Temple of Solace

Even when you wander in the darkest caverns       

Fall into despair and are blind to life   

Never give up;

Take the hands of those who walk with you

In the spirit of friendship and love;

Invite peace into your heart, 

Look out for the light                  

Dip your soul in its glory.                             

Jan                                                                                                                                                                  

I have just discovered the peoms of James Still,
a back-woods Appalachian, self-schooled Bard
with many thoughts of Solace from half a century ago.

embrace, my friends … words of simple earth

papa

…………………………………………….

Through the stricken air, through the buttonwood balls
Suspended on twig-strings, the rain fog circles and swallows,
Climbs the shallow plates of bark, the grooved trunks,
And Wind-pellets go hurrying through the leaves.
Down, down the rain; down in plunging streaks
of watered grey.

Rain in the beechwood trees. Rain upon the wanderer
Whose breath lies cold upon the mountainside,
Caught up with broken horns within the nettled grass,
With hoofs relinquished on the breathing stones
Eaten with rain-strokes.

Rain has buried her seed and her dead.
They spring together in this fertile air
Loud with thunder.

One of the many statues at Sakin’el
is of an Angel playing a flute –
knocked off a table by a nuzzling cat.

I have attempted to glue and fix
the broken wing seen lying there –
but have surrender to art over form
and syncrosity.

Now, one might muse a note or three
whether the wing has fallen off,
or is waiting to be affixed,
and whether the tune is of joy
or of a minor cord.

I once wrote — perhaps in vision …

“ then is the entire purpose
of man’s existence,
to provide the means
for angels to fly?”

and

“When one considers how angels swing about,
tethered by Agreement strands to Council,
and drawn by human compassion and delight,
but paced by Current call to other Light;
it is a wonder that they don’t collide
or and least suffer a wing – ding or two.”

but I am always drawn to Poe’s Israfel,
posted here in case you know it not.

faucon
………………………………………………………………………..
ISRAFEL
by Edgar Allan Poe, 1831

In Heaven a spirit doth dwell
As the angel Israfel,
And the giddy stars (so legends tell),
Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell
Of his voice, all mute.

Tottering above
In her highest noon,
The enamored moon
Blushes with love,
While, to listen, the red levin
(With the rapid Pleiads, even,
Which were seven,)
Pauses in Heaven.

And they say (the starry choir
“Whose heart-strings are a lute”;
None sing so wildly well
And the other listening things)
That Israfeli’s fire
Is owing to that lyre
By which he sits and sings-
The trembling living wire
Of those unusual strings.

But the skies that angel trod,
Where deep thoughts are a duty-
Where Love’s a grown-up God-
Where the Houri glances are
Imbued with all the beauty
Which we worship in a star.

Therefore thou art not wrong,
Israfeli, who despisest
An unimpassioned song;
To thee the laurels belong,
Best bard, because the wisest!
Merrily live, and long!

The ecstasies above
With thy burning measures suit-
Thy grief, thy joy, thy hate, thy love,
With the fervor of thy lute-
Well may the stars be mute!

Yes, Heaven is thine; but this
Is a world of sweets and sours;
Our flowers are merely- flowers,
And the shadow of thy perfect bliss
Is the sunshine of ours.

If I could dwell
Where Israfel
Hath dwelt, and he where I,
He might not sing so wildly well
A mortal melody,
While a bolder note than this might swell
From my lyre within the sky.

Fourteen Black Paintings

From the pain come the dream
From the dream come the vision
From the vision come the people
From the people come the power
From this power come the change

From Peter Gabriel’s CD – “Us”
other healing lyrics here:
Peter Gabriel – “Us”

Imogen Crest – Hermit

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

–Leonard Cohen, Anthem

thoughts on the
playful light waves
to where it is darkest
in this the universe

taking with them
our thoughts
prayers and wishes
light and enlightenment

entwining forever
all from a lit candle

aletta

Heather, This is an exerpt from a book titled ‘Theres no such place as far away ‘ by Richard Bach which has always brought me great peace, and I offer this in the hope it may for you too. I truly believe theres no such place as far away

  ’ I cannot go to be with you because I am already there. …………………you have always lived; you were never born and never will you die. You are not the child of the people you call mother and father, but their fellow adventurer on a bright journey to understand the things that are. Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever and we’ll meet ……….in the midst of the one celebration that can never end.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

 

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

 

Amen.

 

~ Reinhold Niebuhr

O precious ones, so have I accepted our Brother Darryl into the arms of the priests and priestesses of Avalon, this son who waits for his beloved yet is with her forever.

 em

we awoke in the puerile dawn to the sounds
of a harp playing — drawing us up and out,
and we arose to greet the Sunset
of your Celbration.

It was our Raven,
with the other three cats in attendance …

He does indeed pluck the strings with tooth and paw

so then Emmie joins him in a duet for Branwen

and of this joining I mused a bit –
that all invitations are to a joining,
as is each life well lived …

and when I see a frowning dawn,
I shall have a “Darryl Moment” –
and remember that somewhere friends
bask in a glorious Sunset …

and when the evening sky roils in storm
I will sense a joining once again –
a “Darryl Moment” of Sunrise
in memory of tomorrow
and hope for yesterday
cycled
eternally …

and with my Grail of Creativity thus refilled
I know of the Elixer oft sought –

and sit down to write again

The Bards at Sakin’el

I have piggy backed my spirit
to the little sparrow
which wanted so much to take me

to be with friends
to celebrate
and
to send

a friend on a voyage
while making sure
his beloved is
well taken care of
so he need not worry

’till the moment she joins you
once more to
ride together
through a million
other adventures

till then,
in person or in spirit
we will be there for her
so do not worry

till we meet in eternity
go on the wings of all our blessings
to prepare the way,
you have earned your peace
we will dry her tears
hold her hand
and console her
do not worry
ride on

aletta

One globe, two hemispheres – a world apart. Today, of all days, across the world I send waves of strength and affection. I wish you a quiet heart and peace of mind. In this small gesture I walk with you in spirit and as always look up at the stars and hold you in my thoughts. You have known the exquisite joy of love – it will be with you forever.

Love,

Jan                                 

Heather–while you are surrounded by friends, and sending Darryl to his next ride, Kent and I showed Darryl the Potomac River in Winter. Riders are never strangers, they are just friends who haven’t met yet. I took some pictures, and one of them is below. The others are on a page on my website. It’s not a page accessible to the public, you’ll have to use this link: Darryl’s Long Goodbye. For people who want to cut and paste: http://www.quinncreative.com/id35.html

Kent waved goodbye as the Wolf Moon grows into the Snow Moon.

What is lost,
Oft returns.
Replaced
in life renewed

What good fortune,
Mankind can,
Hold memories,
Unchanged.

All who once
lived,
began a legacy,
now ripples through eternity.

aletta mes

I look from my sunset outward to your dawn,
but a heartbeat away ….

may this song send Darryl on his way

faucon
………………………………………………..

Rider of Sunset Dawn

There are those who embrace the Silent Breeze
and those who would curse the weather,
but the Sunset Rider laughs into the wind,
bold hand on the throttle and kiss for the heather.

For he is of the Sunset Dawn
astride a steed of surging steel;
and days blur past in memory
of full life and love one must feel.

There are those who see only darkness ahead
with fear o’re what new days might bring,
but this lad races by the Black Knight of dread,
to challenge Bright Dawn on its wing

For he is of the Sunset Dawn
astride a steed of surging steel;
and days blur past in memory
of full life and love one must feel.

There are those who will just wait for tomorrow
in hope of better things by right,
but his scarlet scarf proclaims the joyful day
for besting those fears in the night.

For he is of the Sunset Dawn
astride a steed of surging steel;
and days blur past in memory
of full life and love one must feel.