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Well,
I just started to put down a few ideas that have been floating around for a day or two and this came out! Its not supposed to be anything than a stream of notions and a seasoning of spleen.

A rant I suppose against the self-congratulatory busybody know -it- alls who have always plagued mankind with their cleverness.

A good argument is like a good wine – it doesn’t last for long before it begins to go off. Eloquence is not a sign of wisdom – its just a melody with a catchy tune that sticks in the brains of the listener. Wise words only indicate where wisdom once settled, not where it now dwells. History is the evolutionary struggle of stories. The past tells us what is going to happen next (again!). Language does constrain how the world is seen and understood……

Pythagoras and Empedocles were riddlers and poets, regarded as political and military assets, terrorists and subvertors of the State, depending on who was paying their bills at the time……

As soon as we learned to put our memories down on paper we began to forget the true tales of who we were and where we came from. Now we are relying on an invisible spirit world of waves and photons to keep all our memories and identities what shall we be in danger of losing?…..

Muttering like Issa, wandering like Wang Wei, Ranting like Blake… A roar of white noise…..A memorable fancy…

Demons of gravity, angels of disease.
The invisible
The unseen
As the hidden worlds of spirit.

A spell is
A song
With intention,
A formula for chemical
Reaction.

It pulls the invisible worlds
Of sound
Image and meaning,
Ciphers for understanding,
Weaving them
To urgent eloquence.

A new faith invents
A new vocabulary
Of damnation.

Truths become lies,
Angels become devils,
Natural becomes blasphemous.

In the construction of Christ-
Saviour of the Empire,
Slayer for Peace
(the peace of bureaucrats),
music and dance died.

To define the new as new,
The old is damned.

Song, dance, smiling, drumbeat –
The offering of exuberant energy
As a sacrifice to feed life,
Becomes anathema.
There can be no more priestesses
Wild with drums and wine and rattles
No more pipes in the fields,
No more whispered prayers
To the herbs of healing.

Authorised, sanitised, regulated
Prescribed,
This is now
That,

Now we have found it:
The one formula
Of existence,
The equation of righteous power,
The excuse we have been looking for
To topple the walls
To break the chains
And reforge them in
A bright- edged delineation
Of certainty.
A sanitary prison.

Such was ever the past,
Ever the present,
Ever the future.
The invisible spirit
Resolves under machines
Of magnification-
No more than worms
And waves,
Fields and flux,
Sparks and shadows.

Because the language of mathematics
Can be demonstrated at every level
Of Creation,
The Universe is based on
Mathematical structures. All simply
Equations, no need for souls,
No need for mystery.

yeah! Right!
Can anyone spot
An error of logic here?
When will the fierce laughs
Of ridicule wake these
Small creatures….

The arrogant fantasists
Dwelling in the temples
Of nuclear power,
The myopic academic
Backslappers,
Patronising intellects,
Waspish with jargon.
Doctors of dust and death:

Your stories are the stories
Of the old priests
New-dressed in pious fashion
For the amnesiac, somnolescent
Herd.

Your pronouncements:
Equal to the ravings
Of acid-tongued
Loathers of life,
Chastisers,
Dust mouthed prophets,
Desert thugs of dogma…….

Ancestral bacteria
Dwelling nonchalently
Along with us still.
Unconcerned
With our new definition,
With pushed boundaries,
With enlightened approaches,
With educated guesses.

Warming their hands,
Blooming, flowering
A cultured approach to living.

And beyond them
Their own ghosts,
Wisps of virus,
Memory of hunger,
Longing to remain.

Beyond them,
Small whispers of death,
Prions
Insistent angel messengers….

The old sages,
Disruputable, shaggy browed,
Retired civil-servants,
Disgusted, tired, exasperated,
Leaving the towns
For the silent mountains-
They saw
The return of the swallows,
The lascivious tongues
Gulping in green light on
Every branch,

Ten thousand things
Collapsing to dust
And reforming on the
Warm breezes of Spring.

They spoke in riddles
In song
In poetry
In the truth of paradox,
In the light, sparkle-eyed humour
Of the clear souled.

There was a beginning
There was a beginning of a beginning
There was an anteriority
Of the beginning before the beginning.
There was an anteriority
Before that anteriority……

This is not a new song
This is not a new song
This is not a new song.

This is an old song
With new words
And a new tune.

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This is not haiku

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THIS IS NOT HAIKU

I saw a post about a haiku competition, wasn’t particularly interested ( mainly because the example they gave I thought was flaccid and rather cliched). But then all last night……..

For those who don’t recall, haiku is a form of short poem from Japan that has a normal form of three lines of 5, then 7, then 5 syllables. There are many rules and elements, which make haiku much more difficult than they would appear in translation (and why foreigners who try to write ‘haiku’ are treated to rather blank, but polite, stares!).

I have always been very fond of this form of poetry and will be waxing endlessly, but hopefully lyrically, on accompanying PAGES for those with the spare time to peruse….. (see: “This is not haiku- extended version”)

I

Counting syllables –
Not a good way to find sleep.
Haiku for Japan.

II

Haiku for Japan?
Falling onto pristine snow
One drop of red blood.

III

Still they make a sound:
Each tree in the cold forest,
Falling unnoticed.

IV

Faces of the dead
Crying in the deep mountains.
Drifts of white cherry.

V

How long shall they stay –
Footprints in the drying mud,
Now that you are gone?

VI

They are not haiku,
So carefully wrapped with skill –
These are our sorrows.

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FIGMENTS AND FRAGMENTS

A bouquet of winter words melting in the Sping sun, fading beneath the loquacious brilliance of birdsong……..

I

End of the year.
Glorious fire!

The living sleep.
The dead awake.

Humans huddle together –
The dark wood
The dark sky.
Hard
Is the shell
Of the hazelnut.

II

End of the year.
Glorious fire!

The living sleep.
The dead awake.

Humans huddle together –
The dark wood
The dark sky.
Hard
Is the shell
Of the hazelnut.

III

Long cold night.
Waking, unexpectedly
I find
A flock
Of chattering words
Settled down
In my mind.

IV

moon frozen solid
In the centre of the sky.

Old sun rolls slowly
Up the cold hills.

Ice-edged grasses
Wait for warmth.

Cry of the pheasant
In the dark wood.

V

Green morning
Cloud-laden.
The very edge
Of heaven.

VI

Take a thought
Watch it drop
A thousand miles.

Ripples spreading
Outwards.

Reflections of stars
Dancing a moment
Then settling
Back to stillness.

VII

Silent and still.

February bliss.
The sky is one
Low cloud.

Cool air breathes
The branches
Now and then.

I walk old roads
Between spiralling
Pillars of birdsong
And the
secrets of trees.

Feeling
The heartbeat
Of the world

Through the soles
Of my feet.

VIII

Sliding music
Landscape music
Floating music

Sliding thoughts
Landscape thoughts
Floating thoughts

IX

Looking down
On the pool
Of the sky:

The full moon-
My melancholy
Reflection.

X

Breathing in
Breathing out.

Crow
Pushing against
An early morning sky.

XI

White page
White mind

Cloud- covered mountains
Mist-filled valleys

White mind.

If I take a breath:
The sun will rise.

If I take a breath:
The one beside me
Will stir.

If I take a breath:

Day will begin.

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Tumbling muses

Tumbling muses, a cascade of language, a release from exactitude, so often poetry is not created, not constructed, never owned, not signed for in triplicate. It bursts upon the brain, insistent and immediate. Presumptious, impatient it will flounce off, melting into vagueness if not given full attention. ” If you don’t want me, I know someone else……”

The yaffle’s green laugh
Framing the numinous.
Splendour remains subdued-
The first splinters of Spring.

Time rushes silently by:
A wonder not noticed
But for a moment
Of pause.

Heaven is nowhere else
If it is not here, now.

When the sleeping wake,
when the dying relax,
When the conceited admit
Mystery,

Heaven will be here, now.

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This is one of my new prints from “The Lights of Sovereignty” series. This one is “The Light of Beltane”. A bit early, but then my “Light of Spring Equinox” decided to depixilate itself so I’ll have to upload the original again! These images, mandalas of light, complete the Energy Cards for our
Range of Sovereignty Essences (except for “the Merlin” and ” the Earth Goddess” which will arrive sometime, hopefully!).

Flowers of The Yew

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Yew notes

If you are drowning in the depths of winter, if you find the dark days dismal, if you are wearied by the woes of the world, if you find that you have lost your direction, lost your spark – then place yourself next to the banked-up fire of the yew tree spirit. Its constant energy and life- force will warm you through and help restore your core strengths and inspir new growth.
Yew is the oldest of trees, eternal, ever-living, vibrant wirh dragon-life, a great restorer and a great healer. Anchor you energies in the eternal silence of the yew tree and learn to sing again.

” I am Yew
Slow breath of Eternity
Joyful and profound

I am Yew
Well of Time
Source of Life.”

SONG OF THE YEW TEACHER

This is the song
Of the Yew Teacher,
The spiral snake,
The dragon healer.
Strong song and silent teacher.

Before the dawn
Before the first day
I knew the sun’s name
As it called me forth.

Pollen
Heavy,yellow
On the wind.

Red apple,
Sweet heart of death.

Green tongues and
life-blood fire.

Patient roaring,
Passion turning:

“come not with your mind
Nor your chatter.
Drown in me
Die in me
Join the centre:

The hub, the wheel,
The word,
The laughter.
The fire inside,
Concealed, concealing.

Wood and weather,
Warm and winter.

In my shadow,
Dance,
Dissolve.”

Past the sitting one who sees
Past the root into the chamber
Where the watchers weave and gather
Where the dragon’s breath is potent
Where the silver wheel is woven
Where the time is marked and measured
Where the space is held and hallowed

Where the land is named
And numbered.

” I am fire
And I am water.

I am earth
And I am ether”

This is the heart of Time,
The heart of matter,

The drum of centuries
The door
The silence…..

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The Ten Mahavidyas

The mahavidyas, or “great wisdoms”, “wisdom goddesses”, or “Ten objects of Transcendent Wisdom” is a medieval Indian system of metaphysical thought that brings together aspects of goddess energy in a powerful and evocative manner. In certain aspects it falls outside the more familiar Hindu orthodoxy, whilst deepening and adding commentary to the esoteric traditions of the Himalayan region.

I first came across the Mahavidyas in my fourth year at the University of Edinburgh and was drawn to the powerful imagery- especially as presented in Alain Danielou’s “Hindu Polytheism”- so that I incorporated elements of symbolism in my sculpture projects. At the time I was using the image of the bowl a lot in my work and it seemed an ideal form to express the numinous within the familiar. A container of space, requiring emptiness to define itself, the bowl has often been employed as a metaphor for the polarity of existence.
Much more recently I was asked to make images representing each Mahavidya in the same way that I found symbolic forms for tree energies. It took a while to consider. It is one thing tuning into a tree energy and seeing how to visually freeze that unique energy dance, it is a different matter of scale to do the same to a powerful universal energy presence. Resolution came when I acknowledged that the Mahavidya energy patterns are transgender, transhuman, transspatial, transtemporal, transcultural entities. In other words, it was not necessary to get “permission” or authentication to begin this work. They do not belong to any one species or gender or time or theology, though their symbolic references will be culturally specific. I am possessed wholly by these energies as I am with the frequencies of the electro-magnetic spectrum. I do not need to achieve knowledge or understanding outside of myself. In fact they have a more permanent existence than what I consider to be my own personal reality.

MAHAKALI

Great Time
Time accumulating,
Licking
Laughing.
Disintegrates
your considerate sciences,
Your careful measured certainty.

Unfettered
Definitions cease.
Knowing Her
There is nothing else to know.

Beyond subatomic passion,
Endless rest, but awake.

Scurrilous,
Untramelled Reality,
Radiant darkness
Embedded, entangled,
Woven into solidity

Solid time
Still time
Waiting time.
Ungraspable, unavoidable

Warm red tongue
Licking your soul.
Warm lips clasping.

Atrocious vastness,
Contigious unity,
Invisible light
Revealed.

Exploding souls
Supernovae.

The image above is one of a series of prints I made of the Mahavidyas and related energies. This one is Kali, the Great Night of Time, Deathless Silence, Perfect Bright Darkness. Kali means ‘time’.
Though these energies are personified and worshipped as deities, they transcend all human categorisation and all cultural niceties. They are raw reality, which is why they are so scary! Any image is Mahakali, every concept is Mahakali. This image I have made is therefore perfectly MahaKali, though not exclusively so!!

If you are interested inseeing the other images or purchasing a few(!!) please go to click here

Djinns for dinner

Sandstorm on Party Night, Kuwait City.

Uninvited, yet
They all came in, happy
And yelling
From the desert.

Djinns dressed
In sand and wind.
Dancing to their own
Songs –
Wild melodies,
Drones.
Dancers spinning
Skirts of dust,
Spinning round the mango trees,
Spinning orange blossoms
Off the bushes.

They stayed too long,
Loud and restless,
And when they chose to go,
Slowly,
One by one,
Their cries echoing
Down the hidden streets,
Nothing was left
Except their buffeted
Debris.

And for us earthbound,
Solid watchers,
only a sense of bewildered
frustration,mild
Irritation at the dusty
Silence,
The slippery surface
Of things.

The desertion of energy,
The everyday aftermath
Of the unexpected,
The return
Of time.

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Desert Dawn

Desert dawn

So in morning we headed out well before daybreak, past the refineries glowing like giant topaz crystals, into the desert to watch the sunrise.

Turning off the road between scrub bushes: small desert mice in the headlights scurrying out of the way.

On a slight rise, we stop and lay out the rug, light the charcoal stove and put the kettle on. It will only take an hour to boil! Cool stillness, high half moon, Venus alone in the night sky, a mirage of road lights swaying on the horizon.

Gradually light rises, not blue but violet grey; wind polished pebbles of white, yellow, black, translucent like sugar, evenly cover the crust of cream-coloured sand, take form and shadow.

The history of days and nights: small scurrying footprints, undulating grooves of tails, doubled hopping of birds and tentative quarrying for food or shelter.

As the moon grows brighter the sky becomes white over purple- grey in the east, the faint disc shows, grows and fills with white. Facing the sun, no warmth yet, and a wind cool on the neck. The cry of a disturbed bird, distant rumble from camels a little way off, stirring, then gliding away to graze.

Slowly the warmth flows down warming the cool sand. Strong, hot tea. We wander away singly or in groups,out and back. Silence and laughter. Eyes resting on muted colour, clear horizons, still earth, hollow perfect blue sky.

As the heat blossoms: coffee, aromatic, spice- rich, in the tent of the camel farmer. Brown, white, chocolate camels, loose- limbed, nonchalent, splayed impossibly, bird- beaked, love-filled eyes, grumble and turn to watch, or not.

Time measured by heat,
black beetle,
flash of hawk,
chatter of sparrows.
A day seamless
and silky- sweet as fresh camel milk.

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Nocturne:Perigee

Perigee Dream

Arabian night.

Flying through moonlight

Four laughing princesses.

The lights of heaven

One mile below us.

Returning to the garden:

Cicadas,

fragrant

Shadows. 

Complete

Full

The moon floats

In between

and knows:

All dreams are one dream

All sleeping is one sleep

All songs are one song

All loves are one love

All hearts are one heart

There is only human being

Only one sigh

Only one breath

Only one moment.

This song is an old song

With new words

And a new tune.

The return of

Spring,

Forever the return of spring.

Four laughing princesses

Spinning in the night sky.

How a language is written, how the sounds are turned to shape. What changes, what pathways are found and lost? Here we have English, painfully constructed step by step from left to right, from past to future, letter by separate letter, precise as bricklaying.

Does each language- tongue music- become more or less when it is understood? It stays art when the medium of sounds and the message of symbols somehow dance together. Otherwise it is in danger of becoming a servant to the mundane instruction.
Free of meaning it stays a sussuration of mind, sine wave and pattern in the white noise of the universe.

Arabic script is maybe one of the artistically fluent of language symbols. It reminds me of medieval musical notation, rise and fall of chant, images on a distant horizon, ripples on the surface of a stream……..