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Sky Boat of the Durotriges
There now, let them rise up: the dark voices, the light voices,
The feathered, the fervid, the iron road of truth is a road we must go down
And the boat of morning and the waters of night.
We are three of indeterminate form:
Too fast, too patient, too vast to keep a single shape.
We are three, is all you need to know, the indicator of splendour.
They see us who know us, they know us who see us.
We glide on shadowed moments, in dreaming time,
On pools of blood and pools of passion.
Words that approach silence ornament us.
They say it is a boat, a barque, but it wavers as a reflection does,
As a path in shimmering summer air, as firelight in a drunken hall.
For we ride beyond the waves of light, on photonic tides,
A boat that is…
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It is the rocks that make the river sing,
The world that gives us song.
Bones creak, branches heavy with snow,
Breath captured must release.
Spring will come.
—
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged balance, Cambrian mountains, landscape, mynyddioid cambrians, poetry, Tao, Wales, winter | Leave a Comment »
Before and After Li Po
( improvisations on the poem “Jingting Shan Hill” by Li Po, following the lead of Robert Okaji)
Characters are rendered:
Crowd birds high fly utmost
Lonely cloud alone go idle
Mutual watch both not tire
Only be Jingting Shan
1
Birds, a scattered knot
In distant depth.
One cloud aimless
(This thought).
Lost the mirror distance,
Resonant, the still hill.
2
Silent swing the flock.
Wind flute, too, silent
At this peak of distance.
We exist only because
Of the other.
Green hill breathing.
3
Caught, the distant, sweet movement.
An upper air, a life of song and wind,
Silent here from this depth.
See too, there is one small cloud,
Sweet movement hesitant.
So, now, eye sinks earthwards,
Locks on swelling hill,
There before, and there after,
A poet’s gaze.
4
Scribble splatter
Brush of birds.
Splashed distant sky.
One thought lost,
The hand and eye
Follow each other,
Equally curious.
A mountain of bone
And earth,
Misted,
Remains.
5
The names matter.
On the tongue, in memory.
Located the sweep of sky,
The noisy flock of one mind,
The moment,
A congregation
Of blessings.
—
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Chinese characters, Classical Chinese poetry, fugue, improvisations, landscape, Li Po, nature, permanent impermanence, poetry, spaciousness, translation, transliteration | Leave a Comment »
Not strictly on topic, but another aspect of Northern shamanic traditions….
Please click on this link to view a preview of my newly finished book:
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the dead arise….
SNAKE SPIRAL TORC
We slide spiraling
Ferociously nonchalant
Eyes on fire, laughing.
The tumble of sun on sun
The silk whisper, pale moonlight
Equations piled up,
The footprints marking time,
Precise dancers through space.
A knot upon hillsides,
A marching shadow in the valley.
Enchained to the motion,
Slave of raw power, sudden beauty.
This is our sign.
That we dance the dance
Between dusk and dawn
According to the paths before us.
A continuation of my sporadic project to re-introduce Iron Age Celtic imagery and world-view into the world art vocabulary and other grandiose schemes…..
—
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A small meditation upon the seated god -druid – seer image
HE WHO
Seated god
Says:
“your eyes
are held
Captive
To my stillness.”
He who,
nameless,
named
Now sits,
throned naked
In memory halls.
He who,
voiceless,
whispers
In echoing soul.
Tied by more
than chance,
Tied by here,
by holding stare.
He who
holds steady
the golden promise
Of sun’s journey –
torc horizon,
Aloft,
glinting heavy.
Joined:
the two apart
woven now
To strong chain.
Just like this.
Eye locked,
mind forged,
Welded,
hammered
across lifetimes.
He who,
naked,
needs no armour,
Who,
cross-legged,
needs no defence.
Mountain looking,
ocean speaking,
Still as centuries.
He who,
hair braided,
hair cloaked,
Looks out from,
in to ,
Within, within
This circle,
This heavy
wheel horizon.
He who,
Is.
—-
This is one of the most enigmatic of coin art images, as the simple ones sometimes are. A naked seated male figure. Either with long braided hair or with a…
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The first part of a cogitation upon the torc and its spiritual significance. Images taken mainly from coin art.
If you look at the white pattern above, the peltas can be seen at six, ten and two o-clock, they resemble cross-sections of mushrooms.
1
TORC TALK (PELTA MOTIF)
Well, it was a long time ago that I covered Celtic Art in Art History, and I was never particularly happy with the name labels often given to Celtic motifs, so I suppose confusing a pelta with a trumpet spiral is to be a little expected (particularly when one can be made up of elements of the other). Nonetheless ,that error was mine. As I was playing with the comma-like form of the magatama it morphed into the cresent-like, arced, spiral-ended, mushroom cross-section known as a ‘pelta’.
This name, ‘pelta’ comes from a type of light shield used by the Greeks and Romans, deriving from an original used in Thrace. This itself tells us more about the natural territory and…
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TRIPLE TOAD
There are relatively few known images of reptiles, except for snakes, on Celtic coins. A few lizards and this amazing toad. The toad, because of its habits and appearance, is linked to the Earth Goddess or Triple Goddess. It resembles a squatting, pregnant female, dwells near stone and water, has triple fingers and has always been associated with lunar/dark/night/magic. The fact that in medieval Christianity the toad became diabolical or evil – linked to demons and demon-witchcrafts suggests that there was an ancient continuing link to pre-Christian matriarchal pagan belief.
Many species of toad worldwide are used for their psychoactive skin secretions, often poisonous before correct preparation. Generally, these extractions confer great endurance with muscular vigour together with visionary effects. This may or may not be part of the corpus of Celtic knowledge related to the toad, but the continuing relationship in folktales are noteworthy: toads, wells, transformations, princes, kisses, wishes, seems to indicate a link to the guardian / fertility / messenger complex.
The central image is a clearly depicted, splayed form of a toad with wedge-like head, rough back and big belly. The long limbs and triple toes are clearly shown. The ring pellets held protectively under the forelegs suggest guardianship of sun / light / wealth / eggs, but they can also be seen as eyes to a hidden face. With this new perspective the angular forearms now become the eyebrows and top of head, whilst the lower legs and pattern below the legs turn into the toad’s wide mouth, with the round markings on the back becoming nostrils. If we apply the same approach to the upper pair of ring pellets we find another hidden toad head with its mouth open. So here in one design there are three toads in one.
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