Tag: poetry

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poetry

The Garden of Eden

God created the Garden of Eden

A pure unspoiled paradise

An ordered beautiful landscape

That could grow and increase in size

God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden

And said, “Be fruitful and multiply

Fill the earth and subdue it

And govern all that creep, swim and fly”

In the Garden a love story began

Adam and Eve enjoying flesh-of-my-flesh

The two became an unashamed one

In the first marriage with a world to bless

Adam and Eve experienced the joy of God

His presence with them was unbroken

As strong as a three-stranded cord

That’s how it was in the Paradise Garden

In the Garden was the forbidden tree

That could cause catastrophic strife

In the midst of the Garden, though

Was another tree, the Tree of Life

“In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die”

God plainly said to Adam and Eve

All they had to do was not eat from the forbidden tree

Believe God, Adam and Eve, just believe!

It was the cunning, slippery serpent

That tempted Eve to sin

Adam fell too and their eyes were opened

And the Cosmos became cursed as death entered in

God then drove them out of Eden

And placed a cherubim at the east

And a flaming sword that turned every way

Guarding the Tree of Life and its feast

However, this is not how it all ends

We will not return to the lost Eden

Redemption and Consummation is coming

There’s no plan for that Ancient Garden

In the future will be a Greater Garden

With the Tree of Life on both sides of the River

Its leaves are for the healing of the nations

And the juicy, sweet fruit we will savour

Yes, we will eat from the Tree of Life

Its branches regularly fully laden

Yielding a new crop every month

In the new and Everlasting Eden

The Garden of Eden (audio)

Categories
Music

Margaret

🎵 Margaret, take me to the hills

🎵 Margaret, take me to the place

🎵 Where we are running

🎵 As fast as fast can be

🌷

Margaret, take me to the place

Where I can see you

🌷

🎵 Margaret, take me to the wind

🎵 Margaret, take me to the place

🎵 Where we are flying

🎵 As high as high can be

🌷

Margaret, take me to the place

Where I can see you

🌷

I’m running…

🌷

First page
Video
Categories
poetry

‘Swaying, Swaying In The Breeze’

It was around the time of the Chelsea Flower Show one year and I was walking along the path in my front garden. Although it was windy, the blue sky just held its own on that sunny afternoon in May. My eyes noticed something moving in the breeze – it was the flowers. It was, as if, I saw the flowers in that light for the first time – dancing.

How many decades had I lived here…? How many flowers had I seen grow, flourish and change with the seasons in my garden…? And how many days, weeks and months of beautiful summer weather had I witnessed…? Not forgetting the aggregate of creatures over a couple of decades, or so, that may have happened upon them…?

There was a bee or two doing what they do best in such natural environments, just buzzing about from flower to flower. These were no ordinary bees – they were my bees!

I was compelled; out came my phone. For the next however-long, I filmed them: the bees… the flowers… and the breeze…

Early the next morning when my eyes had barely opened, I was thinking about this scene. My mind was fixated; I could not stop thinking about it all; I was obsessed; over and over and over: the bees… the flowers… and the breeze… Compulsion grabbed me again and I stole my pen. For a good, long while I toiled: trying this here, something else there, moving the other somewhere else… And then, two hours later, I struck gold – I wrote the last word. Phew! It wasn’t until I returned the pen that I could once more live a normal life. I was satisfied. I was quenched. I was full. And I was free from my malady – safe. The only thing I needed to do was have breakfast – and so I did. And continue with my day.

“Swaying, Swaying In The Breeze

Swaying, swaying in the breeze

Dancing, dancing beneath tall tree

Moving another way in slight air

So handsome, so pretty, so fair

Hues and shades, rare and fine

What invention, what design…”

– first verse

Just for a moment or two, let your imagination go and think of long ladies with long, wavy hair, wearing long dresses, during long, hazy summer days dancing in circles beneath… a tall tree…

Here is a video recording of myself performing the first verse: Swaying, Swaying In The Breeze

Categories
poetry

‘Gone Fishing’

“The assignment, if you choose to accept, is to write a poem about fishing.” Well, that wasn’t quite the directive from Her Majesty’s Secret Service but by a local poetry collective some years ago. To be more precise, a person from the group Poetry Hour, which meets bi-monthly at Croydon Central Library, selected the topic of ‘sport’ that we could write about for the next meeting.

Now, I’m not really a sporty sort of person but very keen on most other aspects of health and fitness. I hadn’t a clue what to write about for a week or so until I was engrossed in another intensive sport akin to skydiving – the sport of ironing! There I was pressing the creases and my mind caught… a fish! I had never, ever, been fishing and so I went to the local angling store to conduct some research.

While I was there, I asked the sales assistant about the sport and bought some fishing line, a fly, a hook and an angling magazine – these would be visual aids that I would use during my reading. At least that was my intension.

The poem may, or may not, have been written with a tongue in my cheek.

“Gone Fishing

It’s 3:15 am and I’ve just packed my lunch and kit

The predictive seaweed looks clammy as I check it

The shipping forecast confirms, rain is on the way

And hovering around minus two for most of the day…”

first verse

For the video productions of the poem there was only one choice of music that sprung to mind: The Trout by Franz Schubert. In my recording, I have brought out the jolly experience of fishing! Furthermore, there is a surprise at the end of the full length videobook version of the poem.

To wet, whoops, whet your appetite here is the first verse from the videobook: Gone Fishing

Categories
poetry

‘Wrynose Pass’

Wrynose Pass is a mountain road in an English National Park called The Lake District. It has been described as Britain’s most difficult road.

During a photography holiday in this part of England I was coming to the end of a particular day. I had been driving far and wide to many locations with my camera, rural and otherwise.

The time was approaching sunset when I reached Devoke Water, the last location before returning to the B & B. Although I had been to this lake before, this second visit was a trifle peculiar… What was not different was the voices of the angels and the view of the lake itself, made extra special by the setting sun with all its colours.

After the photography I returned to the car and started to make my way back but, unlike the previous occasion some years earlier, the journey was marked by a thick, nocturnal atmosphere – and I had no idea what lay ahead.

The location I chose to film this poem was an almost forgotten road somewhere that reminded me of Wrynose Pass… but where’s the car!

The first verse:

“Wrynose Pass

I’m on my way back to my lodgings

Not long, I hope, ‘till I’m safely back

I set the SatNav and follow its commands

It’s getting darker and will soon be pitch black…”

The music I chose for the video is titled: Sonata quasi una fantasia (translates to: Sonata in the style of a Fantasy). Although the sonata is also known as the Moonlight Sonata, I wanted to bring out the drama and sense of fantasy when I recorded it on my piano. The recording of the music also went through a mysterious and eventful journey. The morning after I had made the final edit, I played it back on my HiFi. Immediately after this I turned the radio on and exactly the same movement from the same piece was being played.

Here is the first verse from my videobook: Wrynose Pass

Categories
poetry

‘I Have A Nikon Camera’

‘I Have A Nikon Camera’ is an art poem about a camera which also tells you a lot about me!

The first verse reads:

“I Have A Nikon Camera

I have a Nikon camera

That captures photons new

The light sensitive sensor

Is sharp, accurate and true…“

Let’s wind the clock back several years…

There was a time in my life that lasted decades when I was passionate about all things photography. I studied it acquiring many qualifications, amassed stacks of magazines, joined a camera club and three photography organisations, and purchased a good quality Digital Single Lens Reflex camera.

When not in use, I would store the camera in the airing cupboard with other items. Just above the cupboard is the cold water tank. One day this water tank developed a leak that saturated everything in the airing cupboard – including my Nikon camera.

Soon after this I found myself writing poetry. Up until then my poetry writing had only been now and again, on the odd occasion. But now, more frequent poetry started emanating from me; I was falling in love with the process of writing poetry! At the time, thoughts like “this is going somewhere” were floating around my mind.

As high level photography had been evident in my life for a long time, writing poetry about it came quite naturally. There was a transfer from one type of creativity to another. Further still, an easy leap to producing videos of my poems – including this one.

The video version of this poem is an arthouse production, with music by J. S. Bach recorded on my acoustic piano. All visuals and audios have been artistically altered during the editing stage.

Here is the first verse from my videobook: I Have A Nikon Camera

Categories
poetry

‘What Is There In All Creation…?’

One evening when it was warm I took a walk to the shops. It was still daylight and the atmospheric conditions were good. The lighting was that which accompanies the setting of the sun. However, it wasn’t the setting sun that caught my senses, glorious as it may have been, but the quality of the ambient light. It was as if I was looking through a veil.

As I walked home, I found myself thinking about the first line to a Shakespeare sonnet: Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? (sonnet 18). Much of my preoccupation at the time concerned the sky – particularly writing about it. Within 24 to 48 hours I had drafted three poems about the sky. The feel of the first line of sonnet 18 lead me to write my first line: What is there in all creation…?

The ‘What Is There In All Creation…?’ poem is written in four verses, each verse with an ABBA rhyming form. That is: line 1 rhymes with line 4 and line 2 rhymes with line 3. At the time of composing the poem, I had no knowledge of any other poem written in this style. This knowledge came later.

‘What Is There In All Creation…?

What is there in all creation that can compare to the sky?

She, at times, can be quite calm as well as electrifying

Also, sometimes, conveys sadness and happiness — quite confusing

This is because she is pure and 3 times very high…’

In my videobook, the music that accompanies this poem is J. S. Bach’s Prelude No. 1 from his Well-Tempered Clavier, Book One.

Here is a video clip from the poem: What Is There In All Creation…? (verse 1)

For those willing to go further, the music that concludes the video is the Ave Maria by Gounod which is based on the Prelude.

Categories
Poetry

‘The Sky, The Sky’

When you look at the sky, what thoughts go through your mind and what feelings do you experience? Could you put words to any of this, or not really? In many respects the sky is nebulous, which implies that it can be described in a multiple of different ways.

And the imagination…

Maybe try this as an exercise:

  1. Go to the sky
  2. Close your eyes momentarily
  3. Open them and write down the first thing that comes to mind

Many years ago on my walks around a large office complex, I felt drawn to look out the windows at the sky. I cannot necessarily put it into words, but it did me good; her other worldliness, her perceivable yet unperceivable character, her secrets and mysteries, her colour spectrum…

In my first poem about the sky, I use a mono-rhythmic tercet scheme:

‘The Sky, The Sky

The sky, the sky in all its many shades of blue

Spectacled scientists tell us it has to be this hue

Much praise, I think, to them is certainly due…’

(verse 1)

Here is the first verse from my videobook: The Sky, The Sky

The music in the video is J. S. Bach’s Minuet in G.

Categories
Poetry

New Book?

The ‘Lightbulb’ Moment…

Approximately eighteen months ago I was checking my emails whilst listening to the radio. One email was from the Globe Theatre in London and I happened to be looking through their linked, online catalogue. The radio station was BBC’s Radio 3 and a musician was talking about their preferred recording of a Wagner composition.

At that time, I had been a Wagner enthusiast for a few years – even seeing part of one of his compositions at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall… A thought occurred to me…: “What would it be like to hear the whole piece performed by German musicians and singers…?”

The CDs

Anyway, back to the ‘lightbulb’ moment. As I was looking through said catalogue and deciding how to use my discount code, floating over the airwaves came Wagner’s ‘Ring Cycle’. And, almost simultaneously (I think), my eyes landed on the theatre’s ‘Shakespeare Dictionary’. 💡 How about combining the two? This could be a world first: The Ring Cycle written in Shakespearean language!

Anachronisms

On New Year’s Day, 1st January 2022, I officially started the research. I was excited and looking forward to penning the ‘Shakespearean Ring’. I had a couple of German to English translations — good… Simply use the Shakespearean lexicon, etcetera, instead of contemporary English — and everyone will understand… But will they…? Where’s my red marker!

Exeunt The Bard and his contemporaries
Stabreim v Couplet

Wagner’s ‘Ring’ (or ‘The Ring of the Nibelung’ to give you its full title) is a seventeen hour opera. He, himself, sourced various versions of the epic poem, writing and re-writing the text in stabreim. He also composed the music.

Definition of Stabreim: (Ger.). A versification style based on alliteration, common in German and other north European poetry of the early Middle Ages. It was adopted by Wagner when writing his own librettos …

from:  Stabreim  in  The Oxford Companion to Music (online)

This project will be a re-working into another poetic style, the couplet, and is based on research I conducted.

Research

Definition of Couplet: two successive lines of verse forming a unit marked usually by rhythmic correspondence, rhyme, etc…

from: Merriam-Webster (online)

The first verse from part one penned recently:

The Ring of the Nibelung

📕 The Rhinegold

📗 The Valkyrie

📘 Siegfried

📙 Twilight of the Gods

Part 1: The Rhinegold

From left to right by nature’s design
Flows continuously the ready River Rhine
Lighter turquoise evenly spread
Becoming darker towards the bed
Near the floor the water dissipates
Leaving an increasingly breathable state
This vaporific man-sized space
Moves continuously and at apace
Across the floor of the riverbed
Where no man can naturally tread
Are rough rocks and undercurrent tides
And vertical caverns unimaginably wild…

Categories
Poetry

‘A Natural Virtuoso!’

I went to the National Poetry Library in London earlier this year. I was on a mission: to find out which magazines published similar poetry to mine. For the next two hours I looked at everything that was available. All, bar one, had absolutely no poems about music — not even remotely! In my first poetry book ‘Soaring Higher’ (see ‘books’ page) there are six full length poems with such tasty flavours!

This poem is about a musician — and no ordinary musician at that — but a Virtuoso. “But what is a Virtuoso?” I hear you cry. According to Grove Music Online:

“Virtuoso ( It., from Lat. virtus : ‘excellence’, ‘worth’ ) A person of notable accomplishment; a musician of extraordinary technical skill. In its original Italian usage (particularly in the 16th and 17th centuries) ‘virtuoso’ was a term of honour reserved for a person distinguished in any intellectual or artistic field: a poet, architect, scholar etc. A virtuoso in music might be a skilful performer, but more importantly he was a composer, a theorist or at least a famous maestro di cappella. In the late 17th and 18th centuries a great number of Italian”

“A Natural Virtuoso!”

“Just a few words I’ve penned over tea

That I hope will warm your heart and bless

Who in all the wide-world could it be?

An appreciative music lover no less…”

A piece of music that requires virtuosic technique is J. S. Bach’s famous showstopper: Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Fragments of the Toccata are included in a video of myself performing the poem.

For the full poem click here: A Natural Virtuoso!

This video is one of eighteen poems available in my VideoBook. Click here for more details: Soaring Higher (videobook)