The Corries --- Peat Fire Flame

The Corries --- The Great Silkie

Ladysmith Black Mambazo - O mmu beno mmu

Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Nkosi Sikelel 'IAfrica

Quiet Grass, Green Stone, Dean Young

I love when out of nowhere

I love when out of nowhere

my cat jumps on me

and my body isn’t even surprised.

Me who wants to be surprised by everything

like a dandelion

like a bottle cap

cricket cricket.

I keep waiting for the god under the anthill to speak up.

I keep waiting for the part of the myth

where everyone tunrs into a different bird

or the reeds start talking

or horses come out of the ocean

in their parliamentary regalia

and cities grow from their hoofprints.

I keep waiting for the bugle

and the jackal-headed god to weigh my heart across the river.

All this daylight in just a few moments

pours itself into darkness. More and more

I’m satisfied with partial explanations

like a fly with one wing, walking.

Lost in the Milky Way, Linda Hogan

Some of us are like trees that grow with a spiral grain

as if prepared for the path of  the spirit’s journey

to the world of all souls.

It is not an easy path.

A dog stands at the opening constellation

past the great helping hand.

The dog wants to know,

did you ever harm an animal, hurt any creature,

did you take a life you didn’t eat?

This is the first on your map. There is another

my people made of  the great beyond

that lies farther away than this galaxy.

It is a world that can’t be imagined by ordinary means.

After this first one,

the next could be a map of  forever.

It could be a cartography

shining only at some times of  the year

like a great web of finery

some spider pulled from herself

to help you recall your true following

your first white breath in the cold.

The next door opens and Old Woman

counts your scars. She is interested in how you have been

hurt and not in anything akin to sin.

From between stars are the words we now refuse;

loneliness, longing, whatever suffering

might follow your life into the sky.

Once those are gone, the life you had

against your own will, the hope, even the prayers

take you one more bend around the river of sky.

deep loneliness

my voice

and me

falling back

inside

through gates

of throat

and soul

and skin

falling

into silence,

not the death

of words

but

the bed of birth,

buds and growth

inside,

within

cycles of blood

and of breath

a sound from stars

Schubert Fantasie for violin and piano in C major D 934 (Full)