Pause

Would there be art
if we did everything
a well as we can

Let life mimic
every note of music
every line of verse
each brush stroke on canvas
every strike of the chisel
(notes on marble)

pause in our lives
(we step away)
looking at reflections
in mind and memory
missing what we did
long for what will be
will it to be art
past tense is practice
the future a dream
every day now
minutes and hours
(ours to love)
hold and let go
each a moment
to give a gift
to life

Photo: Sculpture / Vienna Art Museum / by gfs 10/2019

Divine Intervention

I think it is appropriate considering what transpired on the coast of France 70 years ago today, to talk about Divine intervention as a question that comes to mind in many instances, cases, and places in our lives and human experience.
We are often compelled to ask the question as to whether or not the Divine presence in our world had some input into the circumstances that have come our way in our days and nights.
Stepping back a moment to the origin and the definition: Divine – of, from, or like God or god. Words make things difficult, and what is even harder here is defining God or god. In the Hebrew the word is not spoken, cannot be spoken, hence the use of Yahweh, in the Tao it is said that the Tao that can be spoken of is not the Tao. In Quantum Physics, there is the uncertainty principle, and concepts like Schrodinger’s Cat. So to distill this down into words, is difficult if not impossible, but you, as the reader should be getting the thoughts I am reaching for, formed in your mind by now.
There is an ancient concept that says – Energy follows thought. So along these lines it is not hard to imagine that we as thinkers are directing a significant amount of energy in whatever direction our thought life takes. The simple act of reading this is concentrating energy in a direction that matches the frequency of other readers and creates a harmony in nature, whether we see it or not.
As an example, one of the most magnificent constructs of civilization is the great cathedrals, and all of their smaller byproducts we call churches, and places of worship, as they are literally instruments, including the organ music, that allow us to congregate and direct our thoughts together in one direction. Each person’s thought harmonically magnifying the next, until there is a great confluence of power that can manifest itself in what has been called Miracles. I choose the word harmonically for a reason, and offer the example of the wine glass shattered by the the voice or a sound amplified and directed at it. It is a physical example of the principle of harmony, although in this case it is destructive, not constructive.
Do our thoughts then have power, and given that question what do they have to do with divine intervention, and the choices we have in our life? It should be well known to you that this is a free will universe, and with that, should come the understanding that divine intervention, needs to be qualified in relation to our wills, against the background of the will of God.
So with these statements of fact, I have to leave you, the reader to draw your own conclusions, lest I create controversy, and distract form the intent of this message. Is there divine intervention in our lives, or do we create it with our thoughts.
One picture sticks in my mind from my youth; Watching the movie War of the Worlds, based on the HG Wells story. As the world is being shattered by the Martian invasion and there seems no hope left anywhere, what we see are cathedrals and churches packed with people, all united in a prayer for deliverance from this destructive, conquering power. Not long after, the Martians begin to fall, and the Earth is delivered.
A real life example I saw recently on the news was a school teacher in Moore, Oklahoma during the destruction that took place there in 2013. She was sheltering with her children, and during the moments of the storm’s most intense fury, cried out – Enough! This has to end now! And it did. Was this divine intervention, and was this divine intervention a construct of the harmonic power of thought?
…In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God…

Image: http://classic–movies.blogspot.com/2011/06/war-of-worlds.html

The Cellist of Sarajevo

Clamoring, broken bits of the ages
Cities laid down, crumbled broken bricks
Of life gone mad and fraught with fear
and others strange retiring

What would peace ever mean
if music fell to notes unheard
Would love bring back the reasoning
Undo the rage of broken hearts

Once the light of love took up
A city’s chance to ask us all
If echoes of an ancient song
would pose the question left unsaid

Through ruined streets for days on end
One soul inquired, time again
and from the silence in the hills
in echoes came the answer

Love returning with the Dove
when given voice in empty streets
ears will know the music of
the spheres as one the heart reveals

Whether legend or true – The Cellist of Sarajevo – who sat in the streets of a city for days on end, being shelled from the hills, and never being shot at or disturbed in his performances, is a testament to the human condition where opposition takes a back seat to the knowledge that music points the way to the soul and the Spirit that unites us all through the Heart of Love. I felt on this Valentines Day, considering that Sarajevo was a site of the Winter Olympics before it was laid low by war, we should recognize that regardless of our differences, one person, one soul incarnate, can show to us, that we all came from the same place, and we are all going to the same place, regardless of the definitions we attach to it. Through music we have a universal language of Love ….

The flood that raised an icon

Carnegie Hall is perhaps THE greatest institution of music and performing arts in the world, its beginnings are often obscured by its artists accomplishments and its performances. Look at Wikipedia and the story begins; Carnegie Hall was built in 1891 financed by Andrew Carnegie …

The reality is, this wondrous palace of the performing arts is built on the foundation of the guilt laid down in the mud of the flood at Johnstown, Pennsylvania in 1889. I came across this information vicariously, while watching ‘The Men Who Made America’ on The History Channel.

Andrew Carnegie, was without a doubt a brilliant man, a visionary who could see things developing around him, manage finances with dogged determination, and skillful at building partnerships. He was however intensely human, and born into an age, that could drive a man, contrary to scripture, to be in the world and of the world.

As Carnegie rose in wealth, he started to develop something of a complex at only being the second richest man in the world. Let me repeat that; ONLY THE SECOND RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD. John D. Rockefeller was the richest, and regardless of the goodness in Carnegie’s heart a rivalry ensued that would ultimately bring devastation to Johnstown, and the rise of Carnegie Hall.

Driven to become the richest man in the world Carnegie felt he needed an edge, and decided to find a partner who was driven in business, ruthless, who would drive his steel business at a pace that would bring him to the pinnacle of wealth, and leave John D. in second place – maybe forever.

Henry Clay Frick turned out to be that man, and while he did enrich Carnegie’s fortune, like most men of his ilk he also enriched his own, putting his own fortune, and wealth ahead of Carnegie’s. As his wealth grew Henry Frick started looking for a place to flaunt his riches, and that place turned out to be – The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club – Frick would invite his wealthy friends to join as members and to spend their weekends and holidays there. He would spare no expense on the club and his visitors. The club was built along the shore of Lake Conemaugh, held in place by The South Fork Dam, and below it was the city Johnstown, PA.

What is known for sure is that the only money for the improvement of the dam that Frick provided was for a road along it to provide access to the club, lowering and weakening the earthen structure. On Friday, May 31 1889, after several days of unusually heavy spring rains, at 3:10 in the afternoon, the dam could no longer support the weight of burgeoning lake. It collapsed in a matter of minutes, sending 20 million tons of water down the valley straight toward Johnstown, only 14 miles away. On that day 2,209 people lost their lives. The largest single loss of life in one day on American soil until Sept 11, 2001.

It is said that Carnegie never spoke to Frick again after this, and was filled with such remorse that he couldn’t work, or face the public for a long period of time. In 1887 he met and married Louise Whitfield and on their honeymoon voyage to Scotland the seeds of Carnegie Hall were planted. On that trip he met Walter Damrosch, who had just finished his second season as conductor and musical director of the Symphony Society of New York. Damrosch raised an interest in Carnegie to build a music hall in New York. On May 13, 1890, nearly one year after the Johnstown flood Mrs. Carnegie cemented the cornerstone in place, Carnegie spared no expense in its construction.

It is said that this was done to assuage Andrew’s guilt for what he had allowed Frick to do to the people of Johnstown, and it is not hard to imagine, that any man with a heart who had wandered from the path would feel compelled to do so. It is also not hard to see how the people of Johnstown helped to build Carnegie Hall … Perhaps though, we have given it the wrong name …

References and images:
http://www.carnegiehall.org/History/

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/sfeature/m_partner.html
https://grandfathersky.wordpress.com/?p=3668&preview=true
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Hall
http://www.history.com/shows/men-who-built-america/about

her song

was it a song
how could a tone
a memory, a voice
fade all the world
and bring me back
to the living

what simple notes
that fingers shed
from ivory and string
wrap around the heart
bring back the breath
like a kiss

sweetest music
somewhere on the wind
so sang the heart
so cried the eyes
tears are shared
as ages pass
she sang real good
for free

When we dance

when we dance
stars revealing
crystal skies
in midnight blue

holding you
arms enfolding
paints a story
in the mind

circles turning
round about
dizzy dreaming
speaks the truth

love was meant
to be for us
always waiting
for the time

music takes us
to forever
moments memories
lost in form

in my soul
our story lingers
colored now
and evermore

Photo: nature.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/294464/

Angel of music

How does the music call on the wind,
in waves of delight for all I can hear.
As each fuller tone builds into presence,
alight by the magic of notes in my ear.

How would I know the cry in the forest,
becomes the soft tune of joy that it is.
Forever as answers tell of the blessings,
of truth in the fruits of all she can give.

The balance of nature alive in me still,
breathes in the echoes of ev’ry sweet word,
all that is rhyme or e’er came to be,
began in the voices I’ve not ever heard.

So in Angel’s music I know I can find,
the face of beauty lifted in voice,
into dreams I forever become as I grow,
by the sound I will learn there is choice.

Here will I live inside sweetest tunes,
to reflect all I am and will ever become.
The moment revealed as lessons in loving –
returning me always through life into one.