Five new poems - introduction

The five poems below I wrote over the course of the last few weeks (in order of last written to first) - and, although they stand by themselves, some explaination is useful :)

The first two are heavily based on the living mayan world view. The Fire is the mayan fire ceremony. This is one of the primary means the maya use to connect to the spiritual sides of life. "The Fire" is dedicated to Viktor who performed a Fire on the hill in Todos Santos which was where I first felt the Fire's magic back in 2001.

The significance of the days in the spiritual calendar, (sometimes called the mayan horiscope), is vital to the mayan world view. This calander is not to be confused with the various yearly, monthly, or agricultual mayan calanders. In the spiritual calander each of the twenty signs has a unique glyph. Spirtual animal protectors and many other attributes are connected with with each sign. Many of these attributes have special significance in the everyday mayan world and have profound mythological meaings. These meanings can be both social and personal. K'at is my sign and has special significance to me. K'at is the net, the web, the seed and has the spiritual protector of the spider. The sign of my future or later life is Ee - the wild cat, the sacred path. Other signs include K'an - the snake, Tijax - the obsidian knife, Tz'i' - the dog and the law, Kame - the owl and the ancestors and Q'anil - the sowing of seeds.

The later part of "The Fire" is about our ancestors - which have great importance in the mayan world view. They are traditionally called to the fire by candles made of pig fat. As someone who is born in the east (from the mayan viewpoint) my own ancestory includes the science that uncovered our genetic roots and our journey out of africa. From a common root - our ancestors divide. The individuals in our lineage who first farmed or fought or used a computer are more and more likely to be different from each other as the events approach our own time . Yet we all have some ancestor who first farmed whether we are African, European, American or Asian.

The four directions are important for the maya. Unlike in the east, the maya directions are not based upon magnetic, or pole star, North but on the axis of the sun in the tropics. Thus the first direction is East where the sun rises - and the colour of this is red. Next is west where the sun sets; coloured black. This is not negative, as in traditional Abrahamic culture, but is about contemplation and powers of recovery rather like Yin in the Chinese tradition. Then comes North and white - clarity and vision in daylight and also in the white smoke of the tree resin, copal. Finally comes south - yellow - the colour of maize - cultivation, civilisation, community and sustenance.

This is, of course only a short introduction - a glimpse of the mayan view of the cosmos. The second poem "The Seed" is part of a deeper more personal journey from the language of the beginning inspired by the type of text found in Genisis to the more Haiku-esque end.

In the third and forth poems, "Sway..." and "Fly-", I have tried to indicate their rhythm using capitals to indicate word stress but also puntuation, and the placement of new lines to show timing. I do not know if such devices will work for others as I am already familar with their music when I read them. In both these poems the rhythm is vitally important for understanding what the poems are really about.

The last poem, "The parable of Chance and Fate", is deliberately self-important - neoclassical but tacky at the same time - like the cheap and grandiose municipal architecture found in every corner of the globe. I wrote it that way to mimic and elicit thoughts and feeling associated with the real subject of the poem. I thought I'd tell you this because I was worried that people would simply dismiss the poem as bloated and concited. :D

Finally, there are some words where I have piled on multiple aural meaning. In order to write them down I had to pick a definite spelling which can obsure other meanings. So the best way to read them is either aloud in the head or aloud aloud. :)

Thanks for reading this - I hope it helps you get more out of my poems.

Cheers,
Steve :)