Prayer of Emotion

By Jan Busch
(Written during Thom & Bob's workshop 14/05/10)

Formation clouds elegantly drift,
thick white bright to hue.
Whisper notions screams speaks silently.
Emotions unvoiced.

Heart, ribs, lungs explode noiseless,
endeavour to transcend dread.
Thoughts travel on fleeting soft clouds. 
Prayer unspoken.

Heart song cleanse poison cells,
that dwell multiply in destruction.
Earthbound wings fall regularly
token of vulnerability.

Barely noticeable mist mingle elevate
steadily skyward, whisking
away pain and fear.
Prayer of emotions.

Workshop: Thom Moon Bird and Bob Mud

When I told the WordsFlowers that Thom would be in the country again and asked if they wanted another workshop with him, the overwhelming answer was, ‘Yes please!’

(And yes, he has yet another moniker. I've known him as Tom the Street Poet, Thom the World Poet, thom moon 10, and now Thom Moon Bird. 'I won't have an identity crisis,' he says, 'I don't have an identity!')

This time he was accompanied by his old pal Bob Mud, just home from a visit to the Texas poetry festivals in April. When Bob’s home, he’s in Brisbane, where he makes music, poetry and mud art, and encourages children to interact with the natural world. The photo is of Bob and some of his mud art at the workshop. He treated us to flute, didgeridoo, penny whistle and recordings of bush birds; while Thom inspired us with his own words to respond in writing to his poetry, Bob’s music, and everything else in our immediate environment. And he put us in touch with our immediate selves — what we feel, think, know; who we are and who we want to be; how to be our own Muse.

We meet and write every week, and write between times too — yet somehow he drew new things from us. Andrew, for instance, waxed uncharacteristically poetic:


Love

Love, it’s evasive, it’s elusive
until we know the secret —
to let it go, let it float
away. Don’t long for it as
it will always be beyond
your reach, just be love.
Let it embrace you, don’t be
afraid of love or you will
drive it away into the
far reaches of your mind
where you will never find it
again.

But one day it will overwhelm
you, lifting you into a new field
of ecstasy and understanding
and joy.


Dreaming

Dreaming — it’s a dangerous
pastime — floating off into
worlds unknown, stepping into an
alternate universe and meeting
our personal doppelganger
who guides us on an
imaginative journey into lands
unknown.

We float back down to earth
in ecstasy wanting to return
again, and again and again.

(both by Andrew Wade)


‘What’s the most important thing?’ Thom asked. He gathered up the sheets of paper with our individual responses, to make an instant anthology. I got the job of compiling it later, using the handwritten pages just as they were written, most of them unsigned. The contents flow from change and the unknown, through love, home, travel, freedom, passion, health, to life itself, and back to love again.

That evening, some of us went on to a performance which Thom and Bob gave at The Castle on the Hill at Uki — another inspiring experience! (Read about it by clicking the performance link.)