la noche moja riberas en tu alma

"The universe is duly in order, every thing is in its place, What has arrived is in its place and what waits shall be in its place" (Walt Whitman)

Stretched out on the grass
I am listening to the sounds of
chirping insect
and barking dog
and laughing child

I am listening to the sounds of
Music (on electronic speakers)
and
I am watching a flame flicker
inside a clementine

(and) I know that
stillness is darkness is silence is peace
There is nothing else that
needs to have been

I am alone, yet
I hear the songs of your planets
The polyphony of your stars
You are

Summer

Summer is here! : whichmeans

sweettea and sweetcorn
seaswimming and sunburning
sleepingoutside and stargazing

Play the festal panpipe!
Dance 'round the solstice bonfire!

The Comforter

"If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another comforter to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

[...]

"All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

"You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. I will not say much more to you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold over me, but he comes so that the world may learn that I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me."

(John 14:15-20;26-31)

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

(John 16:12-15)

I share these two verses tonight because of a conversation I just had with a friend that changed the course of my entire evening, and ultimately will shape the course of my life. It made me remember how tremendously important the Holy Spirit is in our lives as Christians. I think so often in the Church today, we pray to God the Father, and worship God the Son, but we forget that the Holy Spirit is the most important one in our daily lives.

The world is full to overflowing with pain, but the Holy Spirit is the comforter. He is here to guide us out of temptation and deliver us from evil, and most importantly He is here to send directly to our hearts the Living Word of the Father. The Truth (with a capital T) directly to our very souls. Things that Jesus never spoke about... things that are much bigger and more difficult and more beautiful than the issues that Jesus addressed during his ministry. The Word of the Lord is not the Bible, it is the Spirit of Truth living in our very being, every moment of every day revealing to us the Truth when we need it most. Remember that Jesus was a progressive in his own day, and His Spirit is too. Christianity would never have survived as long as it has without the freedom that comes with the revelation through the Spirit. If Christianity is to continue survive, we must begin to listen more closely to the Spirit, and obey, even when it seems ridiculous or impossible!

"This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us."

(1 John 4:13-16)

Defiance

When there is nothing left, and
I carve our mind into portions,
Lengthening the straight bridges
Between life and singularity,

When silence is the only redemption
For 22 years of contradictory nonsense, and
What ought to have been Love,

Then,
A piece of Christ washes over me, and
Praise is the only peace that fits.

Futile Devices

It's been a long, long time
Since I've memorized your face
It's been four hours now
Since I've wandered through your place
And when I sleep on your couch
I feel very safe
And when you bring the blankets
I cover up my face

I do
Love you
I do
Love you

And when you play guitar
I listen to the strings buzz
The metal vibrates underneath your fingers
And when you crochet
I feel mesmerized and proud

And I would say I love you
But saying it out loud is hard
So I won't say it at all
And I won't stay very long

But you are life I needed all along
I think of you as my brother
Although that sounds dumb

And words are futile devices.

(Sufjan Stevens)

Melody

A teacher here at Westminster decided that it would be a good idea to start defining really vague terms like "melody" and "rhythm" in class yesterday. This always bothers me, unless of course it is done for the sake of discussion.

In this case it was not done for the sake of discussion, but instead for the sake of the proselytization of the teacher's quasi-hippie philosophies. As each student struggled to articulate a definition for something about as vague as "consciousness," he interjected:

"Try this on for size: melody: a series of sounds and silences perceived as a unit."

"Ok," I think. "This is problematic for hundreds of reasons. I can't look at cute animals on my laptop anymore. I have to say something." As my classmates sheepishly nodded in approval, I raised my hand.

"Don't you think there should be more qualifiers here... like maybe pitches?"

"Um, well, that would exclude a lot of other cultures, Philip." (This is the man who said earlier, "everyone has music inside them, because we all have a heartbeat.")

"So, that would exclude...cultures that don't have melody in their musical traditions?" I thought to myself. I could tell this was going nowhere.

"How about rhythm?" He continued. This time a demonstration was in order. "Tap tap tap tap tap" on the table. "Is this a rhythm?"

"Yeah."

"Nope, it's a pulse because there is no variability to it."

Bloody hell. He's serious. I couldn't even speak (anything that would have come out of my mouth at this point would have been something like "oh, so then four eighth-notes isn't a rhythm?" and would have probably forever destroyed my reputation with the man).

After that, he tried to define "syncopation," but I can't remember what he said.

So, I wonder what anyone else's definition of rhythm and melody might be. For melody, mine is something like "a linear series of individual pitches and silences perceived as a continuous unit." Rhythm is more difficult, but is something like "a pattern of temporal events which can be mentally entrained." Of course there are all kinds of other qualifiers like "musical context" etc. etc.

But the real problem here is trying to put labels on crazily plastic terms like melody and rhythm. I took an entire course on rhythm and meter, and we never really arrived at a definition. It just seems totally inappropriate, especially if you're a hippie.

T=

How silly to think that the past and future are both lost! I tell you, they are here with me at all times, and I live them both as if they are as real as now.

It should never surprise me to feel nostalgia for the future.