The Poetry of Michel St John

 In a World of throwaway goods, and mass manufactured meanings. Crooked grins on billboards gleaming, salesmen scheming full of bluster. I want something soft of lustre, made by gentle, honest hands. With love and care, and time and passion. Something fair, not fickle fashions, made to fit a business plan, for moneys sake, seductive scams. I want lovers, not just fans, or things just bought and thrown away. I want things for rainy days, when there are no words to say, no jobs to do, or games to play. Give me something I can treasure, made of beauty, made for pleasure. ~MStJ

 I had travelled ancient lands, countenance as dark as night, you could never understand, how my soul shone pure, white light. I was young when I first learned, the World is bathed in boiling violence, many play with fire, burn, so their dreams decay in silence. One day a child sat near me, beneath the midday sun's bright rays, and spoke of hidden mysteries, then looking at the birds did say: "All that was and all that lives, are not defined by shape or form, but by their life, and what they give. From the moment we are born, we exist in time and space, for but the twinkling of an eye. No sooner have we touched the face, of Earth, or sat beneath the sky, at night to watch the stars above, than everything that we enjoyed, all we cherished, all we loved, is by some greater force destroyed. We have but a little while, in the sun, yet many a life finished, before it had begun, so smile, your riches won't diminish. Pure water springs from deep within, the Heart, freely bestowed...

What drives this body? What is this force inside me? It’s pushing me it’s pushing me away, from innocence, from love. It’s pushing me it’s pushing me away, from you. It’s something like a hunger. Maybe it’s a lack in my soul. Maybe a black hole sits at the centre of each of the galaxies that all of us are. Grabbing pulling devouring all the stars, all the light, around, inside, and between us. I have become a weapon that I cannot control because I can I must and will consume and never have my fill. ~MStJ

From your deepest diving roots, to your highest leaves, I feel the forces of nature, of which you are a part, welling up inside you. Invigorating. Liberating. The vitality, and evolutionary currents, which have been flowing for millennia, building throughout the universe Undulating, coruscating kaleidoscopes of colour, pulsating within you. Vibrating elements building, all things, all the time. Flowing in, nurturing, flowing out. A million lines, of texture on your trunk. A million tunnels, to transfer fluids, flowing out, flowing in, bringing life giving nutrition. The original interdependence. Living, breathing, essential components, of our world. A million microorganisms, unfurled, hurled towards infinity. Trying, jostling, struggling, to be, but not thee, humble tree, by becoming, you grow tall, lofty enough to see, the whole horizon, stretch, towards infinity. ~MStJ  

   For forty years, as Man and Boy, you've walked these corridors with Joy, upon your face, and in your heart. Though time it tries to tear apart,  community; your roughened hands, like well worn leather, have held this humble block together. Many are the tribulations, trials hard, and storms we've weathered. Pride in work, your quiet honour. Character the only measure, of your worth, not worldly wealth, nor rank or title, keep you tethered, in your place. You found a far more sacred treasure, the happy, smiling child's face, watching you work with loving grace. ~MStJ

Golden light warmed my body, beckoned my eyes to open. Open themselves, to Sol's penetrating sight. Forcing his way through the smallest cracks, in my curtains. Golden showers, from his big beaming face, nurturing Honeysuckle, Jasmine and Rose. Fragrant aromas floating, through my windows, blown by gentle breeze, into my nose, teasing me to leave, my comfortable repose. I deeply breath, put on my hemp underclothes, sourced responsibly, assume half lotus pose, then transition to tree. Opening my heart wide, to receive energy, and divine inspiration, I descend to my knees. Meditating until, my mind's in a trance, the world becomes a stage, and my routine a dance, that my body flows through, like a channel of love, aligned to higher powers, directed from above. ~MStJ

Fragments, so many, emerging, glittering points of light, interrupt the calm, of night-time reflection. Each bright point connected by, vast gleaming webs of spit. Saliva coruscates and drips, trickles into shallow pools of meaning. Formless begetting form, vapours hovering, over dark waters, from which emerge, the hunched backs of bodies, dividing from abyssal deep. Mouths agape, swallowing, thick viscous fluids. Fattened they fall, piled in foul heaps, of decay, to sleep. To dream. Centuries of History, displayed like strategic points, on a map, encapsulated, joined like dots. Haphazardly overlap. Borders stringently defined, guarded. They grow, wane, flicker and fall. A tattered picture, of it all, shaped by time's ravages. Crushed by the hands, in which it's been held, torn, between opposite demands, in opposite directions. To rest in foreign lands. Altered, falsified, purged of all imperfections. Given form, content, a purpose. Put in alignement, with the origi...