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Sunday, 17 May 2015

SPIRITUAL POEMS INSPIRED BY OLD SAINT PAUL'S



                                                                 
                                                             


Here are some of my more spiritual poems. I have attended Old Saint Paul's Church, just below Edinburgh's Royal Mile, since 2005, The music and spirituality during High Mass is most uplifting and I let my mind float into other spaces.


                        TO MY AUNT GLORIA (A modest adaptation of 'May the road rise up to meet you')

                        MAY THE ROAD RISE UP TO MEET YOU (Youtube video)

                        ODE TO UNCLE JOHN

                        AN ODE TO SALVATION

                        IN PRAISE OF THOMAS TALLIS

                        MOTHECOMBE BEACH

                        THE GARDEN AND THE LAKE   

                        THE PETER AND MARY TAVY TIME PIXIE

                        THE THAW AND THE REVIVAL (with Nicola Romanski)

                        THE THAW AND THE REVIVAL (Youtube video)

                        TO CATH (with Thomas Tallis)

                        THE MORAL HIGH GROUND    

                        IN THE MORELL HIE GROUN  ( Scots tongue translation by Scott Forster)

                        TO IRENE WATSON  

                         LEIGHANNE

                         THE MAYFLOWER ROSE (Youtube video)

                         WHEREFORE DENNIS? (Youtube video)

                          MY DARK KNIGHT




                                                   

                                 Gabriel, the Dark Knight of Heaven, by Hugh D'Arcy


                                      FOUR GUEST POEMS COMPOSED BY MY FRIENDS

                         THE TYGER by William Blake, Scots tongue translation by my friend
                         Scott Forster (honoured by Scottish Language Centre)
                       
                         MY HAPPINESS GOES LIKE THE DYING LIGHT by Scott Forster
                         (Youtube video)

                         WAKE UP MY SON by Lindsay Oliver (Youtube video)

                         IT WAS THE MAYTIME BLOSSOM OF OUR LOVE by James Carter
                          (Youtube video)





                                                        DOUGHNUT GROYNE

                                                        

                                                        Thomas Hoskyns Leonard

                                                                19th April 2015


                                           Two hundred yards west of Brighton Pier,
                                          
                                           Have no doubt, have no fear,

                                           That's where in my will I'd said

                                           Should they my ashes spread.

                                           So south from Embro did we go
                                      
                                           To stay in Wayne's Place in full flow;

                                           And on the first dark night Brighton Beach

                                            Like a delicious peach did we reach;

                                           And two hundred yards did we pace

                                            To see where I'd kick the trace.


                                            Lo! What a coincidence did we perceive

                                            There on a drystone dyke stood a doughnut brand new

                                            A sphere turned into a torus

                                            Through which the world to view

                                            As if through the eye of a brontosaurus.

                                            Two hundred yards west of Brighton Pier

                                            No further and yet no more near

                                            Stood that immortal groyne,
                                        
                                            Worth ever the zillionth coin;

                                            The doughnut a Universe in itself

                                            Under the gaze of a big green elf.

                                    
                                            'My grandson will spread my ashes here' I sighed.
      
                                            'In sight of what's left of the grand West Pier.'

                                            But behold a mightier coincidence, in the skies!

                                            'There's the International Space Station!' Thomas cried

                                            And the bright light above like Beth'lem's star did shine

                                            As Venus herself to the right sipped wine.

                                            And I to my good Lord gave praise

                                            Since here to the Pearly Gates would he me raise;

                                            And my Resurrection would my dear relatives faze.

                                            Oh happy, happy Heaven.

                                            Here comes the once rustic lad from Devon.

                                            Shot of his limp, his haze, and his temporizing

                                            To a grand new dimension bravely rising

                                            Renewed zest and joy forthwith enterprising.

                                          

                                          WISHING YOU A VERY, VERY, VERY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY
                                                                    Thomas Tallis
                          

                          Three birthdays ago we met;
                          A new friendship, full of arguments
                          Discussion for hours and hours
                          Endless poetry,
                          All the time moulding ourselves
                          Into the hardened nutcases we are today
                          I’ve learnt a lot from you in many different ways
                          From Statistics to not accepting second best
                          But I’ve so learnt how to see the real Tom behind all the illness
                          How he is crazy and so full of charisma and ideas
                          As much as we argue every single day about anything at all,
                          I’d never change a thing
                          We are as we are
                          Love Tom Tom

                          Written on the occasion of Tom Leonard’s 67th Birthday
                          24th March 2015
       

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