How can it be that he is never here? How can it be I do not hear that voice His presence haunts from his old ,battered chair
Though I have money and no need unbare I feel the grief , the affect of his choice. How can it be that he is never here?
What is the world when loss turns to despair. When every sheet by weeping is made moist? His presence haunts from his beloved chair
Now we learn the symbol of the hare Unpeaceful, hunted, jugged or potted roast How can it be that he was ever here?
Into the real we stand and long time stare We’re begging, blaming,badgered and then gassed His presence feints with ours in death’s own lairs
Now the world of man has long surpassed The time we could blame God for what we‘ve missed How can it be that He is never here? His absence haunts , symbolic , suffered, real
No mobile groans are allowed in this hospital. Please faint on the bed only.Or if pushed,faint onto the nurses’ station. No lipstick to be worn at night. Pills must be swallowed your own water. Do not undress in this cubicle.Undress outside before entry. Leave your clothes in the bin for people to steal on demand (X ray unit] Kindly tell us your name before we drug you. If afraid please report to the nurse paranoia is rampant .If no night nurse is available please die after 8 am. If you must have sex in the ward, please do not scream or moan as the other patients may be jealous. If you have no relations please ask the doctor to oblige when he finishes his rounds. If you feel weak,do not use your Kindle Fire on the bed After a heart attack do not resume sex until you get home unless you had the heart attack here in which case please feel free to continue either or both.. Sex is a form of exercise but also can create chaos in public.Try walking instead with or without a partner. If borderline kindly make your mind up whether you love or hate the doctor If you have no bosom,you are probably a man.Wards are now mixed so there is no. problem apart from a shortage of braziers. Cover all your parts before the Royals visit. Please leave me all your money before you leave the ward when about to pass over Sex changes by an operation or sometimes naturally. Are you bored in bed?Get out and walk up and down the corridor to annoy the visitors. Kindly do not drum your fingers all day.Use a drumstick. If you have erosive dermatitis, please dry carefully. If you have an egg please donate now.Fertility counts. Owing to a world shortage of egg cups,we now use mugs to eat from and saucers for our tea. Do you have any further problems?Please weigh your words before you start None of the staff understand the government…so please do not mention Dom Cummings.if you wish to go home on one piece. Pies are sold in the conservatory.We do not know why. In fact we know hardly anything but don’t worry,we’ll treat you barbarically anyway. Be a stoic and accept the NHSl.We all die one day/night Any tips, feel free.
Like individual beings, each minute, Each shows a different world than we expect
With secrecy, new visions may impact Our hidden mind with metaphor’s astute, As body cells each open or contract
From our pain, experience distracts. The mind and heart and soul can each re-route We see a world more changed than we expect
The world of trust, of relaxation, tact, Tensions in the mind will soon dispute. The choir of cells may sing or lose affect
Faith in the unknown, what shows our lack? Can we reach such faith in minute steps? We “see” our ” world ” as fierce attack
As glows the candle, at sweet Fire it hints Let each respond in their own dialect. Each body cell can widen or contract We see new worlds, not mirrors dead reflects
Sacred the love the rose dwells in;
Thorns protect what lies within.
Precious flower designed for bliss
Consummated with a kiss.
Eternity is one moment
When chattering minds are each silent.
The warp and weft of life itself
Has value more than human wealth.
So passive be, with patience blessed
Focus wide and all relaxed
We wait like this with music ‘joyed
So quietly played, all hurt’s destroyed.
The rose by nature of design
Gives peace to both the heart and mind.
And so it is with this green world
Of blossom, bush, and petals curled.
In a storm small butterflies
Dance in spaces small yet blithe.
Between the hailstones., they will live
And of themselves entirely give.
We too find our sacred space
When with nature we embrace.
We like flowers must grow and die.
We fall to dust and thus shall fly.
In the sunlight dust motes dance
As if by brightness full entranced.
We, like them, do not compete
For that love which us completes
For as we’re nothing, we are free
For God made you and God made me.
As we have no pride or will
We trust in One who will fulfil.
Note : self-abandonment, which is a practice of the mystics .is abandonment to God.This desire for self-abandonment can be used by totalitarian regimes to make the crowd do their will.Like other of our desires, it has to be directed rightly.So we move between this passivity and active thought and will which guides us rightly.We must not abandon ourselves to governments or politicians and leaders, especially Popes or other religious leaders.
Against sadness:no-one old must weep Nor lounge in a melancholy deep Was Van Gogh senseless to permit his muse. For even genius ,is the price too steep? We see the yellow chair but not his views Nor his mind where technique made strange leaps. Nor was his journey broadcast on the news. Against sadness.
Happiness or joy is hard to find When we rest, the News lies on our minds Yet some are cold towards the slaughtered priest His nose a beak of bone in old face lined Now Muslims go to Mass and join Christ’s feast Against sadness.
What rages in the mind make men kill thus? In Syrian wars the innocents fare worse. But these are our near neighbours so we weep And wonder how to end the frightening curse The sins we once committed hold us deep We hold our hands out, wanting to be nursed Against sadness
I wish I were on Hutton Roof again The limestone and the little open flowers The sea at Arnside like a distant gem The spaciousness, like days with far more hours
I wish I were as agile now as then I’d climb the mountains, hills,the little lanes
Windermere below still winding on The handsome Lake the old man, Coniston
I wish I were in Dent, the curious shapes The hills and their deep mystery engross The height, the little river, the mistakes The lost loved man alive, to hold me closeI
I yearn to be on Hutton Roof today The holy smell of grass, the feel of air
The earth has its own gravity and grace Perception will develop as we grow Maintain the sacredness of this our space
When we live, we need to find our place The process may be long and very slow The earth has its own gravity and grace
The good and bad both need to be embraced Grace comes easiest to those who’re low. Maintain the sacredness of this dear space
Good and bad make patterns as in lace And through the gaps, the living waters flow The earth has its own gravity and grace
Life must grow at its own steady pace By our intuition ,we will know Maintain the sacredness of this dear space
Of the fruits of earth, the living taste. Admire the flying birds from thrush to crow The earth has its own gravity and grace Maintain the sacredness of this dear space
How white and blue together recollect us to the summer sky and the imagined swallows darting in exquisite geometry under the great domed space of the heavens, like the Basilica in Constantinople containing and giving space. And how I held you for a moment that was infinite and then you were gone like an angel fearing enchantment into some finite boundaried world
I am going to translate a passage of good English into modern English of the worst sort. Here is a well-I Iknown verse from Ecclesiastes:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Here it is in modern English:
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
The brightness of this sweet sunlight, The songs of birds whose brood take flight. I love to take such earthly pleasure, To fill my mind with precious treasure.
The conversations with my friends, The closeness only death will end, To share my life with those who care, How could we have better fare?
Those who suffer pain and grief, From whom love’s stolen by a thief, Let us take them to our hearts, So their healing path can start.
Those who fear friendship and love, Who set themselves at too low worth, Do they know how courage grows Through acceptance of our woes?
Life seems tragic comedy. Love may be part remedy. Yet when we give our hearts away We shall have grief and pain to pay.
But if we lock our hearts up tight, And keep all feeling out of sight, We will wither like dead leaves, Of our whole life we’ll be bereaved.
So choose your path with care and thought; Never be by lies distraught. All humans are as gold to me. With my love,I end my plea.
Not quite a sestina but I did get all 6 end words into the last two lines… I have never done this before
Feelings drift in lazy summer air As silent reverie gives minds an ample space Trees more heavy bowed by excessive leaves Droop like shades across their garden home Sun near horizontal in its streams Creates deep shadows where it cannot reach.
The ripened plums are almost out of reach Their fragrance lends a splendour to the air And as their leaves fall gently by the stream More gaps are made and sunshine ripens space Such a cherished respite is a home Hear small wild creatures rustle in the leaves.
Yet even here the world outside can reach Despite our music sonorous in the air For News we hear,so pity from us streams We cannot stay forever in this space Technologies as they stamp around the home Take up our mind and good thoughts outward leave
And yet we must still reach for mental space Streams of mercy leave homes aired with grace.
How like a dream this world appears to me My mind unfocussed spreads itself about.. No details, just an outline I can see. And vagueness dimly fills me up with doubt.
The early sun made joy rise in my heart As I looked out upon the gardens gold. Of nature and each season we’re a part. As with patience we let all our self unfold.
We are as nothing in the vast space of this sky Where stars send light from deeps of long ago. And yet despite my nightmares I shall try As fears make fences if we don’t say No.
We have to make our dreams a home on earth; from where creative thoughts are given birth
I believe your blood pressure was rather high when you were at the hospital.
That’s hardly surprising in the circumstances.
What circumstances?
I had a gastroscopy and six biopsies.
Well we haven’t heard anything yet,
When I was told that consultant is written and you want to see me I did not realize it will be only about my blood pressure. It might very well have gone up now.
Well what was it last time you read it?
134.985/56.222
So so what does that come to?
Ah, it’s about 2.5
Have you not got a calculator on your phone?
I think two and a half is good enough.
But what does it mean?
Well I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.
I’m only a trainee doctorOk I’ve put it on the computer you blood pressure is two and a half.
But two and a half what? Is it 2 1/2 times the normal?
I really can’t help you there
Don’t you think you ought to have looked at my file because I was expecting you to tell me that I have or have not got cancer and all you’re an interested is my blood pressure.
Will I’ll tell you a secret we get paid a fee for every blood pressure we take.
What is the fee?
10.
10 what?
2.5 x 4=10. That’s intriguing
I think we’re onto something here.
No it’s just a coincidence.
It’s exactly four times two and a half
I don’t know which medical school you went to but I don’t think you’ve done enough training to be a real doctor.
I’m afraid nothing is real now.
Our bodies are real and we need foodAre
I suppose that’s why there are more shoplifters now.
I do all my shopping online so I don’t see all those criminals with guns and knives in Waitrose.
He has a mobile face with rubber skin He loved me much before I did love him As proofs in mathematics wear minds thin, And doctrines of religion make us sin, He makes me laugh and Q.E.D we’re kin. He touched me deeply where our souls begin He has a mobile face with rubber skin He loved me much , and soon I much loved him
We are in this boat together Sailing across the bay. Some have an easy voyage, The wind is blowing their way. I wish I could always be sailing Across a wide ocean with you And never reach the other side though it may be in view. I want to see the sunrise Across the dappled sea. The ripples of the water Reveal a new world to me. One day this boat will reach the shore Unless destroyed by storm And I shall have to leave your arms Where I have been so warm. So just before we get there I wanted you to know That I shall always love you Wherever you may go.
The music has voices, people with arms stretched above their heads pulling invisible strings they move. slightly move side to side
Connected to our hearts, the rivers in our body the rivers of blood the veins and the arteries they’ dance to the vague unbearable movements of the music of the heart with blank intense eyes open zero mouths
There is something impossibly touching in the harmonies we cannot create: connecting us to the invisible grace of the universe
Traversing the horror :in creative boats are signs symbols,sense,incense
The voices are pure like children’s and faint like ghosts like holy spirits like flowers and thistledown
They slice into our souls, yes into our souls like holy knives
Deep in our body we feel it, we hear the call of the music and we long to go to the place from which it comes
Let there be light in the world
Let there be light in Ukraine
In Libya?
In Morocco
How can we in this unknown dance move together like strings of bones, violence of the ribs, the pump of the heart I want a heart beat to move the entire world
The heart bursts and disappears and we are cleansed into the actual shape of the music though we cannot see and we feel each other in the pulses of our wrists
London is a city of 8 million people. In London anyone in the world will be at home except Donald Stump.We have mosques,churches,synagogues and temples and otherwise just millions of shops,buses and cars
Around Londom are the home counties:
“Heartfordshire” for the loving of all ethnic groups including Muslims and other monotheists who can dress however they like. E-sex for the technology minded sexy wannabees who are often non-understandable owing to their Cockney exits “Middle Sex”.. it’s obvious but is sadly only a postal area nowadays but all are welcome to use it if they post letters “Surly “for civil servants , lawyers and Estate Agents “Bark Shire “for dog imitators and real dogs Ham Shire for Gentiles and actors or both though anyone can live there if they wish “Can’t ” for sulky people who like going to France for wine and roses.Also for Jewish and other loving yet argumentative folk or Avocados as some call them .Prickly yet soft hearted. “Sorry ” for redeemed criminals .Methodists and lapsed Catholics plus masochists of all types.
How my heart speaks 