The Secret Life of Crows

 

 

Another Monday

& so begins the week

A day no different from any other day

Beautiful… Unique.

 

The sparkling lights of dawn enshroud the silver morn

They bring forth majesty, a golden tapestry of clouds that drift

They offer up a mystery

A truth to seek

A gift

 

A solitary bird salutes the sky

It somehow seems connected to the tree

Perhaps a mere illusion of the eye

Perhaps just symmetry

 

But underneath this dappled sun

Their natures’ dual, become as one

The withered branches nest as shadows light deceives

For feathers black as night give flight to barren leaves

 

What once was dead… now breathes!

 

I wonder what a person ever really knows

About the secret life of crows

 

********************************

 

This world is glorious in its beauty. Nothing is ordinary. If you think I’m wrong you’re just not looking hard enough. Yes, I know. It’s not a crow in the picture… it’s a magpie. but sometimes magic doesn’t need to be explained. sometimes a bit of mystery & innocence is the magic. sometimes we need to make magic out of nothing. sometimes the mere illusion of hope is the key that brings us back to life. sometimes all we need to do is believe. for if a dead tree can have life, leaves & a heart that sings. & a lone bird & a sunrise can give our imagination wings. then a mind in full flight can do wondrous things!  

BELIEVE.

 

 

Persecution

 

 

Persecution

 

They burnt us to be pure

Their superstitions darker than their fears

 

In the woods we hid like rabbits

We ran beneath the shadowed canopy

And danced sky clad to the wind

 

Our ancient words gave us magic

Our herbs gave us the power to heal

Captured in the red firelight of morning

The purple skies of night held us entwine

The foxes knew us as friends

& the wolves howled

our names to Hecate

 

Older than God

Older than Zeus

Older than Ra

 

We are Woman

 

The earth turns

& we dance upon it in circles

 

Forever the same

 

***************************

 

Why is God not envisioned as a woman?

 

This is a question that has often perplexed me. In nature it is the female of the species that has the capacity to produce new life & bring about birth & new creation. But for some reason we do not like to envision God as a part of nature. We like to see him outside the circle of things. We prefer instead to envision him in our minds as an omnipotent wizard waving his wand and creating life & living out of nothing.

 

The earliest and most primitive societies worshipped female deities.

 

It was only much later that man found the advantages of having a patriarchal God.

 

But I wonder what was lost in the process?

 

My question for you today is:

Why don’t women rule the world & what would happen if they did?

 

Let’s take a look at our closest genetic ancestors. The Bonobos & Chimpanzees. These curious primates share 99% of our DNA. Chimpanzees live in a patriarchal society that is rife with violence & confrontation. Intruders are dealt with in a harsh & hostile manner & there is much infighting amongst the ranks. It is a society that in a lot of ways sadly mirrors our own: males clamouring for power and position & in constant conflict with one another for who can possess the most bananas.

 

Now let us look at the Bonobos. Scientists hypothesize that the Bonobos or pygmy chimpanzee came about when the Congo River was formed nearly 2 million years ago. The two sets of chimpanzees were separated by these waters & their fear of swimming. But the Bonobos on the southern side of the river developed into a matriarchal society. They are peace loving promiscuous creatures & their society is free from the hostilities of their aggressive cousins.

 

How strange that basically the same creature can behave so differently when ruled by compassion & not conflict.

 

Elephants live in a matriarchal society. that’s why they never forget anything!

 

& what about bees. One of the most productive & advanced societies the world has ever seen. A colony happily ruled by Queens. Take away the queens & we are left with drones & a lot of angry stingers. Put the Queens back in and we get lots & lots of yummy honey & violet crumble bars.

 

Which would you rather??? A No Brainer, really!

 

& then there is the humble jellyfish, thought by many people to be asexual. But scientists have just discovered that male & female jellyfish do exist. It’s just that when the usually flaccid male jellyfish becomes aroused they tend to sink to the bottom of the ocean & drown; thus leaving the female jellyfish to happily float about on top. Actually, I just made that one up, but really what’s a jellyfish going to do with a penis anyway???

 

So, that’s about it from me. I feel I have well & truly proved my point. Women are by far the greater species. More advanced in every way than their hairy & brutish counterparts. Without them men would still be living in trees & playing with their own bananas!

 

Who would dare not agree with me…especially today

 

Happy Mother’s Day xx

 

 

The Risen One

 

 

The Risen One

 

Quaint, familiar

Breaking like any other day

No premonitions of what it would bring

 

No heralding to the new king

 

In the sleepy town of Le Cateau-Cambresis

Located on the far tip of France just near the Belgian border

 

New Years Eve 1869

Birth was given to the new world order

 

Freedom, Expression

Fauvism’

Art

 

He tore the doctrine of their stolid regime apart

 

In Morocco they say Matisse painted the Sun

He gave colour to the Moon

 

Ethereal

No; human

Crayon coloured light

Bold contrasts of Reds, yellows & whites

Ones filled with violet, orange, lilac, green & cerise

Paint me a new world Henri Matisse

A landscape filled with colours

Stark, shocking, and innocent

You make things beautiful

The ordinary wonderful

The droll magnificent

 

A perspective built on perception, of burning glowing light, of vitality

He understands what the canvas longs for, what it doesn’t need

The necessity; its’ organs, the colours it yearns to bleed

 

He feels

He simplifies

With intuition, emotion

He reduces form to a line

He strips it bare, back past bone

Back to its essence; then he dazzles us with his brilliance

His effervescent shining light, the singularity of his vision

 

The significance of his heart

 

 “Without Passion, there is no art…” * Henri Matisse (1949)

 

*********************************

 

I despise being contained by rules & regulations when it comes to my poetry.

Don’t get me wrong…I don’t dislike structured forms of poetry. Sometimes I love writing like that. I actually have quite a thing for Iambic pentameter, Shakespearean Sonnets & Spondee’s. 

 

It’s not the structure I have a problem with, it’s the mindset…

 

I was once told by an English teacher that poetry was just a particular amount of syllables arranged in a particular way & the art of it all was making something new out of them. Nothing more!

 

It made absolutely no sense to me. I felt she had missed the point of poetry & thrown the baby out with the bath water. To me, that’s the talk of a lion that’s lived far too long in the zoo.

 

To her I say, “There’s life outside the bars! Welcome to the jungle, Sister!!

 

The first ever poet didn’t know of rules. There were none. They wrote simply because something divine was singing in their heart. This is poetry: that spark, that essence of something intangible. Something invisible. A poet’s heart should never be defined unless they lose that most fragile of all essences – Passion!!

 

Imagine if you will a magic spell. Is it the form and structure of a spell that is important or is it the power of the magic it creates. Some people would tell you it’s the rules.

 

I tell you it’s the magic.

 

a classically trained poet with a university degree. a broken hearted teenager warding off thoughts of suicide. a parent expressing unbearable grief at the loss of a child. Shakespeare whispering words of wisdom or honeyed love. It doesn’t matter who wields these words or in what format. If they speak them with honesty & genuine emotion they will always resonate true. Beauty is found in its most poignant form when accompanied by an honest and innocent heart.

 

No mathematical equation relating to words will ever disguise this. The essence of poetry is what matters…nothing else!

 

Some people may call me a beast for this, but I say that puts me in good company.

 

Henri Matisse & his ‘Fauves’ are a great inspiration of mine. Roughly translated ‘Fauves’ means the wild beasts. The name came about because of a remark from an art critic. At the first showing of their work a Parisian art critic pointed to a sculpture by the great Donatello nearby & was overheard to say, “Donatello au milieu des fauves!” which meant “Donatello among the wild beasts!” The group of artists took the slight & turned it into a badge of honour & proudly called themselves ‘The Fauves”.

 

I love the fact that they did what they wanted. They defied the establishment, lived life on the edge & set their own rules. They dared to paint things the colours they wanted. For eg: grass could be red, the sky could be purple, the clouds orange, etc… It was all about intuition & freedom & up until then it was unheard of. The establishment hated it. It was brilliant & outrageous. & So Very Very Cool!

 

I adore Matisse. I love his work. He dazzles my eyes with his colours. He was so bold…he painted with his heart. He coloured this world with the brilliance of his soul.

 

I guess what I am saying is this:

 

Listen to that voice that dwells within your heart. Follow it! Fight for it!

 

Paint the skies purple even if the rest of the world tells you that they are blue!

 

& To Yourself Be True!