in primitive style in bright colours. They show people in Old Norse style clothing: a woman with long curling hair, a man beside her with shears; a woman displaying a necklace, among four much shorter men; a red-bearded man in a boat, throwing a hammer at a sea serpent; a man in a chariot pulled by a boar.
Screenshot of an Instagram post by MathJonesPoetry. Three straight lines converge at the centre of the image. They define three flat surfaces at right angles to each other. One moment, they may appear as the corner of a box, projecting out, the top & two sides. The next, they may appear as a ceiling & two walls, a recessed corner, projecting in.
Photo of a book: The Haustlọng of Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, edited by Richard North.
Photo of a painted egg, here a male face with red hair & beard, eyes closed as sleeping. It has been set amongst roots of a tree, amidst the greenery there.
Text of a poem: Silence, by Math Jones, 2012. Text reads: When love has proved, not fleeting, but susceptible to circumstance, I fear,I cannot help but fear, to put the feeling into words, to let you hear. When all my heart is caught within the simple specificity of how your ear folds, the pattern made by moles upon your skin, the flurry of your hair, and yet, such details kept of other loves, though distant now, once so sincere in my desire, brought about such moves, such starts and fits, that sitting here, your memory scored within, the axis altered on my planet's spin, and plummet sheer beneath my dangling feet, my language falters... and wordlessly, I long - how I long - to have you near, that the eloquence in silence might speak it clear.
Photo of a drum, an Irish bodhran, hung on a wall. Painted on the drum skin, a primitive illustration of the world tree, a wyrm in its roots, two deer eating its branches, & an eagle at its top.
Photo of a book: The Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown. Illustrated with sea waves crashing against great wedges of rock.
Close up photo of a stage microphone, common at poetry open mics. Text on the image reads: "The poet has finished their piece. What shall we do now?" "Keep listening."
Photo looking up to a high shelf on which sits the figure of a carved wooden eagle. It is perched, wings at rest, looking off into some distant place.
Photo of a book, illustrated with a one-storied Orcadian cottage under a huge blue sky. An Orkney Tapestry, by George Mackay Brown.
Photo of a large wooden bowl, a blessing bowl, coloured deep red inside from the offerings of wine. Just visible within is the scored decoration of an eagle. Runes have been scored around the rim of the bowl. Those that are visible spell 'Arnsted' - place of the eagle.
Photo of a book: Orkneyinga Saga
A pile of rune staves jumbled up. Old English runes, each cut against the grain into a slender finger of wood. Visible are Os, Beorc, Peorth.
Photo of a rune row, the Old English fuþorc, carved into a slender wand of wood which has sadly broken in three. The runes are carved against the grain & are coloured red. Close by is a silver Mjolnir amulet.
Text of a poem: an excerpt from Gylfaginning in Verse, by Math Jones. Text reads: 1. Gylfi deceived 1.1. Gylfi was glad to give to the woman, (she'd made him laugh), as much of his land as she with four oxen to furrows could plough, in a single turn of the sun and the moon. 1.2 "Come to me, sons!" Crafty Gefjon brings her children, (born in the north, their sire a giant,) sinks her ploughshare deep into Sweden, draws out an island. 1.3 Her ox-lads leave a lake for Gylfi, bays matching headlands, as Bragi says: 1.4 Gefjon’s boys, Bright with sweat, The steaming oxen, Stole the island; Eight bright eyes Left inlets four, Aesir children Chuffed with their plunder.
Photo of two wooden staves, each about 1 foot long, 1 inch wide. Each is carved with a face at the top. One face is coloured with blue, has one bulging eye, the other closed or missing. Blue beard & hair. A rope is carved around the neck, and a cord has also been tied there in a noose. Below, carved in red, are four runes spelling RUNA. The other face is coloured red, beard & hair, intense brow, red eyes, over a broad & beaming smile. Below, a hammer, with a metal ring in the handle. Below that, a pattern of snakes. In the forehead, a metal shard has been inserted.
Text of a poem: Fálkafjaðrir, by Math Jones. Text reads: When the bird settles, whipped as it was by crosswinds and vectors, tired wings, it is as if She has alighted on her own heart. Falcon-Freya weeps tears from her fierceness - amber and gold - knows their necessity. Lifts once more to fly, strength of mind revived, knows the world will take her weight, as will the sky.
Photo of an eggbox holding six decorated eggs. Three are faces, suggesting Freyja, Thor & Tyr. One is of a horn maiden. One shows a pair holding a leak between them. The sixth is decorated to suggest the Venus of Willendorff figure, a replica of which stands nearby.
Photo a a banner of black felt, illustrated with an image of the Irminsul, column-like, with two curved branches from the top, all drawn in gold.
A green cloth banner, with large golden runes (ing & feoh) around a central circular design. In the circle, a male figure, crowned, with hair & beard in braids, holding an antler & a lyre. He sits in a high-prowed ship, with two boars in front, and a sprig of oak with acorn.
Landscape photo of a green lane; sunken Road, trees growing over like a wave.
Photo of a wall hanging, a banner in deep & rich blue, suspended from a wooden cross piece. On the banner, a stylised building: two columns & a beamed, pointed roof; at the joins, a rune in red: man, win, cen, gift, peorth - all of joy & fellowship. Within the house, a female figure in silhouette, blue dress, white hair, in Amber necklace, keys at her belt. She offers a horn of welcome, a drink for the guest.
Screenshot of a Facebook event page, advertising The Knotsman, by Math Jones, at Script Haven bookshop, Worcester, on April 24th, 7pm.
Photo of objects on wooden shelves: three ebony elephants, African carvings; an animal horn, with African carvings making a woman's face, her hair spiraling to the tip; a carved wooden face; a red clay figure of a mother, a child held on her lap.
Photo of amulets & such, hanging from a wooden shelf: a pewter bracteate of Freyja giving a leek to Frey; an ornamented axe head, a whetstone; & a figure of Odin, one-eyed, naked, clutching a spearhead.
Photo of a book: Meeting the Othet in Norse Myth & Legend, by John McKinnell. Plain jacket.
Photo of ceramic figures on a shelf: (from largest to smallest) a figure based upon Old Norse figures of the 'horn-maiden', a female figure in a dress, long hair, wearing an amber necklace, offering a drink of welcome; a replica of the Venus of Wollendorff, big breastfed, bellied & thighed; a bust of a female face, crowned; a miniature pewter figure of a woman, with food basket & child.
Photo of a book: The Norns in Old Norse Mythology, by Karen Bek-Pedersen. Illustrated with a rocky coastline.
Photo of a book: Valkyrjur, Servant or Master, by Sif Brookes. With a classic painting of Valkyries on horseback in the sky.