“…and he told me the names of the stars and how Jupiter was a thousand times larger than our world, and that the other twinkling stars were suns that had worlds rolling around them; and when I came home he shewed me how they rolled round… for from my early readings of fairy tales and genii, etc. etc. -my mind had been habituated to the vast.”

From a letter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

”When in mid-May the sickening east wind

Shifts sudden to the south, the small warm rain

Melts out the frozen incense from all flowers,

And fills the air with so much pleasant health

That even the dying man forgets his shroud.”

To J Reynolds, 1818, from the letters of John Keats (1795-1821)

“I do not write for the public. You are my public.”

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

This website serves as a home for the poetry, stories, essays, artworks, and photographs of Jack Merlin Booth.

Jack Merlin Booth is an Irish-Australian writer, artist, musician, and educator based in the forests of Western Massachusetts, USA.

After studying Philosophy and German in Perth and completing a Master’s degree in Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics at the University of Liverpool, Booth later undertook doctoral research and taught Art History at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. Following seven years in Berlin between 2017 and 2024, he relocated to New England to devote himself more fully to family life, creative work, and teaching.

His writing, music, photography, and visual work draw on folk cultures, monastic and contemplative traditions, and the philosophies of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Simone Weil, and René Guénon.

Alongside his artistic work, Booth teaches within the Waldorf tradition and currently serves as a Middle School Class Teacher at The Hartsbrook School in Massachusetts.

Previously active as a viola player in The Midnight Audience and in collaboration with Eleni Poulou of the seminal post-punk group The Fall, Booth’s music draws upon Irish and British folk traditions, minimalism, and contemplative music. He plays fingerstyle 12-string guitar, viola, and trumpet.