This is me
reciting the poem while being serenaded by Sidney Bechet
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ukwq2sr6z2k789/sid%20n%20me.mp3?dl=0
Isolating with Sidney (for the record it’s a stay at home poem)
Sitting here with
Sidney Bechet
Live!
24th Mai
Redez-vous Club.
Him and me
in my 1950 Philadelphie
reverie
a surprised sigh
yearns for the clink and clatter
and the slightly pickled
muffled laughter that,
only this January,
definitely
disturbed the clarity
of the great vinyl
spinal tingle
That is you
You see, with this distortion
in mind
I contort to
send my ears beyond this
long gone Jazz friend.
Now surprised
as I say
in my noticing in
my deepening reluctance
to let it be ‘just one of those things’
those social gatherings
that syncopate
brilliantly only
to end too early
instinctively
I decide I need
to pick myself and
the needle up
and with new found instant relief
I resolve to reach out
and to play once again
within yesterdays social rounds:
discovering wellness
in the sweetest of sweet conversations
far beyond his Georgia Brownness
and today’s wistful uncovering of grief.
Stretching the Beatitudes
Blessed are
the softened ones, the peacemakers, the pure in heart
With gentleness and unity they grow with Grace consistently
Near to Light are they that mourn while hungering for Life re-bourn
and Blessed are the merciful, those wishing well to one and all
Renewal comes to aching hearts who warm in Love while pulled apart
For everyone is to us, what we think them to be
Of course, the stone can feel no pain:
They are denuded, they do not flourish, nor do they blossom into ripening fruit
Within this Blessed sun and rain.
(Blessed pronounced Ble-ssed)
Beauty is always here.
I am
currently slowly reading and pondering over some of the wonderful message given to this world by Hazrat Inayat Khan. Upon this continuing nexus of change he soothes by reminding the deep that:
‘It is the greatest relief to forget, it is like bathing in the Ganges.
The present has so many beautiful things to offer us;
if only we open our eyes to look at them
we do not need look for beauty in the past.
Beauty is always here.’
(page 198 of The Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan, vol V111)
‘
Traffic jamming Light and Grace
Fuming beyond
this zebra crossing dripping throng
this head down, striding long
Gortex sway of human form
as wiper blades scud and grate
across this screen that separates
my heart from spleen from
gentle grace of
worried lines on
brethren’s face.
And yet.
unknowingly still I bow, yes
beyond this dashboard reach
for conditioning air
this rain filled rage begins to clear
as Lightening weight accelerates
and soft green shoots now reappear.
oiling Your palm
pausing I pour
this way and that
that
i may disappear
within Your honeyed
Translucence
fertile and pure
Your
sweet pulsing elegance
in Grace-fuelled dhikr
immersing
soft green shoots of
Eastern Sun Light
palm pressing fresh fruits
needing till ripe with
Great goodness seeping
through pulp, pith and kin
earthly distinctions
composting in Him.
the above was written in response to:
The Head of The Prophecy (6,21-8,27)
‘It is like a palm shoot whose dates dropped around it. It produced buds and after they grew, its productivity dried up.
It certainly would be good if you produce new growth now. You would certainly find it.’
Know Yourselves (12,17-13,25)
‘Be eager to harvest for yourselves a head of the grain of life that you may be filled with the kingdom.
Do not be proud because of the light that enlightens. Rather, act towards yourselves as I myself have toward you. ’
(quoted from ‘The secret book of James’ which is the first chapter in The Nag Hammadi Scriptures edited by Marvin Meyer published by Harper One in 2007)
Next blogs: The Gospel of Truth.
