V

The Birth of Poetry

Poetry is not a writing skill, nor is it harmony
of the senses. It is the separation of the self
from the self. One becomes Two, the
seeing is seen. It is the moment
of metamorphoses, of the mundane into
the daemonic. Something moves in the air,
a feeling is hallucinated and in that
momentary break from all associations,
something takes shape, apart from the self.

Rani Drew

Celtic Wedding

Rose petals scattered on the grass
The groom green shirted, tartan kilted,
Legs astride, waiting on the cliff top
Whilst the guests gather to stand
In the wind blowing the rain out to sea
And the altar is the green earth
And the blue white tailed sky
The dome of heaven.
She comes dressed in flames
To stand beside him.

No for better or worse in their vows,
But promises deep as oceans
And belief in a love surviving beyond death.

It was like a glimpse of what must come
When church walls crumble and tabernacle doors
Fly open and we move beyond the law
Of shame and guilt
To risk and freedom
Where creation will tumble us willy nilly
Into purifying fires and the heat of passion.
And the breath of God will blow pure and clean

For today there was a tissue thin space
Between heaven and earth
And I thought he walked again beside me.

Norah Hanson

Diamonds are Forever

Pour misfortune onto me
And watch me turn it into beauty.
This is a gift I freely give,
Where you see death I see rebirth.
I do not question - only know,
I do not falter - only go;
I live and dance and smile and cry,
I long ago kissed love goodbye,
I wander up the mountains cold;
How very few have been so bold -
To tread the unfrequented path
Alone: and laugh
At all the matchmen down below.
I never finish - only go.
When the path seems at an end
I whisper to the world, my friend,
'Let me live, a little while',
And she indulges with a smile
My passion for reality:
The word that is,
The word that breathes,
The word that only we perceive
Up on the mount, above the clouds,
Where clarity of sight is found
And all the people down below,
Bathed in the sun, beneath the snow,
All shiver - for they also know
I never falter - only go.

Jim Sinclair