See how
We find ourselves
On the very cusp
Of learning
How it’s the experience
Of just being here,
Joyfully in the moment,
That dissolves
Any disconnect.
As we meld together,
Again and again,
In our own self-made
Shafts of sunlight
That can so easily
Survive succumbing
To any melancholy
Along the way.
And with
The very best
Of intentions too.
At least, in our hearts,
Having been this once
To heaven!
How you bless me still…
For what is it
We’ll ever leave
Behind us in the end?
If it is not the best
Of ourselves
In each other.
The heavy weight of history
Directly abuts
The promise of tomorrow.
Come what may though,
Even spears, as they will…
I cannot help
But be laid bare.
For mine’s a quest,
As yet unabandoned,
To be pure.
And all the while,
Being led that way too,
While the rarest of promises
Still cavort in my soul.
Just as it was at
The very beginning,
Whether pierced by joy
Or fear,
My own wounds to date
Focal points of emotion,
Now glowing red raw again.
Enduring transmissions,
Without which
One would surely have to
Start over again,
Without any narrative of hope,
Nor glimpse of heaven
Or twist of pain.
Disturbed as we are
By greed and vanity,
All the while
There is so much else
Here for us,
An abundance of triggers
Into both light and depth.
Far beyond
The gentle balm of faith
And the comfort that brings,
A huge and unimaginable love,
An iridescent vignette
Of sheer beauty.
And, slowly but surely,
We are being pulled in,
As one episode
Follows another
On our transit.
Gradually becoming wedded
To something,
The purple light of divinity
That we call God.
As, step by step,
In trying to understand love,
We become fearless.
Bold fires
Within us now
The run of many waters
Cannot quench.
Graced with the chance
To be here,
Even if only fleetingly,
Embrace
Whatever comes your way
And, in so doing,
However enchanting
Any treasures
You uncover might be,
Their loss
Should never be your concern
Scott Hastie’s poems in his sparkling new collection Threads are witty, chatty, sensitive, solicitous… Like a loyal friend and brother conversing, as a sympathetic observer of folk and the world about him. A sagely philosophic commentator on his own poetry, on questions of life, and indeed on some of the vexing, unsolved problems of existence. His poetry shows him as a lover, a sage, a mystic; but above all just another human being fearlessly exploring every possible dimension of a spiritually evolving soul.
Whenever you can conjure
The stillness to notice,
There is
A sense of the ancient
Hanging in the air.
A lingering spiritual fragrance,
Full of knowing,
That dresses
Contemporary journeys
Like ours.
Scott’s poetry engages a meaning-making process that underpins our understanding of the world more broadly and he is simultaneously creating and investigating this meaning. Creation entails something new, never before considered, investigation entailing something that already exists to be investigated. His words therefore sit on the precipice of a paradox, threatening us with a relative state of weightlessness and quickened understanding. Scott’s poetry is not abstract philosophy, but grounded in our bodies; the “metaphors we live by” extend from our physical experience with each other and the world around us.
Scott has always been a man of few words and his every word certainly speaks volumes:
That sense of a voyage
Slips seamlessly past,
Though there is a beginning;
An end to everything.
The reality is so eloquently put – deeply philosophical and spiritual in this deceptively simple extract. We can also consistently see a metaphysical fervor – in the notion of “Carpe diem” which looms so large in his poetry. The gathering in of moments of life that are so fleeting, suggesting the ephemeral quality of life, as in Robert Herrick‘s “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” which beseech readers to live life to its full potential, singing of the transitory nature of life itself:
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
We all have our own voyage to carve from the moment we enter this world and death is always our shadow. However Scott is never shy of cajoling all of us to seize every opportunity and live moment to moment to the fullest… To capture it in our being and then reiterate the process so as to derive on going nourishment for the soul on its voyage. As the law of nature goes, all physical entities have to die and come to an end, but not the soul which the poet shows us forever needs to be replenished, unabating with life’s zest.
In “Every new dawn” his readers are showered with abundance, optimism and positivity, showing us the way he feels life is best perceived:
Every new dawn is a flitter,
A speckled film
Of light and possibility,
Upon which
Even the saddest
Amongst us
Re-materialise daily
As nothing if not indefatigable
Creatures of hope.
Here there is ineffable and perennial belief in life in these challenging times, coming from a sensitive and knowing soul. His words scream of unrelenting hope and repeated emphasis on the importance of freedom to an individual’s intellectual and spiritual development. Freedom to make choices- the choice to be happy, the choice to keep things simple, the choice to say “yes” to life and the choice not to let your spirit be dragged down.
The precious insights gained by reading Scott’s words are powerful enough to be a surrogate of the human experience itself; the same embodied processes that make human experience meaningful make engaging in this, his poetic experience, almost as meaningful! The philosophical nature of his words building so profoundly on this poetic perspective and very specifically too, with the gathered knowledge of human experience. Scott’s poetry has real moral and social value.
In the concluding poem to threads, “Some say” Scott certainly doesn’t spare his words, passionately calling out to all of us to grab a life that’s filled with true spirit and to maximize its vitality:
Feed with fury,
Flourish,
Burn your life famously!
Then run like the wind
For the hills of Elysium.
When he says “Burn your life famously!” the poet’s intention is to reflect the soul’s constant rejuvenation – the cycle of birth, death and resurrection, just as the metals are purified in the fire.
Via love’s powerful energy, life’s vivacity and all its limitations too – delightfully encompassing such a broad range of subject matter, styles and moods, Scott beautifully leads readers by hand embracing them in such sweet pearls of wisdom. This a long learnt and carefully meditated level of being from an inspired and beautiful writer who has truly lived. Individual experience so keenly observed, with every fleeting emotion most passionately felt in his ongoing preoccupation with such themes as nature, mortality and indeed the supernatural potential that surround us all, but that we knew it!
Nivedita Yohana, Post-Gradute Doctoral Student of Literature, Amsterdam.
Scott Hastie’s latest book Threads, carries a voice that negotiates with the spirituality lying dormant within us. The poems are embalmed with subtle imagery and a gentle language. More significantly, they essay a point of view – a view that is positive, hopeful, believing and healing. The poems strike a delicate balance between the surface of worldly exactitude and the depth of semantic humaneness. The opening poem goes like this:
We are anything but finite
Or alone!
After all the petals of proof
Are here in our hearts,
Are they not?
And however deflated
We might sometimes be,
Either by our own frailties
Or the cruelty of others,
– Inviolate –
At the core of our being,
The very prism
Of sanctity and self remains.
The landscape of Threads is compassion – a universe distinct in themes but tied together by the silken threads of empathy and understanding. Scott’s skill lies in bringing something of that beautiful place to the surface. His poems have the power to resurrect our battered, defeated souls. His art has the capacity to rejuvenate our sad little minds at the end of a tiring day and make us whole again to face a new dawn with new vigor.
Every new dawn is a flitter,
A speckled film
Of light and possibility,
Upon which
Even the saddest
Amongst us
Re-materialise daily
As nothing if not indefatigable
Creatures of hope.
Readers will relish the time spent in reading his enriched poetry. We, as the human race are all familiar with the complexities, struggles and challenges of life, Scott’s intimate voice will familiarize us with those elusive emotions called hope, triumph and dreams.
The perspectives that Threads offers are global- no matter where you’re from, these poems will bear meaning to you. They are unifying to the distressed mind by, sort of, building an international platform of delight and resilience. For long we have looked for the right words to shine a light on the human condition. – “The persistent, Liverish truth of our existence.”
Something that would soak up our pessimistic saturation…something that would recognize the genuine ray of sunshine filtering over all of us. For long we have wanted a voice. For long we have pined for cohesiveness. Threads is it!
Our lives
A long line of enquiry
Inevitably riddled with mistakes.
And hurting
As you may be now,
What a wonderful thing
It is not to be alone.
This ashen cloth
Won’t ever quite
Leave me be either,
Living as I do on a prayer.
But, as my eyes lift again
To the world,
I can at least be with you.
Threads constructs a new world for us. It invests itself in our happiness.
But be not afeared.
Wear any such scars well,
Knowing that,
For every moment of suffering,
Others will arrive
That will instead
Pierce you with joy.
Open the doors of your heart
And they will come.
And for every cruel arrow,
Sweet caresses of delirium
To nourish your soul.
Scott shows us through his poetry how important it is to put aside all the nonsense and appreciate the small details of our lives and watch our lives be transformed as a result. He writes with craft, clarity and intensity… unlocking philosophies born from the very bones of our sadness to now greatly and endearingly please the heart. His observations are interwoven with the mundane and mystical. Reading these poems, one realizes that there is magic inherent in every living moment. If only we would stop a moment and perceive it.
Taken together the poems have the impact of a spiritual epic but without the heaviness… And individually they are a line by line commentary on the nature of life and the very existence of man. The poet vivifies the scars and wounds of everyday living but also unveils the transcendence inherent to our situation.
The garden of my life,
Much as I tend it,
Is, at best, my healthy soul
Made visible.
Though, all the while,
The fretting,
The continual husbandry
And sheer ennui
Of progressive adulthood
Beg questions still.
Especially whenever able
To revert briefly
To pure unfettered joy,
To childhood, in essence.
Itself, a sign
Of a far deeper wisdom,
Methinks.
Indeed Threads is appropriately titled for it binds together the extraordinary miraculousness of life. From Scott’s perspective, Happiness and Joy can be embraced, no matter how low we ever stand on the rung of defeat. The worst day is only a fleeting moment and the best is a radiation of higher forces conspiring in our favor, to be savored and cherished. A truly brilliant compilation of some soul stirring poetry by the master craftsman of spiritual verses.
This book refuses to be forgotten.
Vinita Agrawal, Award winning poet and writer – Mumbai, India.
The golden promise of tomorrow… A glorious and foretelling sunset in Kusadasi, on the southern coast of Turkey.
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