Lost puppies
We are no longer,
That’s for sure…
Since all that’s been and gone
And the very essence of you,
Left behind in so many hearts,
Is never forgotten.
And, on a day such as this,
When your world is calm,
Full of warm smiles,
And your soul is at last
Let off its string,
One cannot help but sense,
For certain,
That all the love inside you
Comes from the best of those
You’ve known and loved
And those who came
And went before you too…
Sweet darlings! Sweet youth!
All our hope and dreams
Derive from just that.
So, show me the wonder
Of all you’ve seen so far,
Stretch the day to its limit,
And let us have no guilt
Left to waste for dreaming still.
A need to pause, to rest.
It’s at times like these
That I best notice
A bewilderment of gifts,
Treasures I never knew I had.
Just one long look out at the world
Any sunlit Spring morning
Excites me so,
Makes my heart ache.
Sometimes gets me thinking
I have woken somewhere else,
Somewhere new and exotic,
Exquisitely perfumed.
How revealing is that?
And so it means what it means,
This need to confess
That, for all our flailing around,
For all our yearnings
And our heart aches,
We barely scratch the surface
Of something so simple.
And therefore can be
Caught so unawares…
‘The Day is Done’ – a poem by Scott Hastie
Instead of approaching the poem from a technical perspective I felt it would be more interesting for us to focus on the ideas it presents.
The day is done
– the time to reflect
And no one is immune,
– everyone is accountable for their actions
It’s true.
– self evident
That sense of a voyage
– life is a voyage of discovery and experience
Slips seamlessly past,
– time strings together the events of life
For there is a finite beginning
– as time is perceived and measured linearly and the beginning is an event in the perception of time.
And end to everything.
– yes, everything that has a beginning has an end in this material existence. What we perceive though may be different to what actually is. Time may not be linear. It could be that time is a cyclical. The end of something is a beginning of another – like the end of a caterpillar is the beginning of the butterfly. Another concept is time is an illusion to enable experiences in a coherent manner so the soul can learn in a cascaded manner to continuously improve so the spiritual infant can achieve maturity.
And yet a sense of connection,
– there are many philosophical concepts that attempt to explain the connection we have with others, yet without any obvious reason. One is that our spirits are all components of the collective consciousness that created this existence for the purpose of experiencing itself via our personalities, consequentially we are all one – revealing the connection. Another is that we are separate and independent of God with free will of choice suffering the sins of our ancestors necessary to learn from and overcome them.
A bejewelled purpose too,
– what is life without purpose? Where would the challenge be if it was spelled out for us? Perhaps the purpose is subject to free will and choice, rather than pre-determined destiny? What do I want to experience in this lifetime? What do I need to experience? Is there a difference?
– That we enter this life experience without memory of any prior existence, perhaps it is the maturity of the soul and its ability to continue maturing through further experience that defines the purpose of life? Perhaps we place too much focus on the mind which is merely a record of the current life experience of lessons in this life in which the soul by virtue of its maturity has reacted to this reality?
Like the child
Whose way ahead
– It seems some children behave as if they remember a past life in this existence – that they have a heads up on the rules of the game of life in the way they demonstrate their ability to recognise and react to their circumstances and surroundings with a grace, confidence in their intended result. Could it be the maturity of their spirits?
You’ve already lit,
– Perhaps some connect with us more experienced and take on board what we have to say, which gives them the opportunity to learn from another’s story instead of their own.
Or the lover you’ve yet to meet.
– Soul mates could be souls that need to continue learning from each-other, that on a spiritual level recognise each-other from previous experiences and are attracted, it is the purpose of this life that brings them together to enable the learning.
Many such moments
Come and go, as they must,
– Yes the opportunities come and go, as to what manifests from them depends on how we perceive them, the choices we make in our response to our perception of them, and the outcome which is determined by how mature we are in our response that determines the nature and degree of the learning that results be it joy or despair. Nothing is wasted.
Melting away
Into the space we are given.
– The illusion of life can be so overwhelming that we take it too seriously, should the mind and body rule the spirit instead of the spirit ruling the mind and body, we risk melting into this life as creatures of nature of the earthly pleasures and pains in which we risk suffering on the spiritual level. Let’s hope there is no deadline for the spirit should it be delayed to such an extent it fails to mature on time.
But what endures for me
Is a persistent resonance,
– It is interesting that this illusion of life – the hologram of this matrix – everything we perceive as real are a multitude of vibrations that span the spectrum of light and sound all of which have resonant frequencies. The current condition of the spirit is said to also resonate at a frequency in accordance to the degree of its maturity which is reflected by how gracefully we respond to the challenges life presents to us. The Schumann Resonance which is the frequency of the planet is said to be increasing which some claim is speeding up time – perhaps collectively we are as spirits all maturing from the increased suffering collectively experienced by war, economic slavery and all the other horrors this planet is enduring from our species?
Some heady wish
For access again
– A spirit wanting of further experience necessary to achieve maturity, or perhaps just wanting to play in the holographic playground some more for amusement? Eventually all the spirits once matured will have to leave this boarding school of life and go home.
To a sense of wonder
In the stream of things,
– As we do not have all the answers to who/what we really are and what is actually the ‘stream’
That, this time round,
It might just be possible
To keep in my heart
A little longer.
– As life is the school of hard knocks when one loses and of joy when one wins, it is only natural that one would want to maximise the duration of experience, be it of love with a soul-mate and/or life itself to facilitate assent of spiritual maturity.
So tarry with me awhile
And we will see
What we can do
To tenderly explore
– Makes sense to share the experience with a soul mate in which the experience is intended to be shared, and for what one’s soul-mate brings to the experience, be it either joy, despair or a combination. Whatever is necessary to enable the process of maturing. Perhaps that is why we long to fill our lives with companionship.
Beneath the frail shell
Of all we’ve since become.
– The shell is frail as it is an illusion – we are all energy of resonance which is in alignment of our spiritual maturity. The higher the resonance the closer to maturity we are.
– Magnetism is also resonance vibrations we have observed as sound on the planetary level and the magnetism at the molecular level is also resonance so strong it prevents us from putting our hand through what we perceive as matter is nothing more than energy.
– It is claimed that the Philadelphia experiment altered the magnetism of all matter to such an extent the magnetism at the molecular level collapsed. There was no magnetic repulsion preventing people from passing through matter. The gravitational force also collapsed as it is weaker than the molecular magnetism. Apparently the outcome for the occupants was not good. I wonder….
Trusting that, maybe within
Such smoothly sculpted casing,
And still delicately enclosed,
Might just lie the silky lustre
– It is interesting that trust be revealed only to be necessary when the outcome has an element of uncertainty. Such is life, uncertainty is the medium that enables life and all within it to surprise us. All we need to do (as mature souls) is to do good with rightful intentions and have faith in revealing that uncertainty into the learning necessary for us to raise the quality of life. So delicate life is, that one reckless error so mercilessly executes suffering – to remind us (next time we are tempted to take a swing at life) that hurt inflicted be returned four-fold. It is when we succeed at love in life that life encases us in a silky lustre of love. For love will always prevail against fear, all it takes is free-will intention.
Of some lavish
And joyful communion,
Waiting for its chance
To grip and catch the light again.
– So here we are, entangled in a communion with life and the relationships. If we rely on chance then we are making choices in the darkness as we lack sufficient understanding necessary to make a choice. Life does not have to be a hit and miss entanglement of luck. Through the light of careful enquiry we may overcome. recklessness and master life to such an extent that we bring joy to everyone around us who welcomes it and therefore to ourselves.
Suzanne Staveley, April 2014
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.
And latent there,
The quick silvered opportunity
Of redemption,
To become enchanted again.
Sublime moments refracted,
Even if only for seconds,
Caught forever in your soul.
‘Angel Voices: the poetry of Scott Hastie’
An Academic Review by Niveditha Yohana
With several illuminating collections already to his name, Scott Hastie now offers us Angel Voices, an extraordinarily refreshing masterpiece that is his defining creative achievement to date. This new body of work succeeds in being deeply spiritual without being at all didactic and seeks to realize the ultimate goal of all mystical, philosophic paths through the everyday experience of love, common expectation, disappointment, hope and resilience. Most of all, it reminds us of the ultimate gift to mankind – the impetus to love, in spite of all and any rational reason not to do so.
John Keats, in his letter to Benjamin Bailey (March 13, 1818) writes:” Scenery is fine — but human nature is finer.” In Angel Voices, beautiful symphonies are heard from the language, metaphors, images and rhythm, all wonderfully penned by the poet. The pristine human soul can be heard loud and clear here, again and again. Hastie consistently keeping the language simple yet elegant, begins with profound wisdom of the ages:
‘Sublime moments refracted,
Even if only for seconds,
Caught forever in your soul…’
echoing Keatsian sensibility, looking to capture arresting, fleeting moments of life and render them permanently inspiring through art.
Angel Voices explores all the various hues of life, looking to fully resuscitate human consciousness. It begins in Age Gathers with the poet contemplating the ephemerality of human life, as if a delicate bubble:
‘Be content to love, to dazzle in the light,
If only for moments…
And then be gone,
With gladness in your heart,
Before the creeping shadows
Claim too much your sadness at leaving.’
Each and every poem reverberates with positivity, asserting the beauty and ambition of a human spirit that is capable of loving fully, but then also letting go when it is time to do so. We also find a shade of Samuel Beckett’s words here too: “Let us do something, while we have the chance! … Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Let us represent worthily for one the foul brood to which a cruel fate consigned us!” Hastie very astutely takes his readers too into every fibre and every layer of consciousness, but with the aim of diving into the vast sea of human psyche and bringing us the most radiant of rare pearls to reflect upon. The poet walks us through man’s eternal quest to be fulfilled and content, firstly with a simple acceptance of life as it truly is and then revealing how, from this humble base, any individual existence can still go on to become so effervescent.
The poems encourage their readers to believe that, despite the temporal nature of human life, key memories and traces left behind are of permanent and enduring value. These experiences becoming engraved in our hearts, building an aura of gratitude, hope and real joy that gives us some chance of loving and smiling our way through the challenge of our eventual mortal departure. Hastie forever emphasizing how, in the physical realm, the discussion of permanence and non-permanence can be entirely valid, but never in respect of other myriad dimensions. Asserting that whilst everything that paves our way in life will, sooner or later, have to leave us, the essence of these experiences can never be expunged, becoming part of us, part of our enduring spiritual being. What we do with the lessons learnt and sweet moments of intimacy and love lived, is then entirely up to us. And since our level of commitment is only a matter of choice and faith, Hastie tenderly suggests we therefore might as well choose to be grateful than to resent this opportunity. As in When in love the poet underlines this very thought with:
‘So that, just as the wise old Shoguns
Chose to,
With their most precious of porcelain vessels,
We too can repair our cracks with gold
And glow again.
Crazed by life,
More beautiful than ever before.’
The poet here is always looking to assert the eternal truth that all spiritual paths devote themselves to – namely “ the struggle to be serene” in a world of conflicting and stormy emotions.
In Busy city we are offered the following carpe diem thought:
‘For the briefest, sweetest of moments
To catch the eye,
To share a smile,
To touch the soul of a stranger
You may never see again.
This is as it should be.’
There is a seemingly inexhaustible positive spirit that shines through these words, recognizing the potential for an inner harmony that is instinctive. Together with a happiness that is wonderfully accessible to all, without the need necessarily to first scale some vast fortress of academic understanding and/or personal enlightenment. That is a key gift that Hastie’s own very special depth of soul, experience and learning seeks to unlock for us all.
Neither does this poet’s voice allow us to look away from death or have a euphemistic attitude to life, but to honestly accept the fact that life will soon be gone and therefore why not exercise our choice to still be generous and seek joy whilst we can? The very titles of the poems in Angel Voices themselves reinforce the crux of his message: What are we… On the high road… The perpetual riddle… Be you… However beautiful… And still the darkness… Sometimes illuminations … Life collects… Throughout Hastie invokes the need for us to see him first as a fellow physical presence and then artfully encourages us to begin to resonate and share his personal experience in the undulating, transient world of the spiritual and creative landscape that he seems to navigate so effortlessly.
Angel Voices ends with an astounding poem leaving the readers with a profound thought that shining hope lies in these very footprints of life. As Hastie assuredly convinces us human nature is fallible, yet has an impressive underlying capability to learn and move on – not to be suffocated with guilt, but to be revived by mindfulness, not to be perfect but to understand our imperfections perfectly, not to be arrogant but to have the humility and hope to be better human beings and for a better world.
So, show me the wonder
Of all you’ve seen so far,
Stretch the day to its limit,
And let us have no guilt
Left to waste for dreaming still.
Certainly, the Poet’s determination not to be bogged down by the storms of life will keep readers delightfully stimulated and inspired by his contagious optimism. This indeed is truly an ‘angelic voice’ that offers deeply rich nourishment to any sensitive and seeking soul. For here Hastie has overwhelmingly succeeded in capturing the eternal truth of mankind, by defining its glorious and ongoing hunger to distill something beautiful that death cannot ever capture. And all this is stunningly achieved utilizing common experiences, which will be reassuringly familiar to any of its readers.
Angel Voices creatively provokes us to rethink life, from a different perspective and on a higher dimension, through a certain level of detachment. It traverses the boundaries of cultures, faith and belief systems converging to the confluence where the spirit of humanity meets. This is truly enlightening, inspiring and beautiful lyrical work which captivates the pulse of its readers. Angel Voices is sure to stand the test of time and takes it rightful place in the global pantheons of poetic and philosophic literature
Niveditha Yohana, Research Scholar, University of Mysore February 2014.
Angel Voices: the poetry of Scott Hastie – A Review
‘Solving the Perpetual riddle of life’ by Vinita Agrawal
“How stubborn life is,
It clings like silver in our souls”.
Angel Voices is Scott Hastie’s fourth and most significant collection of poetry to date, providing definitive evidence of his evolved voice and enlightened philosophy. His hauntingly beautiful poems are reverently presented in this rich volume, without the appendage of titles – they flow freely like a river, carrying in their bosom the fertile alluvium of deeper meanings of life, unfolding with a relentless spiritual power that draws on the true colors of love, pain, hurt, grief, hope and optimism.
His words arrow straight into the reader’s heart, aimed concertedly at the soul. Look how he openly he admits:
“Already I ache for all the lives
I will never be a part of.”
And elsewhere, on mortality:
“Like the soft dusting of fallen snow on hollow bones,
On the already broken, spilt corpse
Of souls long since departed.
Strengthened by the certainty
That the light I cherish and hold dear within
Will instead keep me safe and warm,
Till my own time comes…”
And on questions of inspiration:
“Sometimes illuminations come to us
From a past so long ago
That to fathom them is a test”
In Scott’s poems we find benevolence, kneeling before us – assuring us of light, when all around is dark. What choice do we have then? Other than to be humbly shepherded into this divine space, sparkling with new a dawn. Angel Voices becomes a guiding star that dispels misery and despair. It is like a breath of fresh air, much as the poet himself who is self-admittedly:
“Endowed with a hungry soul,
That’s been enchanted to risk too much.”
Here is another illustration here of his lyrical voice:
“So to have been where you have been
And to still have joy,
Dazzling in your heart,
Now there’s a thing to make the whole world smile.”
And again:
“If you can be,
Be entirely naked – as one to another.
Not just in your body,
But surrender also
Every close kept need,
Your fears, all that you hold dear…”
Marry that to yet another verse and you have it all:
“And, once achieved,
Should the levy of age,
The passing of years
Ever tempt you to doubt it,
Just pause for a moment and feel
How such sweet pivots in time
Remembered,
Ripen still, even in solitude.
Like fabulous guests
Re-visiting a sun-lit porch
That has waited seemingly forever
To welcome them home again.”
There are 96 pages of scintillating, inspirational poetry in Angel Voices, a brand new anthology that is an artful collection of carefully chosen gems from his previous title – Meditations, together with the best of his most recent unpublished writings. Furthermore, his poems seem to have emerged after prolonged personal battles with the unpredictability of life and it’s hapless challenges. Scott’s gentle voice and his golden innate wisdom guide one carefully towards a greater acceptance of things as they are. Don’t let go of the perspective, his poems urge… Accept the travails of time, conquer your inner struggles, fight injustice, above all, be generous and open hearted and bow humbly to happenstance. Such are the treasures you can joyously re-emerge with, after diving deep into Scott’s perennially intense poetry.
“The searing light of morning
Asks unwelcome questions,
Fragile hopes soon blistered by daylight.”
However later, in a substantial and coherent expression of surrendering to the universe, he writes:
“Needing love,
We squeeze what we can
From a fluid landscape of life and light,
Gifted to us but for a moment
In the grand scheme of things.”
And then further still:
“Born, fractured by birth,
Into this place
Of limit and misapprehension,
Seemingly doomed before we begin.
But our salvation
Is the element of precognition,
Glowing seeds of foreknowledge,
Eons old, we all still carry within us,
That just sit awaiting triggers,
Resonance.
Dormant in our soul
Every single moment we live and breathe.”
Scott’s poetry has the unique quality of turning bitter reality into a sweet pill that becomes easy to swallow, as he gives his readers the priceless vantage point of eternal hope. His soothing words can make even an emotionally devastating experience bearable, because they connect unerringly to an undeniable divine goodness. Indeed, positivity is at the core of his writing, which is always undoubtedly sanguine, buoyant, cheerful and idealistic – but never in an over the top, sermonizing way – but rather more in the form of delightfully delicate, knowing whispers…
See how he writes:
“Ultimately the challenge is simply
One of love and generosity
That brings all things together again.
Just to be open and joyful in your heart,
To have grace and compassion,
To trust that what people call God
Can be found in the spaces in between.”
One can only wonder at the source of Scott’s endless joy and his unhesitating imparting of the same with his readers. Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the deep alleys of the human soul – that indivisible, indestructible channel of consciousness that strikes at the festering base of materialism and transcends human emotions to higher realms of peace. Indeed, it is likely that the poet has experienced transcendental human nature… How else does any creativity display such sage-like, saint-like wisdom? The USP of his poetry is its ability to inspire! Such sacred talent can only be saluted for it has immense practical value.
Typifying the inspiration available is this:
“For sure, on some days,
Fate may seem heartless,
As if acting with intent to interfere,
To punish, or to twist you away
From where you think you want to be.
But there are surprises.
Fresh hope, new life
Sometimes finds its breath
In just such a clash of expectation.
And, as stories of destinies retold
Often remind us,
Even in a cruel coming together
Of opposing forces,
Something rare and beautiful,
Something precious can emerge.”
Angel Voices does not belong to your bookshelf. Its real place is next to your pillow – for that spell of night reading that liberates your soul and unmasks your inner yearnings. These are poems you walk into and tuck under your arms, like exquisite blooms that solve the conundrums of life. And then, when the journey gets rough, you can simply extract them and absorb the succor they provide and move ahead again, fortified with a new breath of precious courage.
“Life, wherever it leads,
Will always be the same,
It begs for the best of you”.
Another choice stanza epitomizes this:
Instead a permanent path
That, once illuminated,
Goes ever onward – a way home…”
And others, offering hope:
“And still the darkness waits for me,
As I know it will…
And ever more avariciously still,
As it senses my journey comes closer to fruition.
I know in my heart it is a given
That I can never entirely banish
This spectre of the night,
It will always be beside me, as it needs to be.”
There are also poems here that are startlingly direct, like a jolt on the elbow just when you’ve drifted into a dream like state. Such poems are frank and more temporal, providing just the right amount of relief from the atmosphere of abstractness. But even these verses are cohesive with the basic theme of Scott’s poetry – which is that everything, whether man or nature, shines with an inner brilliance of its own.
For example:
“Just as, in perfect symmetry,
The emerging budded plant
Opens wide, toward the sun
And a stiff phallus will forever beg
For its home, for its comfort,
Its release,
Deep into a soft inner refuge
So that it may speak, discharge itself.”
Or this:
“Just as the frostiest of old maids
Secretly longs to tremble
With excitement in her bed,
One more time.
Or the pained young lover
Pitifully nurses a wound
That renders their heart homeless,
Mourning the loss of romance
Seemingly gone forever.
The truth is
Nothing that truly matters
Can ever evaporate,
Be excised,
Burnt out of your soul.
And however ready
We may or may not be,
At any stage in our life,
There will always be the chance
To reclaim our essence,
The shape we call our own.”
While dejection and pessimism have no place in Scott’s poetry, authenticity and a valiant inner searching always do… This is what keeps Scott’s poetry rooted to the reality of our times.
Two very metaphoric extracts embody this aspect of his writing:
“How barren is the vessel
That has no seed left within.”
And this :
“In the soft, sun baked sand
History between my toes.
Sense how
Even the smooth stones ache
With stories of their own
In the shuddering light of day.”
Analytically, Scott’s poems seldom revolve exclusively around love. Especially not the slushy, superficial commercialised notion of love that so pervades our current culture. Instead, for Scott, love is both a divine and organic pulsating nerve that is knitted into almost all his poetry. It is grand in expanse, but brief like silhouettes in terms of its presentation. A remarkable artistic achievement!
His poems are fluid in form as well as in thoughts. He puts deliberate stress on the deep emotional connection of love, far above than the physical, lustful element. He vividly brings alive that first moment in which such emotions are successfully cocooned, rather than placing emphasis on the long drawn aftermath of any relationship. For Scott, love is nothing less than the instant conflagration of all senses – providing an all pervasive source of uplifting warmth that so beautifully creates inside us what he sees as vital niches, built for access later into what he identifies as potentially vast oceans of spiritual absorption and enlightenment.
Embodying this he writes:
“I am just like you,
Destined to play my part.
And leave,
In the nature of my departure at least,
Some kind of sweet message behind
In the fathomless pattern I make.”
And
“Mislaid flame of tender emotions
Rekindled.
Together we live to the point of tears,
I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Scott’s enviable poetic skill also lies in his ability to express profound thoughts in very simple language. Rarely is his poetry didactic or pedantic – instead his poems are endearingly simple and transparent. Like these lines:
“I am sad, like the hot dust on the streets
And the music of fresh fallen leaves
Caught in a sliding summer breeze.”
It is easy to conclude that Scott’s poetry is born from the travails and tribulations of the business of living, but the lessons that he imparts are unlike that of any regular advisor or counsellor, instead more like an intimate dialogue shared with a special friend, who always offer their shoulder to the one in need; his words written like a confidante – in fact like everyone’s true soulmate… For just how deeply he understands the realities of life and, as acknowledges candidly in one of his poems:
“Circumstance toys with us all”
Nevertheless, Scott is also clearly a believer in destiny and his ultimate message to his readers, through his poetry, is to do whatever you feel you have to do, always with an open heart and as much honesty as you can muster.
Encapsulating this so beautifully, he writes:
“Give not honestly of yourself,
And you will corrode the core
Of much that matters.
Shine true instead
And you may well linger
In the light of love,
Maybe even longer
Than you feel you have a right to.”
Angel Voices is not a book to be missed! It can be read seamlessly by experienced literary enthusiasts and novices alike. And, given that rare quality, it is surely destined to sit not only on many personal bookcases, but also in the collection of every library, belonging to the great universities and esteemed literary institutions around the world. It is truly a milestone collection of timeless inspirational poetry, deserving of serious scrutiny from students and teachers of poetry, as well as readers from literally all walks of life, culture and faith. Without doubt, this precious little book therefore deserves its brilliant and well-earned place in the endless sunshine of literary immortality.
The day is done
And no one is immune,
It’s true.
That sense of a voyage
Slips seamlessly past,
For there is a finite beginning
And end to everything.
And yet a sense of connection,
A bejewelled purpose too,
Like the child
Whose way ahead
You’ve already lit,
Or the lover you’ve yet to meet.
Many such moments
Come and go, as they must,
Melting away
Into the space we are given.
But what endures for me
Is a persistent resonance,
Some heady wish
For access again
To a sense of wonder
In the stream of things,
That, this time round,
It might just be possible
To keep in my heart
A little longer.
So tarry with me awhile
And we will see
What we can do
To tenderly explore
Beneath the frail shell
Of all we’ve since become.
Trusting that, maybe within
Such smoothly sculpted casing,
And still delicately enclosed,
Might just lie the silky lustre
Of some lavish
And joyful communion,
Waiting for its chance
To grip and catch the light again.
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