Wednesday, May 25, 2022: Here Comes the Sun: Poetry and Song Circle, 7 p.m.
May 1st is celebrated in different ways in different places, but a traditional ceremony that has undergone a revival is Maypole dancing. A group of dancers, usually both male and female, dance to interweave ribbons around the tall pole (in older times sometimes a ship’s mast), and then reverse the dance so that the weaving is undone. There are many jokes, of the “nod, nod, wink, wink” variety, about the erect pole, but one very interesting interpretation is that the pole is symbolically transmitting the Sun’s energy to the soil. As the ribbons interweave, the energy is concentrated, and then, as the ribbons are unwoven again, the Sun’s warmth is spread far and wide, to the benefit of Earth and its inhabitants. On some medicine wheels, May is the month where yellow yields to red; interestingly, the zodiacal sign of Taurus the Bull presides over most of the month, and bulls, as we know, are irresistibly drawn to the colour red. Another interesting symbol of the opening to warmth and community: that May 1st is International Workers’ Day, a symbol of working people joining together in the service of community and social and economic justice.
If you’re inspired by May’s theme of the arrival of warmth and community in life, (whether that warmth be compassion, gratitude for Earth’s gifts, passion for social justice, or whatever) bring a poem, song or reading inspired by this focus. But, of course, as always, you are welcome to bring in something on a totally different topic, or just to come to listen and be nourished.
Facilitators: Hendrik de Pagter and Chris Bullock. Zoom host: Barry Hunt. Coordinator: Chris Bullock. Description copy editing: Hendrik de Pagter.
Topic: Rescheduled Poetry & Song Circle Meeting: Here Comes the Sun
Time: May 25, 2022 07:00 PM Vancouver
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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82308978000?pwd=UVVjMzVBeEV5bjRLSG1XcVpsYnRWQT09
Wednesday, April 13, 2022: Foolishness and Letting Go: Poetry and Song Circle, 7 p.m.
There are lots of theories about how April Fools Day originated, but no certainty about its origins. So we could invent a symbolic history for it, and say it represents the fact when you are letting go of the old and experimenting with the new, you risk looking foolish. The implication is that if you can’t risk looking foolish, then you’re stuck in winter and will never find spring. This is why there are so many wise fools in folklore and literature, fools who make fun of ego, pride and pretentiousness. Shakespeare’s plays are full of fools, both wise and otherwise. The wisest is the Fool in King Lear; the tragedy is that he never manages to persuade the King to choose love and authentic expression over ego, false expressions of love, and outworn tradition. But it’s possible to risk foolishness. Annie Dillard, the brilliant nature writer, risks it when she is running down the road singing and windmilling her arms and suddenly sees a stranger approaching; she decides to ignore his possible judgment, and her career as a writer seems born at that moment.
If you’re inspired by this theme, bring a poem, song or reading about being a fool or letting go. But, of course, as always, you are welcome to bring in something on a totally different topic, or just to come to listen and be nourished.
Facilitators: Hendrik de Pagter and Chris Bullock. Zoom host: Barry Hunt. Coordinator: Chris Bullock
This session is exclusively on Zoom at 7 p.m. Zoom link:
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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83205959303?pwd=V0QrZFZ4dmZuRlh0akpvOGkvN0R6QT09
Wednesday, March 16, 2022: Wind and Change: Poetry and Song Circle, 7 p.m.
March is a month full of saints’ days, notably those of St. David (March 1st), patron saint of Wales, and St. Patrick (March 17), patron saint of the Irish everywhere. But two of the lesser-known March saints are remembered in this traditional rhyme: First comes David/ then comes Chad/ then comes Winnold/roaring like mad. St. Chad, patron saint of dispute resolution (!), is known for always falling to his knees at times of strong winds, and praying for them to subside. And St. Winnold is the patron saint of wind, with which March is often associated. Wind has a number of symbolic associations. As an invisible force with very visible effects, and a force linked with breath, it is often taken as an image for Spirit. Poets and songwriters have seen wind as symbolizing abrupt and radical change, both outer and inner. In poet Ted Hughes’s “Wind,” a couple “feel the roots of the house move.” In songwriter Cheryl Wheeler’s “Act of Nature,” “The wind came round and blew this place apart,” the place being both her town and her relationship.
If you’re inspired by this theme, bring a poem or song about wind and /or radical change. But, of course, as always, you are welcome to bring in something on a different topic, or just to come to listen and be nourished.
Facilitators: Hendrik de Pagter and Chris Bullock. Zoom host: Barry Hunt. Coordinator: Chris Bullock
This session is exclusively on Zoom at 7 p.m. Zoom link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86249619155?pwd=M042QS9icjNkZ2xWbzFBRkVJRlVWdz09
Wednesday, February 16, 2022: Waking Up and Singing Out: Poetry and Song Circle, 7 p.m.
February has been described as the month of Nature’s alarm clock. Everything is starting to stir and come alive in this month, despite its often gloomy weather. And who’s the patron saint of this month? The popular choice might be Saint Valentine, but what about the claims of Saint Blaise? You might ask: who’s St. Blaise? St. Blaise, whose saint day is celebrated in early February, is celebrated for his removal of throat obstructions. What’s that got to with waking up? The answer lies in some lines from COT Poet Laureate, Barry Hunt, who writes: in February there is “the impulse to wake/the impulse to rise and sing/from the highest branch of our hearts.” If you’re inspired by this theme, take singing in its broadest sense, and bring a poem or song about awakening, and/or expressing the new. And, of course, as always, you are welcome to bring in something on a different topic, or just to come to listen and be nourished.
Facilitators: Hendrik de Pagter and Chris Bullock. Zoom host: Barry Hunt. Coordinator: Chris Bullock
This session is exclusively on Zoom at 7 p.m. Zoom link:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81562848003?pwd=UkhkVHByemZKejRBNUdNU2xpQTJsUT09
Wednesday, Jan 19, 2022: The New Year’s Wild Bells: Poetry and Song Circle 7 p.m.
“Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky…The year is dying in the night/ Ring out, wild bells and let him die” are the opening lines of a famous poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. (The whole poem is below). In older times, it would be church bells, rather than fireworks, that announced the New Year. What could this image of “wild bells’ mean to us, in the present time? Do bells symbolize anything that wakes us up to newness? Are they wild because they’re waking us up to our intimate connection to the wild world of nature that sustains us? Are they the wild bells, wild energy, of Spirit/Creator? Or are bells a symbol for our own expression, and our need to ring out, to express and not hide our light? (In many places, it was the tradition to muffle the bells that rang out the old year, and to remove the muffles for ringing in the New Year.) Or should we be paying attention to the kinds of social and compassionate changes mentioned in Tennyson’s poem? If any of these themes inspire you, you are welcome to bring in a poem or song –yours or someone else’s–on the topic of New Year. But, as always, you are welcome to bring in something on a different topic, or just to come to listen and be nourished. (By the way, the poet who presides over January is Robbie Burns, whose birthday is celebrated on Burns night, January 25. So Scots poems might also be relevant.)
Facilitators: Hendrik de Pagter and Chris Bullock. Zoom host: Barry Hunt. Coordinator: Chris Bullock
This session is exclusively on Zoom at 7 p.m. Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85726973193?pwd=YUdIWmxUVG80cm83aUhoM0xRcHFHUT09
RING OUT WILD BELLS
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1850)
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.