From our Christmas as The Birth Of Truth evening with Ayaz Angus Landman and bard Gayan Tony Donaghy.
You can watch the recording here - https://youtu.be/rUEDfhn4mwU
Poetry from Ayaz Angus Landman
Winter Solstice
Writing poetry at dawn
Is my favourite time
When light and its absence
Thin each others veil
The owl in the dark wood
The moon a silver fox
And in the East
The fine line of gently fretted sky
The gap between us
Then
Is just imagination
So full of gaze
And tenderness
What else is there to do
In response
But blossom?
The Birth of Truth
Trees don’t follow convention
By filling themselves with stars
In winter
Nor do songbirds
Gather in pews
To sing the dawn chorus
No
Truth is what shows up
At the crossroads
Where time and space are crucified
Crucifixion
Don’t forget
Is not about something that happened
To someone else
On a dusty hill a while back
But to you and I
Here and now
The question is
The question is
Can you and I
Stand still long enough
To have ourselves be reduced
One sorrow at a time
Reduced into a rich sky
That can like the trees
Fill itself with stars
And behold itself
New Born
Weather like Truth
Weather like truth
Is what shows up
Where I am
The sun is always
Shining
And clouds pass
Show up
Stay put
And all will be
Revealed
Middle Age
The crazy autumn artist
Mixes colours
As if she had
Nothing to lose
Uninhibited cascades of gold
And rusty iron reds
Tumble into borders
Of yellows and purples
Touched by daring pink
As if to say
No matter what I do
I cannot get it wrong
Such wisdom
Don’t you think
When summer has left us
For good
No Edge To Truth
Expand the vessel
Widen the embrace
There is no edge to truth
Love lives us in widening circles
From the inside
Sooner or later
We will all come to see
This is what the Great Master
Meant
When he said
The least of you
Shall be greater
Than I
Knowing Nothing
I almost know
Enough
To know I know
Nothing
And should say
Less
True wisdom
Like the sky
Has wide enough
Arms
To hold all
Forgive all
Bless all
Lullabies
As a poet
I try
Not only to
Give you wise words
But to sing you lullabies
You see in the end
None of us will
Ever understand
But we can all be melted
What Does It Matter What is True
What does it matter what is
True?
What matters is where
I am tender
Tenderness is like a whisper
From the depths
A warm breeze
That still smells
Of yesterdays roses
Reminding me
I am still alight
Smouldering even
With the fire
You put in me
So long ago
Ready at any moment
To burst into flame.
Never Answer Questions
Freedom
Is not about
The locking and unlocking
Of doors
But the discovery of
The Internal Sky
Not a place even
Or an experience
Call it perhaps
The gap between
Things
Where nothing
Is true
To come to know
This
Watch birds
Stargaze
And never answer
Questions
Poems also featured:
Rilke Let this darkness be a belltower
Robert Frost Stopping by woods on a snowy evening
O Lord, my heart is not proud,
nor haughty my eyes.
I have not gone after things too great,
nor marvels beyond me.
Truly I have set my soul
in silence and peace;
at rest, as a child in its mother's arms,
so is my soul.
End Song: