1. |
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When The Cyclone Sheds Its Skin.
Before the storm cloud gather,
We hear the mission bells,
With the camel driver’s grandchild
Who reads the stars and dives for pearls,
Where the cyclones are foretold.
It is the time when reptiles mingle,
In the sun on river stones.
Old Man watches sea snakes spin,
From a tide rock in the harbour,
When the cyclone sheds its skin.
We will find safe harbour
Before the north wind swirls.
Seabirds rise in the southern sky,
Behind the waves, they see red sails,
Where the cyclones come to die.
When cyclones are foreseen,
Bells toll the storm cloud weather,
When the cyclone sheds its ties,
The elders find safe harbour,
Where cyclones go to die,
We meet where eagles gather.
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2. |
Light The Candle
07:36
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Light The Candle
I moved my chair in closer,
I saw the flame that warms your face.
I felt my wounded skin raw,
From another woodpile,
From another place.
And ever since we talked there,
My dreams have flowed like water,
In a world more calming and more kind,
And now I know a door has closed behind.
(chorus)
I will light the Candle,
Then you shall lower the blind,
Let us make some shadows
For these walls to find.
Then in this quietness
There is kindliness lying here.
Through the whirling winds
Of human passion
We each have followed beyond reason,
We now are resting here.
This sweet magic that is about us
Rises from the earth floor,
I will take in through my skin cells,
This time will last for evermore.
This moment’s flame of life surrounds
And holds like it is forever.
How can we ever leave
These moments made together.
The love in this house, these walls,
The room, the window and the view.
When I turn to face the distance,
In my mind, very close, there is you.
The grass on which I will step,
The softness under my boot.
The sharp stones at the edge,
Crumble the wood mulch underfoot.
The rooftops hold their secrets,
The whispers settle into breathing,
The windows stare differently now,
The stark reflections are receding.
The old souls tend their pot plants,
Let many seasons enclose them,
No need to flutter comfort with papery hands,
My nerve ends have retreated.
We are living and dying all the time,
We come close then we move further,
It is the life within us now,
Which burns, we see in one another.
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3. |
This Is A Sacred World
04:01
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This Is A Sacred World
In this logical family,
She rubs oil into her own foot
As if it is beloved and precious,
A miracle of existence,
And, in this way, it is.
The hands of God, the paws of God
The feathers and the claws of God,
The branches and the leaves of God,
The sand and the rocks of God
This is a sacred world.
If you believe in a loving God,
And in that image you are made,
Why wait for the world
To give you a chance
For you to have your say?
Why take yourself with defiance
To the minds of pride and fear?
Speak with strength preserving calmness.
It is only one small part
But it is faith and hope you offer.
Take the wind and fly with love,
Swim the tide, immerse with love,
You the beloved child of God,
We are all a logical family
Who live in this is sacred world.
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4. |
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5. |
Tai Chi Forest
08:34
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Tai Chi Forest
Jue Yin, you cling to me,
Tendrils curl and close,
Your shiny skin leaves float and spread,
They decorate then hold,
I feel justified, complete.
I am Shao Yang I strain my strength
To rise up to the light,
I stretch and twist, I yearn I reach.
I shove with all my might
Jue Yin with your tendrils
You cling and you entwine
You squeeze, then drain me,
I reach then I am bending,
I am the tree and you the vine
I cannot leave we are now bound,
While the others grow so tall.
Always I will remain Shao Yang.
I will struggle then I fall.
Jue Yin you have found a clearing
With the sun’s rays you are blessed,
I can see your glowing leaves
Gleaming quietly in the shelter,
And within this space you rest.
Shao Yang you are reaching to the sunlight,
And that is where you shine,
I climb around to take the warmth,
And then I make you mine.
Jue Yin you were never mine,
You are what I can never be
An illusion I have made,
I stretch I strain I never sleep
Yet I have made a dream.
I stand alone when I feel strong,
Then I yearn to be complete.
I lean, I reach out to belong,
When you cling, then I am weak,
Shao Yang though entangled,
Through the forest we will find
We will know the way to go.
Tell me is it really you the tree
And is it me the vine?
I come to covet, comfort, cover,
I yield then grasp and climb,
I can protect and I will nourish
We are one and then the other,
We are both the wood, the vine.
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6. |
Crown Of Thorns
06:52
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Crown Of Thorns
The Crown of Thorns, a heavenly choice
For this blue green eggshell world.
Shall we rise to embrace or descend to pierce
This earth, where we are gently held?
Let it always be that the Dreaming sings me
Melodies come by drifting on the sand,
While frangipanni blossoms fill me,
In the breathy, salty air of this captured land,
Still, the Dreaming sings me love songs on the horizon.
A glowing image sunset of a world that is safe.
You, the Dreaming, sought me, eucalyptus fragrance
Sent calm to my torment from across the waves.
The burdens of the day seem harmless in the ocean,
In this place of shelter, forever let it be.
So, the Dreaming calls me, from a thousand generations,
To my three generations, who came from over the sea.
The coral reef is dying from warming of the ocean,
And the seas are rising from this climate change,
Gas wells and coal mining on the Great Artesian Basin
Which holds the ancient water of this plundered place.
I will walk lightly, as if I have been dreaming
In a glassy blue green ocean, floating on our eggshell home.
I see the clouds of heaven reflect our fragile being,
The Crown of thorns reminds me of what there is to come.
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7. |
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Kill The White Ghost Street
From Warehouse Wetland Love Boats,
Where daughter and whore is the same word,
Flown in from the South Byzantine Sea,
Do you think that they love you like a friend?
These men who sell you their grandchildren,
The ones chastely cherished and of value?
The ones savoured before release to market?
Each generation appearing more like you.
From the punters who had gone before,
Rolled in a carpet, flown to your doorstep.
Smooth supple skin, on this brittle flesh, yours,
Feather hands that flutter down.
This is what they learn, their eyes lock on,
Dreaming of honey song boys, they will not meet,
Trained like sleek kestrels, seeking carrion,
On Kill the White Ghost Street.
Chronicles capture, hold you to ransom,
Posed by others, like selfies in bed, star lights,
A stage room cage, rent by quarter hours.
Pink hearts wait for you, on their final flight.
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8. |
Taken By Owls
05:42
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Taken By Owls
I wish I had been taken by owls,
Flying through the dark solstice night
To another time and place,
Where the trees interweave their branches,
Where they have grown
With a thousand summers to feed them.
To be swept up with my mad mouse mind
In one stealthy feathered sweep,
Before the fatal squeak,
To gaze at the night sky,
Stars with their extended display
On this clear chilly stage.
What rocket fuel have I been breathing for all these years?
Their rainbow vapours merging with my mind,
Colouring the way the world appears.
I only have to know my own mind
To know how mad the world can be.
Is it Capital’s proud march that I humbly tread
Till, with fear and resignation,
I took a path where I stumbled, blindly led
Oh dear leader, I have voted for you with my life,
Is this the moment when my loved ones die?
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9. |
Jewel In The Crown
04:01
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Jewel In the Crown
If we perish, if we perish,
We were not silent, for this time.
Song a refuge, for the stolen,
Song a refuge, jewel in the crown.
Earth a crown, we are the jewel,
At the crossroads, our survival.
Emergency, a world in peril,
Insurgency, let it be a vigil.
In our cosmos, life from creation,
Blue water sphere, gathers clouds,
Clouds on fire from pollution.
Zero hour, our milestone.
In our mind’s eye, illumination,
In our heart, will be a solution,
Emergency, a world in peril,
Insurgency, let it be a vigil.
If we perish, if we perish,
We were not silent, for this time.
Song a refuge, for the stolen,
Song a refuge, jewel in the crown.
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10. |
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The Gaze That Casts No Hook
Sometimes this city strives for cruelty,
Creates the ways and means on which we can survive.
We follow the pathway, not looking sideways,
In case we see the fallen, on whose misfortune
We all thrive.
And then our turn comes, to be the fallen,
In one of the many ways we can stumble in our lives.
We will go quietly, with our shoulders rounded,
We are facing downward, with a gaze that casts no hook,
At the others passing by.
Then we see into a mirror that reflects no earthly light,
We see our face reflected, a flickering smile forms in our sight,
We feel this glow emerge as it rests upon our skin,
Soothes like balm upon our shivers,
Warms the soul within.
We look out with a gentle gaze that confirms our worth,
Then we know what guidance we follow on this earth.
The mirror that shines inward is revealed for those who look,
And we smile at one another with a gaze that casts no hook.
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11. |
Where Cyclones Go To Die
04:56
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Where Cyclones Go To Die
Where cyclones go to die
Is where we take these wretched ones
And hurl them from the sky.
They will fall as specks of dust
Where the cyclones come to die.
Byiri, Sai Mui, our sisters,
We come at your bidding,
Your stains and your burdens,
With this deluge uplifted.
In sailing boats you hug the shore,
Then at night go home,
If you sail the south trade winds.
Then you may never return.
Forever, behind the next wave,
The duck faced boat waits there.
Then release the faded red sails,
They will rise to the wind and unfurl.
Following the path of clouds,
In fear of shipwreck, we tremble.
Guided by the monsoon winds,
The currents and tides we travel.
Around the compass headwinds guide,
Toward a spiralling rendezvous,
And when the doldrums hold the tide
The red sailed ships are marooned.
Stranded in the light of the sun,
Encircled, our thoughts uninvited.
Promises and prayers console
Then, with action, we are enlivened.
So come to the desert and, as in the sea,
Conjure the quietness to evade,
Follow the caverns of the ghost reef,
Like in the movement of the waves.
The Ghost Reef caves are revealed to you
When you wish to be hiding,
Limestone tunnels to conceal you
To choose when others can find you.
For the desert sustains and is holding,
Will let you know when it’s time to leave,
Kept secrets while others were counting
Their hundreds of centuries.
We will be in the Ghost Reef desert,
You will choose who will be lost,
We will make brittle grey spirits,
Winds have crumbled and have tossed.
The times will shift soon my sisters,
Still now, we listen, vibrations started,
Metal upon metal, a crack in the air,
The sky is torn, thunder created.
Tap tapping with the tempo,
Say a prayer then no surrender,
Vibrations pulse the air,
Meet the metal clap of thunder.
We will clap and tap the rhythm,
The water motion it creates,
Our actions flare like fire and wind,
Reflected on the lake,
With storms above like those below,
There will be division for a time,
Until morning sun will light the clouds
Here, where the cyclones come to die.
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Gladsome Throng Sydney, Australia
Gladsome Throng, the coming together of the poetry and voice of Valerie Cameron with the soundscape of Robert Cumings, is greater than the sum of its parts.
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