The Past Is Present

By John Stuart

This is the latest book in a series that began in the late 1990s.

Throughout this sequence, there has been a movement away from the personal

and confessional to cultural and social observations.

 

The first section, sharing is a representative selection.

Then follows a Lamma

• Language: English
• Publisher: jkspublishing
• Release date: May 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9780645784237

John Stuart

John Stuart was born and raised in the Rainbow Region near Byron Bay,on the Australian East Coast. He has spent most of his working life there,renovating property, playing sport, exploring paths and byways.In later years there was a collapse and transformation, from which came the sharing series. This book defines a distint emergencefrom within to without.Selections from this material have been presented on ABC and Commercial radio,in restaurants, pubs and on retreats in this region. This was very well received.The Gallipoli sequence featured here formed the basis for a video, Coming Home,used by the Turkish Embassy in Canberra on Commemorative occasions.

Book preview

There are moments

in this broken conversation,

when the chattering is not cliché,

the words lose the meaning they never had,

when we understand more than we know,

dreams dissolving in endless space,

and all that is, is mindless grace.

artart

I am, what I do is me,

for that I came.

I am the arc of flesh that is your breast,

the strength that your arm knows,

I am the maker and the made,

the question and the reply.

I am everything I have ever done,

everyone I have ever known,

I am sunlight on a broken column,

more distant and more solemn than a fading star.

I am the beauty of the world,

this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,

I am a perfect love,

the murmur of underground streams.

I am part of an idea,

a dream within a dream,

a forgotten piece of music,

a fragment of lost words heard long ago.

I am Hamlet and Beethoven,

the words and the music.

I am the thing itself.

artart

We see in the East

the hope of the dawn,

we see in the West,

the setting, forlorn,

but what we see is what we make,

it’s the world that turns,

for God’s sake.

The person coming towards me

is the one going away,

the East and the West are as one, I say,

and living and dying, all as one,

for birth doth touch the resurrection.

artart

sharing

One,

becoming,

in seeing to find,

the always divine,

in one flower, one tear,

in one drop of dew,

a graceful embracing

of the universe of you.

artart

Your birthright

What if?

You leave the past

and accept your role,

without protesting,

you go with it

but without control,

destiny, accepting,

seeing and perceiving,

events in the making,

being and believing,

truth in the taking,

your integrity in testing,

true self manifesting,

if you choose to never lose,

what is here in living light,

what is now,

your birthright.

artart

Do you remember?

Chasing butterflies/and climbing trees,

tumbling and falling, scraping knees,

the caress of wind in empty space,

your first love then loss, to fall from grace.

Birthday parties and measuring time,

understanding, trying to define.

In the present now in all that seems

from this a future, creating dreams,

becoming what you were, what you are,

the flowing flame of a falling star,

what you have been and will always be,

the truth of your life, your destiny.

artart

Karma is coming

Everything equalises and balances,

maths and morality,

beauty, depravity.

We are,

the words of Shakespeare,

the music, Beethoven

the hate of Hitler,

the sins of Stalin,

the triumph of Trump.

Democracy at work,

media madness,

fear and ignorance,

a lingering sadness.

The hollow crown empty,

cursed insanity,

devoid of love and hope,

our humanity,

But this cycle will pass

as we cleanse our soul

with universal truth,

pure and wholesome, whole.

artart

Scottish/Australian singer and songwriter, Eric Bogle, responded privately to this item.

Hi John

Very well structured, very evocative and, unfortunately, very accurate. But imbued with hope, which at present I am finding it increasingly difficult to share … I am all Trumped out, and increasingly offended and disgusted by the cruelty and racism of most social media outlets, mindless crucifixion and vilification seem to be their main goals … I am retreating to cloud cuckoo land, I’ve stopped reading newspapers and watching any news on TV, I’m going to give my soul a rest for a while. I may dip my toe back into reality at some time in the future or I may not … keep writing poems, they are small fragments that help equalise and balance.

Kind regards,

Eric

art

Eric Bogle

On a quiet afternoon

Approaching my friend, sitting in his front yard.

Gidday mate, how are you? I asked,