Music, Videos, Poetry that Gets Us Through

This is from James Broughton- a Beat poet and Radical Faerie:

An Easter Litany for Trees

Harken, fresh saplings on Easter morn!

To ensure your perennial resurrection

affirm your faith in the miracle of green

by repeating yearly this credo of renewal:

I believe unconditionally in

the one impossible truth

the two doors of perspicacity

the three windows of the unthinkable

the four corners of the boundless

the five pillars of insecurity

the six towers of pointlessness

the seven roads to the vanishing point

the eight capitals of bewilderment

the nine arenas of intrepidity

&

the ten palaces of impossible wisdom

wherein are kept

the original designs for the world’s trees

the original score for all birdsong

and the master blueprint for the first

explosion of springtime

Be true to this faith all your budding days

and ye shall branch    blossom    and be leafy

to the joy of all creatures

as many times as there are Easters.

— James Broughton

HAPPY EARTH DAY! AND HAPPY ADMINISTRATIVE PROFESSIONALS DAY! ? ??

ps: today is 04 22 2020 = 4 4 4 !

@coyote

Oh man... !!!** (Your post from March 22: '' Outbreak " *)

Just re-reading this beauty .... ?

Thank you!!! ?

To honor our beloved Earth Day, and the New Moon that is such a harbinger of new beginnings, and all of our Wishes going forward my sweet friends .....

" There's magic in the air ...

You may hear

The soft tinkling of tiny bells

On a sudden breeze

That carries a rush of fireflies

Into the velvet midnight

To disappear in a molten thread

Of silver seeds

Whose unborn promise

Is a meadow of starflowers "

( This came to me one April in the not-too-distant past, and I've posted it before, though today it seems to resonate even more ?)

Hi I'm new to the forum from the Land Down Under, but I have been following your site for over a year. I had not realised that it was Earth Day yesterday, but as I was getting ready for bed last night, a song popped into my head that I hadn't thought of for many years

Bless the Beasts and Children by the Carpenters was one of my favourite songs growing up and I think it's appropriate for Earth Day

I held Earth Day in my heart all day yesterday. It's a wonderful thing to have been alive for the first one and even more so for her 50th. But of course that's only in this man-made construct of time, space, and our "sensing" of this reality and not real in the greater scheme of things of all there ever was, is now, or ever will be.

I was 20 years old for the very first earth day and  a thousand miles away from home and family in college. Much was happening all around me. It was incredibly new and exciting. Every single day, every single moment was alive and breathing with so many, many new things, new experiences,  new emotions and most of all new acceptances and learnings.

To be this very quiet, very deep and happy and always smiling young person--still a girl truly-- and not yet feeling the beingness of coming into womanhood. To be alive and welcoming and so very excited by even the newness of tiny things was surreal yet always just my "new normal" for then.

Because the next day brought newer experiences, newer new normals. Normal didn't mean anything at all even if i knew what normal was supposed to mean or me. It was easy to accept that i was not anyone else's "normal". I was me and i loved the blessing of this huge huge gift of going off into this very,  very different new world.  

Growing up in an isolated and land locked part of Alaskan where just flying south to the lower 48 was like entering a different world and flying in was considered the most dangerous approach and landing in the U.S. with only the pilot's visual abilities providing access to conditions below we just did all things bravely.

Qne didn't question or really even fear the experience just the roar of things coming to life and taking off and into new horizons We would just do, just cope, just accept each and every new experience as it was.

I should have been afraid but it didn't enter my awareness. I was raised with challenges and obstacles and the unknown--even death simply by riding "out the road" with my dad in his rattle trap old company truck was that day, the best, most exciting thing in the world. Especially if he had the money to buy us each a frozen treat out of the freezer chest at the grocery store!

We had 25 miles of road to to get to the end of what i should have seen as the end of my world. But i didn't. We reached the end of that old gravel road and it was exciting and accepted and enjoyed that as 25 miles was considered a huge amount of driving. Then we turned around and came back. There was only one way to do that with no alternate roads of any kind yet available. Yet the ride back gave me a up close and personal view of the other side of the road so even that became new and exciting!

I realize now how amazing that life was for me. My whole world was based on the earth, my earth as i knew her. It was living and thriving and surviving but without fear in nature. We were taught where the bears came out, where we had to be alert and careful and what to do if one charged us or attacked us.

I was never afraid to go there with my family as we did every 2 weeks. It was where we picked wild blueberries and the only place we had to dispose of the family garbage.

Doing brave things in nature and relishing and being excited and filling myself up with her breathing, living, ever changing energies just was. Feeling the existence if other earth beings as alive and part of me and all there was..that just was. I was curious about ancient burial grounds of the old native ones and felt them around me. Now i can see and feel the emotion known as fear that i should have felt, should have not perhaps been drawn to or not chosen to open to. Nothing bad happened when I did . It was just very very curious and different and i wondered if it was "real" or part of my amazing inner life of my own creative imaginings!

The earth was a part of all of us. The winds and the sky and ocean seas and rivers and lakes and waterfalls and the mountains rising on both sides of my in between all things and absolutely all and nothing else but all life. 

To celebrate "earth day" at age 20....50 years ago!...wasn't a blip on the radar of my life in my memories  I probably just wondered why people in the "south" needed to to create a specific day to celebrate what always just was. 

Happy Birthday Great Mother. Happy Birthday yesterday, today and all of your tomorrows!  

@stargazer

I've re-read that essay several times, and each time I do it gets more powerful.

@coyote

Yes! It resonates on so many different levels .....

Coyote, this is something you may want to check out, given your Native American affinity .... the Western mind doesn't understand it too well I've found, tho nonetheless it's kind of fascinating  ?

*The Heyoka Empath* of the Lakota Sioux tribe heritage ...

Hope you are having an uplifting day and keeping in good spirits dear one .... ?

@lolo57

Welcome to our forum! Delighted to meet you-- a fellow traveler bringing to our earth day fireside one of their truly poignant earth and heart merging as one ballads. 

Simple words and melody creating at its heart both a prayer and a plea for remembrance of the unity of all things beginning with the most sentient--the gift of consciousness of both the beasts of all kinds both wild and domesticated and the children of all kinds--both very young and very very old.

I am 70 years old but always and forever a child still loving, laughing, learning and growing in the vast wilderness of this never ending story of our earth and all her many children.

Thank you and many blessings for this lovely remembrance and connection to the heart and music of the decades of love we all brought forth for oh those many, many years ago! 

And continuing in the spirit of this time in our lives i am remembering the beautiful gift that was given to the world in the poetry of the universal spirit at the very heart of Desiderata, often just known as "You are a Child of the Universe" written by Max Ehrmann 1927

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant, they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let not this blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.

Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore, be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, 1927

Historical Postnote:Max Ehrmann (1872–1945), inspired by an urge that Ehrmann wrote about in his diary:

"I should like, if I could, to leave a humble gift-- a bit of chaste prose that had caught up some noble moods."

Conventional belief is that Ehrmann actually wrote the prose himself and copyrighted it in 1927.

Around 1959, the Rev. Frederick Kates, rector of Saint Paul's Church in Baltimore, Maryland, used the poem in a collection of devotional materials he compiled for his congregation. At the top of the handout was the notation: "Old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore 1692."

In the 1960s, it was widely circulated without attribution to Ehrmann, sometimes with the claim that it was found in Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore, Maryland, and that it had been written in 1692 (the year of the founding of Saint Paul's).

This created a lot of confusion about the prose poem for many, many years.
Nevertheless, the estate of Max Ehrmann has kept various editions of the work in print. And the family is considered to own the copyright to the poem now known as Desiderata.

Watch: a lovely You-tube version, set to the music of Paul Schwartz. 

Thank-you for sharing that poem.  It says so much.

It's time for a little "Randy Rainbow":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDPzbLFeP4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1sZzSyrACQMKcB3Q6D1W4zfErv9_FX_tQOlFa5W_Rkpk3yotnmqqN3pPM

@deetoo

I was just about to post this one, it is awesome and he did it so quickly!

Just a Spoon Full of Clorox 

@lovendures, I had a feeling you'd be the first to respond!  He is such a talented guy.  

Pete Seeger would have been 101 years old today. In the late 50's, he wrote a song that had lyrics taken from the Bible's book of Ecclesiastes.  The Byrds released a version of this song in 1965.  It became a #1 hit, the song with the 3,000 year old lyrics from King Solomon:

          To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, a time to reap that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain that which is to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time of love, and a time of hate; a time of war, and a time of peace(I swear it's not too late)

Here is a newer version of Turn! Turn! Turn!, with lyrics written by Pete's wife, Toshi  https://youtu.be/RkUldreCyZU

@unk-p. Thank you for posting this treasure.  So wonderful to remember the song, the lyrics and Pete Seeger.  I loved the Byrds' version and I love reading the words knowing how old they are. 

@unk-p, I love that song.  It reminds me to not hold on too tightly, let go, have faith and remain hopeful.  Simply beautiful.  I grew up with the Byrds' version.  It always uplifts me.

@jeanne-mayell, @deetoo   The Byrds version has always been one of my all-time favorite songs.  I hadn't heard the newer one until today- i just landed on it "randomly", after listening to other stuff.  As it was playing, someone said something, and then i realized that today was Pete's birthday.  The whole thing really cheered me up, so i thought it should be posted.  I am glad that you enjoyed it, too.

One of my favorite singers in the world (and in my opinion one of the best singers currently on the planet) is a young (26 at the end of this month) Kazakh singer named Dimash Kudaibergen.  He recently did this song, which is the main theme for an Italian movie called Creators - The Past.  The film is a science-fiction/fantasy story that is the writer's fictional interpretation of why the Great Planetary Alignment of 2012 didn't seem to have much of an effect at the time.  The movie was supposed to have been released in March but was postponed due to the current situation.  Although made in Italy, the film is entirely in English and it looks pretty interesting if you like that genre (I do!).  Anyway, this is a video of Dimash singing the main theme against a background of scenes from the film.  If you don't know who he is or haven't heard him before, you're in for a treat! I'll put the lyrics here because there are a couple of minor places where they aren't clear.

Here's the link first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9efIWFhD8a4

Sad eyes lost
Into the dark
I miss to tears
The source of my creation

My soul free
From space and time
Ready to ride
Across endless dimensions

So fly me high
And hold me tight
From empty days
To light

Show me stars
Oceans of love
Show me the way
To reach the core
Of my life

So fly me high
And hold me tight
From endless deserts
To light

Take me home
Back to my soul
Give me gold wings
So I can touch the sky

I thought we could use some comfort and inspiration for the times we are in:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOmPql0GBRI

The Prayer

(performed by Chris Mann and Katharine McPhee)

I pray you'll be our eyes

And watch us where we go

And help us to be wise

In times when we don't know

Let this be our prayer

When we lose our way

Lead us to a place

Guide us with your grace

To a place where we'll be safe

La luce che tu hai

(I pray we'll find your light)

Nel cuore resterà

(And hold it in our hearts)

A ricordarci che

(When stars go out each night)

L'eterna stella sei

Nella mia preghiera

(Let this be our prayer)

Quanta fede c'è

(When shadows fill our day)

Lead us to a place

Guide us with your grace

Give us faith so we'll be safe

Sogniamo un mondo senza più violenza

Un mondo di giustizia e di speranza

Ognuno dia la mano al suo vicino

Simbolo di pace, e di fraternità

La forza che ci dà

(We ask that life be kind)

È il desiderio che

(And watch us from above)

Ognuno trovi amor

(We hope each soul will find)

Intorno e dentro a sé

(Another soul to love)

Let this be our prayer

(Let this be our prayer)

Just like every child

(Just like every child)

Need to find a place

Guide us with your grace

Give us faith so we'll be safe

È la fede che

Hai acceso in noi

Sento che ci salvera