The Hymns of Arcanus (New Edition): And Other Poems (New Edition)

By Steven Parris Ward

Revealed in a dream, the angel Arcanus observes the sufferings of mankind on Earth, and offers with its tears, hymns of condemnation and consolation. These carefully wrought poems represent a complete cycle, focusing on the spiritual, religious, environmental and political issues that have sometimes troubled the people of this planet.

The angel Arcanusis the poetic representation of mankind's higher faculty- the faculty of the Imagination- the unity of love and reason, and that which is expressed in compassionate behaviour. The poet callsfor the awakening of this higher faculty, and for the human race to fulfil its realisation throughaltruistic behaviour towardsallliving creatures on this planet. The awakeningwill result in agreater unity and harmony with the cosmos as a whole, free from the limitations of the ego, and itsimpetus to dominate for its own sake; adesiretodominate, whichhas characterised the human species to date, causing suffering both to itself and other life forms.The faculty of Imagination, and the activity of compassion, represents the next stage in human evolution, and its awakening will enable mankind to develop beyond its currentmental and spiritual limitations, and the perils which plague it. The poems represent allegories addressing these issues and intimate the means by which we might continue to progress.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Dec 28, 2012
• ISBN: 9781479768349

Steven Parris Ward

N/A

Book preview

The Hymns of Arcanus

(New Edition)

Image6140.JPG

(and other poems)

Steven Parris Ward

Copyright © 2013 by Steven Parris Ward.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2012923841

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4797-6833-2

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4797-6832-5

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4797-6834-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

0-800-644-6988

www.Xlibrispublishing.co.uk

[e-mail]

305638

Contents

Preface

Prelude — Lacrimosa (the angel’s tears)

‘The tears of condemnation’

Humanitas

De Harmonia Mundi

Before the Seventh Seal

The Leviathan

The Flight of Icarus

The time shall come when God the tree…

‘The tears of consolation’

Thanatos

De Anima

Fragments on the Sun and Moon

The death of Hyacinthus

Epiphany

The mystic marriage

Coda: The angel’s prophecies.

The Ballads on Stars and Sorrow

Lesbians

Visions

On the art and death of Rudolf Nureyev

Mist on Lake Windermere

Eulogy for an unnamed girl

The Penitent

Love Sonnets

Love’s Mistress

Love’s Kindness

Love’s Name

Love’s Measure

Love’s Offspring

If love a cynic leaves

Love’s Vows

Love’s Parting

Love’s Testimony

Love’s Philosophy

Love’s Philosophy

Love’s Power

Love’s Gift

Love’s Forbearance

Cold stars bear witness

I Bacchus

Poets, Prophets, Pariahs, Thieves

Sympatheia

In Memoriam: Ezra Pound (on holy ground)

Night scenes from the past whilst on the road

Nijinsky

On the Memory of her voice now departed

She led me down the garden path.

Fragment

Appassionata

Strong arms—so rest your gentle head

Frontline

The Days of Wrath

On meeting a beggar boy in Calcutta

Still Life

In Praise of Spring

Palingenesia

By Friston Wood

Ode on Sleep and Dreams

Image6148.JPG

Preface

Who or what is Arcanus? Arcanus represents the hidden strata: the private musings of the poet; the hidden intuitions confessed and given conscious realisation as these poems. Arcanus is also the angel who bears witness to the sufferings of mankind. The personified angel represents the hidden, latent, more evolved aspirations of humankind. The spiritual faculty: characterised and enacted as compassion. A more evolved consciousness, as yet not fully realised, which remains partially fulfilled. Its transcendence and its position, separated as it were by the silver bars of heaven, is not merely an implication that the divine is powerless to intervene in the affairs of mankind, but also, that mankind has yet to fully realise its own more developed levels of divine-like consciousness. It is a subconscious faculty perhaps, which is as yet not fully realised in consciousness. In this respect, Arcanus’ position is one placed beyond, yet within, as a potential and unrealised faculty. Unlike the angel, mankind’s consciousness is predominantly rational, and the faculty of compassion remains but partially enacted. It thus has yet to evolve to a complete realisation of the immediacy of the angel’s presence, or to the productive fulfilment and practical implementation which such a more developed state of consciousness would bring.

Man’s existence on this planet may be defined by numerous characteristic and sometimes conflicting impulses. The most personal is the need to survive. The most universal, however, is the desire for order. This is the nature and impulse defining the drive to self-realisation for Man. In Man it has been manifest in the construction of civilisations, religions, philosophical theories, as well as scientific fields of endeavour. In these few examples, it is evident that Man has sought, and continues to seek, the fulfilment of the drive towards self-realisation. It does this by attempting to make sense of the world using the faculty of reason. Discernment has led to an imitation of what is perceived. This has led to practical implementation. But it is only Man’s own limited perceptions, and conflicting desires, which cause it to construct imperfect examples of what it considers to be order. In this respect, its history to date can be characterised as one only of a development of reason in conjunction with the ego. Ego may be defined as a purely individualistic impetus, which seeks only to fulfil its own immediate concerns and needs: an attempt to impose its own perspective of what constitutes a superior order on existing orders. It has most recently been apparent in terms of a purely technological, scientific advancement. It is the disharmony resulting from this perspective of order, and its attempted imposition, which has resulted in conflict with the natural world, and which may eventually bring upon it the seeds of its own destruction.

Arcanus is a