Rhythms and Rituals

RHYTHMS AND RITUALS

1 The colors of evening, now color the sky
Signal of passage to night
and the hills in the distance, silhouette and fire,
sundown’s now radiance of light –

CHORUS: Rhythms and rituals, now, life all around
Sharing our lives with the Earth –

2 The colors of the city, now, light up the night,
viewing from mountain on high,
The buildings, the people, their daytime jobs done
Merge in the stillness and flow into One –

Passage of time/ now/ feelings inside
Forever flowing within,
Expansion of ecstasy/ now/ moments in time
Great Mystery in all our lives –

3 We’re coming together, now, evening’s embrace
sharing our feelings, our day –
It’s a game – it’s a dance – it’s a sharing of time –
it’s a rhyming, a ritual, and it’s yours and it’s mine

CHORUS: These rhythms and rituals, now, all in our lives,
Sharing our life with each other –

4 Time is now bending, journey of dream
Voyage to distance of stars
Wonder of universe – Earth rising up,
brightens the view from afar

Repeat 1st verse and chorus

***Are we living as co-creative partners with all the abundant life we have on our fair planet?

 

It’s Only Rain

IT’S ONLY RAIN

It rained all day
and through the night.
The wind was fierce
in the night,
seemed to moan,
and the flags outside
were whipping around.

All this rain,
is it Mother Earth crying
when she is loving us
with so much blessing?

Is she crying over
how we’re losing interest
in being her stewards,
wanting rather to explore
the unknown desert out there
in our universe?

Is she crying
or am I only imagining?

Because, get real,
It’s only rain.

Richard Evan MacKay

Love in a Minor Key

[A song written for the Columbine Shootings in Colorado
– now a seemingly ongoing tragedy]

1. The pictures on the news – are tragic and sad.
All those young people – all laying there dead.
Emotions well hidden – except to show hate.
Two people in illusion struck out on that day.

Chorus

Love, where are you going?
Love, where have you been?
Do you have a song to play
for all these young friends?

And where’s education
bureaucratically amuck?
Have these lives uncovered
the blind spots where you’re stuck?

2. You’re now calculating the terrible cost,
all the emotion and all of the loss.

So what is the lesson, the lesson to heed?
What is the lesson? – What is the need?

3 Now, where is the healing? – Where has love gone?
As we all feel the bleeding, is there a new dawn?

And the song that is playing is playing for thee.
The melody playing – is love in a minor key.

4. Now, love’s full of passion, but love’s full of care.
And love’s full of healing – when love is there.

And the song that is playing is playing for thee.
The melody playing – is love in a minor key.

Richard Evan MacKay

On Education for a Planet

On Education for a Planet
Some brief notes on my perspective.

Let’s create a GROUNDED COMPREHENSIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM IN OUR SCHOOLS with music, art, creative writing, and a balanced physical education program without overemphasis on competitive sports.

If I’m the EXPLORER TYPE of individual then I need heavy emphasis of math and science (left brain stuff). If I’m the STEWARDSHIP TYPE, which we sorely need on the planet, I need the arts, the natural sciences, language development, communication, and other things the explorer types shun.

What are your thoughts on this?

Oh That Energy

Oh this energy
that I feel inside of me
Oh, I want to feel
feel this energy.

Feel the river that flows
see the candle that glows
feel the wind that blows
all this energy.

Oh, this sea of energy
is all around me
that I cannot see
Oh, this energy.

Poetry and Incremental Repetition

The distinction between poetry and prose

“Valery…..said that prose was walking, poetry dancing.  Indeed, the original 2 terms prosus and versus meant, respectively, “going straight forth” and “returning,” and that distinction does point up the tendency of poetry to incremental repetition, variation, and treatment of different themes in a single form.

 

Howard Nemerov

Parkland, Florida – My Perspective

My perspective as a Wise Elder and Writer

This incident of violence in our educational system, I believe, reveals more than just the problem of gun violence.

Our society has many contradictions and social problems.  In the 60’s we all looked at these and came up with some novel solutions, like Civil Rights legislation.  Love was something that one manifested in their actions in society.  I remember seeing some posters called “Listen Christian” posters that helped move the church into more social action; it catalyzed love in compassionate action.

 
Love in the 70’s seemed to become ‘turned in’ to be with only your partner or your immediate family.  My perspective, however, is that additionally we need compassionate, conscious structural love in business, in government, in education, and in all aspects of our society.  This may seem overly idealistic, but I think it is possible if we create a new mindset.  Right now, socially, our society seems to be divided on what actions to take; we aren’t functioning as a United country.