The Ecstasy of Jan Beatty
She is the punk laureate of working-class Pittsburgh, and her poems are equal part protest and jeremiad.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/1634976/the-ecstasy-of-jan-beatty?mc_cid=03d3ee7c83
#poems
Song for Ancient Days
Darkness falls.
Speak to me, my love,
across the stillness of a pensive night.
I wait to hear the stars
call, from the past,
a mystery of grief, not yet resolved;
nor understood,
but carried through the void,
a silent paean.
I am torn;
never whole, my heart
has, ever, wandered frontiers of night's dream,
to seek the part it lost,
and, ever, sought,
since hours when mourning eyes grew dark, with pain.
Its deeper fear,
to enter, once again,
Dante's despair.
Must we sleep,
hidden, beneath stars,
that know no boundaries, and see us joined?
Must wounded hands not feel
the flowing blood,
that is our guarantee, we will not break –
though fated, yet,
to stand, alone, on shores,
and unfulfilled?
This, my vow;
with my hands, outstretched,
in watching tears, deep hushed, across the sky:
this life, as one too far,
will be the end
of endless searching for a home, long loved;
our hearts, as one,
will join, to claim their due,
and live, again.
© Simon J Ashcroft, 2024
#SJAshcroftsPoems #poems #poetry #PoetryCommunity #MyWordsMyWork
I just learned there is a new Li-Young Lee book of poems out that I missed notice of in May!!
Li-Young Lee: Selections
Poems “descended from God”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/162904/li-young-lee-selections?mc_cid=1300a55b19
Maybe what a river loves most
about the banks that hold it—that appear to hold it—
is their willingness or resignation to being
mere context for the river’s progress
or retreat, depending.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/1604434/in-place-of-memory-belief
Equinox
On one side you give time, which disappears on the other side
A time
which is not really present, but man-made
You just follow an earthly rhythm
Spinning around a sentient body.
I see the long shadows go into winter hibernation
Letting the short flashes of light create the brevity's shadow play
See how my diary leaves
being written by the shifting colors of change
Even lets some of them wither, though used as a quilt for new changing hours -
Spinning around a sentient body.
TsL. 2024
#spontaneous #poems
Ships of fallen leaves..
Muse of Autumn
Have you seen these fallen ships of leaves
sailing on shifting starlight
on the way to your golden shores.
See how they are filled with Autumn's gifts -
Basket full of sweet fruit
Others filled with harvest grain & heather
even
Barrels full of grapes, waiting to become wine -
Ah yes , Each of them spreads your sweet autumn scents.
TsL 2024
#poems
Muse of August
Let me taste the last summery dewdrops
Embrace my soul with your amber-oceanic light
While I rest in the beauty of blooming cornfields.
TsL 2024
#poems #myphoto #experimental #image-editing
The inhalation of blueness.!"!
The call of the ocean
Echoing life itself
Singing to my soul
There, between the lines the blueness
Floating in the ether
I inhale the essence of everything..
TsL. 2024
#poems #myphoto #experimental #image-editing #gimp
Firewalker
Stars,
tell me of the torture of the night;
of how, beyond perception, before time,
a crucible of violent flame was lit,
that gave you life,
ignited holy fire.
Speak,
of being cast, lonely, to the void;
how, in a greater mind, you swung through space,
a thurible of incence, smoking charms
across the sky,
for beauty's sake, alone.
Sing,
incantations of strange alchemy;
how you became the forging furnace blaze,
through endless deaths, the anvil of Time's craft,
to build vast worlds,
bring light to living eyes.
Be,
to me – to all, glad to suffer love –
a kiln, to burn this clay to rich-fired glaze;
that all, who see the jewels of your hands,
may honour home,
and know life's greater fire.
© Simon J Ashcroft, 2024
#SJAshcroftsPoems #poems #poetry #PoetryCommunity #MyWordsMyWork
A wanderer (wondering) through eons..
Senses filled with woes and whys
The people still fight when they know they may die
Why follow self-centered puppeteers
Filled with destructive mindsets that make them millionaires
Seducing the people with the possibility of being glorified
Give them a belief that war is justified
While the people are being crucified..
TsL 2024
#poems
Aja Monet ~ Black Joy
https://youtu.be/H3em39BgL04?t=0
or
https://piped.video/watch?v=H3em39BgL04 (trackers free)
Full album : https://ajamonet.bandcamp.com/album/when-the-poems-do-what-they-do
#music #musique #usik #musica #ajamonet #blackjoy #whenthepoemsdowhattheydo #poems #poesie #poetry #jazz #soul #spokenword #Brooklyn
It's all just a Game..
(Bloodstain money)
Football match in the city
Mass hypnosis for the masses
Time to pay homage to their gilded heroes, as gods of sorts
The people dressed in their team colors, as a form of warriors
Ready for War.
Sticky groups of overly drunk people
Broken beer glasses everywhere
Blood stains on the asphalt -
But, whatever the City earns so well from these football matches,
& a bit of spilled blood & destruction doesn't hurt...
TsL 2024
#poems
June
"Caught in the rain coonoon"
Dear June
Where do you hide your summery soul?
Since you arrived, your hair has a scent of rain
Now you're sitting in here & even your skin is cold.
Where is your ray of sunshine soul
Those soft, amber eyes
Which warms my senses -
Where are your warm summery waves
Thy bluish encompassing ocean
Which
Summery embraces my senses
Amidst the stories..
I walked around the lush central Jutland scenery -
Among
The small valleys & lakes, shaped by the signs of the Ice Age
Fields & heaths with ancient Nordic burial mounds
The rune stones, where the stories of
ancient Norse kings & their gods are engraved -
Where, ancient witch hazel trees still bloom
In the moss-covered soil of central Jutland -
Where the breath of the forest quietly whispers
About the Danish legends & fairy tales
of both Trolls, witches & fairies who lived in here -
In here, where both artists, poets, searching souls
& I
Found inner peace & soulful inspirations.
A weather of changing minds...
April,
As I walked around your spring-like soul layer -
A weather of changing minds
Dew tears of the dawn
which, shimmering in rhythms in amber sunblinds -
I was reaching for more of the spring-like freshness of the season.
May be as welcome as you
- Do I dare to say it out loud?
After all, I enjoyed Muse of April's chameleon outfit
The teasing changeable weather
A bit melancholic, yet so picturesquely musicalizing ..
TsL 2024
#poems
The self-insight of the irration.!"!
Irritation, Is really a strange thing -
There are days when I enjoy the restlessness of youth
The scent of immortality & curiosity in their minds
Driving around on tuned mopeds - without a helmet
Sometimes turns into some kind of petrol vampires, sucking petrol from other people's mopeds to play
Their sometimes dangerous - Cat and mouse game - with the police
& with great wondering confusion not understanding why they were stopped. -
& then there are the days when the very same things irritate my senses
Forgetting I was young & felt immortal -
& then suddenly it is this form of Irritation which is actually irritating..
TsL 2024
#poems
March - towards April..
March - towards April -
With the tenderness of springtime delight
The inner heat of changeability -
March - towards April -
Sing to me, with your melodious calls of spring
Dazzle my soul with your floralizing scenery -
Let me quietly rest on brightly colored water lilies
Let my soul soar on the wings of vicissitudes -
TsL 2024
#poems
#Reincarnation and #Karma | Order of #Bards, #Ovates & #Druids
by Dr Renata Bartoli
It’s not possible to give a date when the concept of reincarnation first appeared among human beliefs because it seems to be as old as humankind itself and it is present in cultures all over the #world.
Its first manifestation seems to be in Shamanism. From it the belief in rebirth has passed into all major religions that have developed on earth, accompanying and influencing them throughout their evolution.
Reincarnation though transcends the limits of specific, codified religious systems. Nowadays, in a more and more secularised Western society, it is science that enjoys respect and credibility, while traditional religions are constantly losing public interest: in fact, people are in search of a more direct and less structured spirituality. In this climate, interest in reincarnation is not fading but growing and this ancient, primordial belief is now receiving validation and support by just those very scientific milieux that – traditionally – have always been the antagonists of religions. I say ‘primordial belief’ because looking back to the entire history of human thought, reincarnation is actually the only worldwide concept that has shown continuity and permanence from our origins to the present day.
Eastern religions are well known to hold the concept of rebirth at the very core of their teachings. What is less known is that reincarnation has also always been present in monotheistic faiths and philosophical systems of Western and Middle Eastern societies.
In classical Greece Plato, Diogenes and Pythagoras spoke of reincarnation and past life regressions.
The #Ancient Jews believed that Abel had reincarnated into #Moses, and in the Middle Ages reincarnation appears in the esoteric teaching of #Kabbalah, developed further in later times by the Hassidic movement.
The concept of Karma was introduced to Latin Rome by Ennius, after being imported from the newly conquered Eastern territories, and #Virgil describes reincarnation in his #poems.Medieval Islam was also familiar with the concept of rebirth, and the Persian Sufis have preserved this belief up to the present day. The #Quran itself explains the law of Karma.
What about Christianity? Reincarnation was an integral part of the beliefs of early Christians and there are references to it even in the teachings of Jesus himself. However everything changed in #325 AD when, at the #Council of #Nicaea, reincarnation was condemned as #heretical. The fact is that this council was called in times of great turmoil and insecurity and its decisions were dictated by political needs and not by spiritual considerations; in fact the Council was requested by #Constantine, the emperor of the Eastern #Roman #Empire, and it marked a crucial political turning point in the fate of what would later become Europe as we know it today.
At that time the old empire was disintegrating under the pressure of nomadic peoples coming from the East, bringing with them a completely new and unknown civilisation. Constantine was the head of this vanishing empire and he was desperate to maintain an order which was faltering in the face of the advancement of the chaos brought by them. To do so he needed absolute power and absolute obedience and to obtain them both he needed very strict laws, able to keep order within the threatened boundaries. In such a situation #people were supposed to #obey #without #question, and no challenge to his #authority or the status quo was tolerated.
Reincarnation states that we incarnate over and over again, experiencing all sorts of human conditions, and that someone who had been a king in the past could be reborn as a tramp and vice versa. The precariousness and transitoriness of social status that it taught certainly sounded very subversive to a frightened monarch, and didn’t hold any appeal for him. Constantine used a heavy hand to #eradicate it. He banned it as he did all other ideas or beliefs he felt threatened by, and he didn’t hesitate to #execute their #supporters, mercilessly silencing any opposition.
In spite of all this the idea of #rebirth has never been extirpated and today – although the traditional religious systems are in crisis throughout the entire Western civilisation – the belief in reincarnation is growing steadily both in Europe and the USA, as the statistics of the last twenty years show.