From the Cornerstone Readings

A Blackness

As clear as night

wings like ink

drawn in non-flight;

more positive than anything

is that Rook on the rooftop opposite.

Its wide-nosed beak

scans feathers

for insects or dirt,

coat clean and brilliantine,

upstaging the Jackdaw

hidden in slate—

charcoal

indistinct

like a so-called Eskimo

wrapped in sealskin

or centuries of a misconceived othering.

*

Rook really took the biscuit, though;

all the colours swam into him,

absorbed their differences

to nothing,

a negative-positive

to outshine the Sun,

a blackness that turns day

and night

back to light.

Nalini Paul

 

Nalini Paul

***

Chrys Salt's tribute to Adrian Mitchell -

With Adrian at the Peace Festival

if you saw him running it was because he’d spotted truth in the crowd and was chasing it if you saw him smiling it was at a good deed waving from a balcony if you saw him jumping it was in a playground with all the other daft kids on the block raising anarchy if you heard him singing it was girls and boys come out to play if you saw him laughing he was laughing he was really laughing if you saw him waving it was to say HELLO come in and join the feast of the human race if you saw him writing it was a love letter to the world on the day of its crucifixion if you saw him dancing it was to a Beatles tune about giving peace a chance and waiting for that moment to arrive

Chrys Salt

***

BUS PASS

I waited anxiously at the bus stop.

Two old ladies behind me

and a younger woman with a child

behind them formed the queue.

And when the bus arrived I panicked.

I encouraged the elderly ladies on first

then I motioned to the young woman,

discretely falling in behind her.

I wanted no association with these

old women – for we were leagues apart –

the mother and child much preferred

with my bus pass sweating in my palm.

I dreaded the bus driver’s eyes

as I dreaded the pad for the pass.

I felt sure he would question my age

as I felt sure I would fumble the pass.

All things pass, of course. It happened

without a word or the faintest of fumbles,

my pointless exasperation grounded in the vanity

of an uneasy, newly retired, senior citizen.

James Aitken

***

Geneva, August 2010 (from Gold Tracks, Fallen Fruit)

the wild sail of the water fountain

flaps a sheet of light across the Lac Léman -

from the cathedral bell-tower

it looks like a thread of torn lace

round the city’s wrist

Geneva rooftops (photo Morelle Smith)

 Scotland, East Coast, August 2012

passing through a narrow tunnel

that winds between the banks of sand –

no warning - the flat sea has spilled over the horizon -

it’s as if the dunes first protected you

then pushed you out

dunes, sea (photo by Morelle Smith)

Morelle Smith

Two Poems for the Shortening Days

SALAH

My God

Lord of a heaven far away from me there

near to me here

I pray to you there, pray to you here.

Five decades ago there

it was tuneful Azan rang in my right ear

and eight years ago here

I chanted the same Azan

in my new-born baby’s right ear

and showered his cheeks with tears -

one stranger here comforts another.

Mother watches behind a curtain of tears and feels pity for us here

and an astonished midwife with an open mouth gasps:

What on earth are they doing here?

What is he mumbling in the baby’s ear?

dawn, noon, afternoon

sunset and night

each time I pray to the Lord who granted us love, grace and blessing

and poured the light and sap of life into our bodies.

I pray for tranquillity to overwhelm my soul

for the right guidance to flow over all the people in the world.

I pray for mercy to fill my heart

for happiness to rise from my eyes.

There

I returned to the neighbourhood mosque

and recognised some faces that bid farewell to me years ago

and my father’s wasn’t amongst them;

but a corner where he used to pray, perfumed with his breath,

invited me.

I knelt down low and repeatedly pressed my forehead

on what fell from his spirit there

and offered him my tears

and recited the opening verse of the Holy Quran by his grave

for a long time.

I cried for him and also cried for my mourning soul.

Here

in the mosques of the land of frost

I met people who came from all over the world.

Like a rug of a thousand colours

We’ve been unfolded behind the Imam,

a flower from each garden, each has their own tongue

But there is only one language for prayer.

Glorify, saying God is great

for the nation praying to the Lord

who sat on the throne of heaven there

and who sits on the throne of heaven here.

Iyad Hayatleh

‘Prayer’ translated by Iyad Hayatleh with Tessa Ransford.


* * * * * *

The Three Crows

I could recall a nursery rhyme

for one of those,

but not for the three that swooped

between red sandstone tenements

like harbingers.

Magpies are simple:

one for sorrow, two for joy

three for…a crow times three is

darkness threescore:

one for simply being

two for an accomplice, and

three for three’s a crowd.

But in that dip and dive

like the invisible curve of lives

that moves through time’s memory game,

comes a flash of colour:

the rainbow’s elusive sheen on feathers,

something to grasp

before the light changes.

Nalini Paul

The Cosmic Dance

Almost sunrise on the solstice, December 2010




Solstice eclipse snow contributed by Hazel Buchan Cameron
















This particular dance combined three acts in one - solstice, full Moon and eclipse.
Then there was a further act - another eclipse.

Joseph Proskauer says:>

It must be very rare indeed to have both an eclipse of the Moon near the start of Christmas, and an eclipse of the Sun near the close. It seems we are experiencing an unusual harmony of Earth, Moon, and Sun. "May human beings hear it."

Apparently, Joseph says, it is very rare that the moon-rhythms (phase and height of path) should coincide exactly on the solstice and it is even rarer that a total eclipse should also occur then as well (although eclipses do always occur on new and full Moons.) He says that, to the best of his knowledge, the last lunar eclipse on the solstice was 372 years ago.

The second eclipse, the partial solar eclipse - along with the new Moon - occurred around 8.50 am GMT on 4^th January 2011.

The powerful rhythms and alignments of the celestial bodies are reflected in our own lives, in our dreams and our waking experiences, and we will express them creatively in different ways. This particular filament of the Golden Thread did not manage to see either eclipse, as they were obscured by clouds, but just going out walking in the hills on those mornings was quite magical, especially on the solstice, when the ground was still covered in snow, and all the trees and plants had their individual coatings of frost.

The photographs are of sunrise on the solstice.

Photographs of Cairnholy © Joseph Proskauer

Two quintas:

22/12/10
Solstice full Moon
hides behind morning clouds -
at evening, edges behind buildings -
finally, on the dark deserted beach -
what took you so long? It says

4/1/11
the Sun on the horizon
behind boat-clouds
pulled by swift rowers -
shielding us perhaps
from the shadow on its face

Morelle Smith

sunrise and solar eclipse

Song for snow

Golden leaf on silver bough -– break

Branches under snow –- shake

A Siberian wind -- flakes

Drift deep below

Black cloud thunder mass -– glow

Of midday outline -– through

To the gleam and glimpse -– blue

Shadows on the hill

Dark and light together -- spill

With birds raucous as they -- fill

The glen and loch and -– will

Skein their way south

Winter now forms our world -– north

Spin the seasons – earth

Works her systems – death

with birth interdwelt

Glaciers may return or –melt

Ice or flood our future – dealt

All beneath Orion—held

As we marvel faithfully

Tessa Ransford (December 2010)

Note: The poem’s form is taken from Gaelic Pibroch music, and in this case the tradition for a ‘call to arms’. The last word in each line is emphasised and leads on in meaning to the next line. Three lines rhyme with the fourth last line of each verse leading onto the rhyme for the first line of the next. I have imitated this from a poem of Hamish Henderson’s called ‘Brosnachadh’.

Portentous

Cloaked in a curtain of cloud

the sun burns

through black fabric

glares like an old woman

in a shroud.

It hovers above us

as we sit in the moving bus,

trying to warm our cockles in winter

willing the sun to shed

her widow’s veil

and shine over our discontent.

Nalini Paul

Poems Read at St John's

THE GOLDEN THREAD OF POETRY

poetry that connects and transforms

poetry on a different level

Tessa Ransford and friends: seventeen poets from various parts of Scotland took part in a series of readings at St John’s Church at the west end of Princes Street in Edinburgh, as part of its Festival of Spirituality, during the Festival of 2010

Under headings such as metaphysical, inner journey, echoes, hauntings, travels, seascapes, translation, international, community, eastern, cross-cultural, thoughtful, these poets offer artistic integrity with contemporary relevance, with archetypal and topical references

Poems by the seventeen poets can be found on these pages. Singer-songwriter Toby Mottershead joined us at the readings in the church on several occasions with songs such as ‘the angels’ share’. Ruby Elizabeth Littlejohn lent us her textile artwork: Return to Eden, which shone behind us as we read. A violin solo by Christina Knox of a piece to celebrate ‘The Seafarer’ by composer Sally Beamish was performed on the occasion when a translation of this anglo-saxon poem was read by Jila Peacock

We hope you will enjoy these pages and come to next year’s series of poetry readings at St John’s during their Festival of Spirituality in August 2011.

On the home page you will find a poem from each of the performers.

On the page About the Poets you will find information and links to the poets' websites.

The Photographs page will show relevant and related images.

Lost 

(2003)

There are no maps for poets in this country.

The compass finger, mindless on its post

will not direct us on this dangerous journey.

An unfamiliar landscape tells us we are lost.

Above the bramble and the rambling wood

the wheeling dragons search for bones

of luckless travellers who have misconstrued

the alien symbols on the milestones.

We have nowhere to go but where we are,

our options closed, the exit double locked.

We may not take direction from a star.

The stars are out and all the roads are blocked.

How can we dare this nightmare territory?

the shifting contours of the hills and coasts,

the gibberish signposts and the season's enmity.

What hand our touchstone in this land of ghosts?

Chrys Salt

Pure

This is why I don’t quite believe

in equations. Haven’t you noticed

how the pattern hovers over the surface,

so that it is not simply a rule

of one motif to one featherlet, hook or barb,

say, in the barn owl.

Look at him, gowned,

almost wearing ermine, but rather

than the soft shell of him being dotted

with stitches, or marks

where the tails used to be,

there are kohl-rimmed, almond eyes on him –

he has been branded mine by Isis

who says: slate clean, if you love me,

and his real eyes are pools of I do.

He is a go-between, the envoy of an instant

dappled with late sunlight

and then the white sheet of him

drawn swiftly upwards

through water, blotted to be born,

stung with eyes that never sleep

on the back of his head.

He hears with most of his face.

You could not startle such a being.

Dawn Wood

Market Street, Albania

This street is crowded in the mornings,

coloured dresses hanging outside shops,

metal pans flash sunlight,

voices rise and fall, a shout of greeting,

women’s laughter -

then the warble of a songbird.

In the afternoon, the shops and kiosks

are all closed. A thin cat hesitates

in front of delicate wrought iron gates

leading to a garden with a palm tree.

The house is shuttered, silent, in the heat.

The cat slips through the gap between the railings.

There is no shade of tree or awning in the empty street.

Even the caged bird’s song is paralysed with heat.

Morelle Smith

July

Silver light.

Fog rubs out the Hamnavoe hills.

The sea is still as mercury.

An eerie silence fills the space.

A wind-up lantern glows

within each tent,

tinfoil lines the caravan windows.

Campers drift to sleep

and the only sound

is the rub of my waterproof sleeves

- one-two, one-two -

and the tread of booted steps.

The sky is a bowl of hidden stars,

the moon on the first wane

nestled like a jewel in a velvet

blue box.

Some indistinguishable cry of a bird;

a dark blob, like a selkie, shifts.

The sea laps a soft murmur against rocks,

slipping into cracks of curved wall.

I look up again 

and the moon has gone, 

its residual glow penetrates 

the blue clouds

like patches of coloured crayon,

a child's scribble.

Campers turn off their lights.

The storybook street unfolds

as I walk across flagstones.

Nalini Paul




I AM

I AM, he said

not of this world

man’s world divided

not one tribe or other I

not this side or that

not profit or loss I

not black man or white

but daybreak and evening

springbreak and falling

new birth and dying

man in the midstream

pass between mountains

no-man’s land desert

the happening moment

I AM, he said

I have no division

into man or woman

into time or space

what flames not for me – is dead

is against me

that not against me – is with me

is life

Life for the New Age

happening always

LIFE-in-itself

Door between neighbours

open am I

child born of lovers

incarnate I

between man and nature

in works of art

between clashing armies

in blood, blood spilt

I AM the Teacher, he said

follow me;

I partake of wisdom

you share with me

I AM the Healer, he said

trust in me;

I partake of wholeness –

draw health from me

Outcast of men I

beyond jurisdiction

prophet and poet, I

beyond contradiction

victim and priest I

enabling communion

I AM the High King

whom to betray is treason

but also the slave I

insulted without reason.

I AM without family

yet the son of man

I AM without country

yet Israel’s promised one

My tent is pitched among you

in body, heart and mind;

where two or three are gathered

thereupon my dwelling find;

my glory is not hidden

for those with eyes to see

but I AM no different from you

so you seldom notice me

Except when I AM

all at once

I AM

and new worlds are born;

or slowly I become

so that death is transformed

taken up into me

and my tabernacle of divinity

The world is my tent

in the roaming universe

whose creator is lord

of exploding stars

of all that becomes

and turns into me

I AM he said

YOU ARE ME

Tessa Ransford, written in 1979

published in Light of the Mind, the Ramsay Head Press, Edinburgh, 1980

PLEA FOR A HEALING

Long this enfeeblement, this lack.

All the fat cattle of Munster, the black

sturdy cattle of Scotland I would give to be well

if I had them, even the great bull of Cuailnge

to be out again on the hill

hale and watching a Summer’s dawn and see

the new sunlight washing Glen Artney.

As fee for my healing I would give

the high white horses of Manannan, sportive

and brisk, sturdy horses of the Fiann

hardy of spirit. The trumpets of Fionn

the spear of Cu Chullain, all to be well

if I had them, out with my love on the hill

at day’s ending, and Voirlich limned by the sun.

The shield of the king of the Sidhe

harp that brings sleep to a darkening soul

I would pay both gladly to be well.

Time unrelenting as the sea

has struck me hard, the wound is mortal

white spray lies heavy on me, blazon

of snows over ice on Sgurr nan Gillean.

All these good I would give and gladly to be well

if I had them, but poor and feeble

now have nothing to give for my bargain with time

nothing but words and some rhythms, a rhyme.

Walter Perrie

Diocesan Regulation for Churchyards

(Taken from a notice in the Masham Churchyard)

The surface should be kept level and free of grave mounds as far as possible.

Spring flowering bulbs may be planted on the turf provided they do not interfere

with the cutting of the grass. No other plants, shrubs or trees permitted.

Raised kerbs, railings, paving, plain or coloured chippings are not permitted.

Neither are built-in vase containers, figure statuary, etched or sculptured features

(such as open books, birdbaths, hearts and horseshoes) cameos, portraiture or photographs.

If desired, a flower container may be set in the ground at the head of the grave.

The container must be made of unpolished aluminium and be removable.

Small posies may be placed on the stone tablet…but nothing permanent.

Hazel Buchan Cameron

THE BURNISH

To lay everything

down first and best

in rows for the wind

sheaves lapped

and stooked

for drying draughts

by the balance

of practised art

in droves and drills

fetching the grain-gold

to ripeness in rows

by scythe or sickle

by hand downswept

gilding the grain

to perfection

                           

                            Alexander Hutchison

 

 

STUFF

They don’t like it

when their old bedroom

becomes the spare room

when you ask them to remove their stuff

and they say

what stuff

and you say

that stuff in the chest of drawers

stuff in the wardrobe

stuff in boxes under the bed

and they say

oh that stuff

there isn’t room in my flat for that stuff

and you say

it has to go

and will they come and sort it

take what they want and you’ll get rid of the rest

and they say

yes they’ll come

and they come

but they don’t sort it or take it

and it stays

and you offer to sort it for them

but they say

no they’ll sort it

and it stays

until the day comes when

you empty the stuff in the drawers

and the wardrobe

into black plastic sacks

and put them in the hall

by the front door

with the boxes from under the bed

ready for them to collect

but they don’t collect

and you move the sacks and boxes into the garage

out of the house

and it’s a squeeze to park the car

but they’re out of the house

And by the time they come and take them away

if ever they do

other boxes are under the spare bed

boxes of toys

for their children to play with

when they come to stay.

Pauline Prior-Pitt

Leid Caaed Love

Mak your leid cam fae your hairt,

it's no your creed, it's no your airt,

for you're the ane maun tak your pairt

tae mak your leid be love.

(leid - language, culture)

William Hershaw