Showing posts with label Hafiz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hafiz. Show all posts
March 29, 2023
February 25, 2023
January 21, 2019
Around Creation in 80 Minutes - The Baba Lovers "6 Degrees of Separation; 7 Degrees of Love"
Sedgeford poet Gaz Calway has teamed up with the North Carolina singer-songwriter Gabriella Tal on an album of unusual lovesongs. The album - called "6 Degrees of Separation; 7 Degrees of Love" - begins on an Indian hilltop with a devotional chant before taking the listener through a hell at the centre of earth and out the other side to Eden and in a thrilling ascent of seven heavens, each more enchanting and ego-free than the last.
"Hell isn’t other people; it's ourselves, our self-fulfilling
Cock up conspiracy clouds, our I-land's alien nation."
In the process, the performers experience a growing self-knowledge and meet ideas and characters drawn from all over the world and from all arts, cultures and Faiths. There are references to Dante's hell, purgatory and heaven; the Arthurian quest for the grail; the Sufi 'Conference of the Birds;' the soul-realising love stories of Leila and Majnun and Lancelot and Guinevere; Celtic maidens, Homeric and Hindu gods, Judaic angels, Shiva's snake; Jacob's ladder; and an immortal Light glimmering beyond the dark forest of the material world.
Listeners voyage through (inner) space like grail knights, preparing to overcome the terrifying challenge of the fourth heaven where ego and love struggle for final supremacy and to avoid a great fall back to the start.
Dante was guided on a similar path by Virgil and Beatrice. Gaz and Gabriella are guided all the way to the Seventh Heaven by the written works of the twentieth century Indian Spiritual Master Meher Baba, at whose Tomb-shrine the musical game begins.
The attractively packaged album with 24 page lyric booklet is released on 31 January and available via www.thebabalovers.bandcamp.com where an online version is also available for download. The duo's online single "Heavenly Moon" featuring two tracks from the album is available there now. The album releases here on 31 January 2019 - https://thebabalovers.bandcamp.com/album/6-degrees-of-separation-7-degrees-of-love
July 10, 2017
Dr Who Am I and the Zen Trails of Hafiz - the studio album. (out now)
This link to a 60 minute digital solo album on Bandcamp is now live. Dr Who Am I and The Zen Trails of Hafiz.
It is a 21st C take on Dante's Divine Comedy.
Track listings
Can he get astro knight grail pilot Dr Who Am I and grail navigator Lt O Who Ru through hell and up to the seventh heaven before Kuber destroys the cosmos?
The album brings you the full story in 16 ghazals lovingly crafted into sound adventures. As first performed in the Norwich underground, July 2015. Now available in its finished studio form to the entire cosmos!
It is a 21st C take on Dante's Divine Comedy.
Track listings
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Dis (Hell Bottom) 04:23
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Welcome To Heaven 05:22
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Starry Eyed (Heaven 001) 03:34
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666 Rockets (Heaven 002) 05:52
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This is God 01:05
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about
about
Meet Bond. Adam in a Bond. (Agent 00Heaven.) Licenced to save. You will need him in the fourth heaven.
Can he get astro knight grail pilot Dr Who Am I and grail navigator Lt O Who Ru through hell and up to the seventh heaven before Kuber destroys the cosmos?
The album brings you the full story in 16 ghazals lovingly crafted into sound adventures. As first performed in the Norwich underground, July 2015. Now available in its finished studio form to the entire cosmos!
"6 Degrees of Separation: 7 Degrees of Love. (ghazals, sonnets and villanelles) Sheriar Press.
poems inspired by the life and works of Meher Baba
(1894-1969)
January 31 2019
Bowthorpe Cemetery April 12 2019, on the fortieth anniversary of the event described on below (p.13 of the book). Despite a prolonged search down memory lane, on this occasion, very much older and infinitesimally wiser - and unlike previous revisits - I couldn't find the gravestone; but I was given this vision of new life (pictured above) instead.
The day we met[1]I stepped inside your door
To say goodbye forever, so hell bent
On every kind of unemployment,
Schoolboy-giggling at work so heaven-sure
But you knocked me senseless to the floor,
Saying heaven on earth was what you meant
Which rang an old school bell and testament
To the word on the street I was searching for.
Gaining heart, I crossed my city of the dead
To Easter Thursday chancing on a grave
Dated the day I was born and lay down.
‘What’s lost in the wasteland is found there,’ it said
‘Who loses himself for love will be saved,’
‘Who dies lives’ and my heart, lost to you, was found.
[1]I attended a Meher Baba introductory meeting at UEA, the University from which I’d recently graduated, on January 31 1979. The elderly speaker was Lady Dorothy Hopkinson. I was late arriving and giggled hysterically throughout. Dorothy had a physical condition that made her tremble in addition to which her Western intellectual audience was largely bemused or hostile. She affirmed with impressive moral courage a (to my ears) bizarre vision of the modern world but then concluded with her belief (which my heart shared though I lacked her moral spine to affirm it in public) that God can only be found within us. At the end, I felt I owed her at least the respect of apologizing for my rudeness before I turned my craven back on the whole adventure. She asked me if I wanted a hug. It was of course exactly what I wanted and I spent the next day wondering what had hit me. I resisted the explanation that the unfamiliar and joyous new sense of purpose – the now to me unmistakable presence of Meher Baba - had anything to do with that crazy meeting. But by Maundy Thursday 1979 I was living in a kind of vision and the poetic allegory described in this poem was actually happening in the ‘real’ world. An epiphany. The courtship - or perhaps the honeymoon - before the marriage.
Dr Who Am I and The Zen Trails of Hafiz (theDante-esque adventure described in Part B of the Book) is the soul's long journey home through hell on earth and the seven heavens to God. It has been made into a musical album with 24 page lyric booklet, featuring the poet and singer-songwriter Gabriella Tal. Like the book, it is called "6 Degrees of Separation; 7 Degrees of Love"
Publisher- http://www.sheriarbooks.org/
What is the book about?
Nothing. And Everything.
And the long love-longing to get from one to the other.
All the poems in the book are written for singing or some kind of musical performance.
"If God did not love music, the world could never have come into being;
And if men did not love music they would never get to God." (Francis Brabazon)
Part A - The Calling
Beyond Doing - Beyond Doing "You say Heavenly Moon, I say Beyond Doing" Poet and singer performing different sections of this ghazal in different ways.
The Word of the Street and the Love Craft (a rough mix)
The Word of the Street and the Love Craft (a rough mix)
Leila and Majnun; Lancelot and Guinevere
Part B - Dr Who Am I and The Zen Trails of Hafiz
'New mezzo del caiman di rostra vita.'
Taking my Dante pastiche to Florence:
Whoops! Hell 1 and Hell 2 are in the wrong order and it should be Perseus not Jason on p.43.
Perseus in the Piazza della Signori in Florence.
The poet as Dr Who Am I in the stage show of the book.
Apart from two villanelles, the book is made up of ghazals and sonnets. Here's one of the 'Hell' villanelles-
Some video and audio versions of the "Zen Trails of Hafiz" ghazals sung by Gabriella Tal:
Seeing Is Believing (film)
SEEING IS BELIEVING! a must hear!
But only God is real: This Is God
Gabriella's video sequence of these ghazals "Seven Flights of Love".
April 06, 2017
Goodbye Cruel World
Hear it realised as a sound poem here.
Film to follow:
An autumn leaf detaches itself from a tree and Falls. On it is some writing - a suicide note. The performer catches it in his hand.
The performer holds an antique magazine issue of Dante's inferno (vol 1 of 36, publ. 1903) with a burnt-brown cover. He is wearing shades and removes them during the Dis-tinted spectacles verse, only to restore them before the end. He indicates his heart on "This Not (knot) only love dares to tease undone." A modern take on Dante at the mouth of hell.
Now was the day departing, and the air
Embrown’d with shadows… (Inferno)
As fall off the light autumnal leaves
One still another following, till the bough
Strews all its honours on the earth beneath
E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood
Cast themselves, one by one, down from the shore
Each at a beck as falcon at his call. (Inferno)
The night train West voids a soiled brown note and leaves the downfall station;
Goodbye Cruel World - I trust you receive THIS communication.
The Zoo-break heart-freeze sin-beasts of Dante shadow the Circle Line,
Paddle up shit creeks out in the Styx to Dis-on-Vacation.
Spine-chilling out dark half glasses of Daily Hell, Bank Holiday
Messiahs Dis-May my heart; Dis Troy, dim Dante’s Vision.
God save me from my Dis-tinted spectacles’ bewitching
Bewildering shadows of Dis-appointment Dis-guised as Eden.
God save me from Dis-consolation Discourse, Fifty Shades
Of Grave; the pinched shrill of Avant-God; this don't know 'Who' we are from Adam.
The name is Bond. Adam in a Bond. The Actor Who Can't Go On.
Wash off this Who-do, not dis, not dis, this suicide mission.
Hell isn’t other people…….It’s ourselves, our self-fulfilling
Cock-up conspiracy clouds; our I-land’s alien nation.
Marx says to do is to be; Sartre to be is to do, Sinatra
Do be do be do this ‘Not’ only Love dares to tease undone.
Who to do or not to do? to be or not to be? Who’s that
At the tunnel’s end? Death. I embrace your oblivion.
Film to follow:
An autumn leaf detaches itself from a tree and Falls. On it is some writing - a suicide note. The performer catches it in his hand.
The performer holds an antique magazine issue of Dante's inferno (vol 1 of 36, publ. 1903) with a burnt-brown cover. He is wearing shades and removes them during the Dis-tinted spectacles verse, only to restore them before the end. He indicates his heart on "This Not (knot) only love dares to tease undone." A modern take on Dante at the mouth of hell.
Now was the day departing, and the air
Embrown’d with shadows… (Inferno)
As fall off the light autumnal leaves
One still another following, till the bough
Strews all its honours on the earth beneath
E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood
Cast themselves, one by one, down from the shore
Each at a beck as falcon at his call. (Inferno)
The night train West voids a soiled brown note and leaves the downfall station;
Goodbye Cruel World - I trust you receive THIS communication.
The Zoo-break heart-freeze sin-beasts of Dante shadow the Circle Line,
Paddle up shit creeks out in the Styx to Dis-on-Vacation.
Spine-chilling out dark half glasses of Daily Hell, Bank Holiday
Messiahs Dis-May my heart; Dis Troy, dim Dante’s Vision.
God save me from my Dis-tinted spectacles’ bewitching
Bewildering shadows of Dis-appointment Dis-guised as Eden.
God save me from Dis-consolation Discourse, Fifty Shades
Of Grave; the pinched shrill of Avant-God; this don't know 'Who' we are from Adam.
The name is Bond. Adam in a Bond. The Actor Who Can't Go On.
Wash off this Who-do, not dis, not dis, this suicide mission.
Hell isn’t other people…….It’s ourselves, our self-fulfilling
Cock-up conspiracy clouds; our I-land’s alien nation.
Marx says to do is to be; Sartre to be is to do, Sinatra
Do be do be do this ‘Not’ only Love dares to tease undone.
Who to do or not to do? to be or not to be? Who’s that
At the tunnel’s end? Death. I embrace your oblivion.
July 06, 2015
Lynn Festival shows, Hendrix, Beatles and a book at Christmas - my BBC radio interview on Sue Marchant's Big Night In
Hold you hard! 75 minutes into the programme, Sue Marchant interviews me about my crazy 4 shows in July and the Doin' Different ballad book on her Big Night In show (BBC Eastern Counties radio) here
Above , modelling the Hendrix show fifth heaven pilgrim - external eyes half open, internal eye beginning to see All - after my interview with the wonderful Sue Marchant.
Below, No More Mr Nice Guy, modelling my martyrdom as William Sawtrey. Method, darling.
Watch a trailer of the EWife of Lynn's Tale here
And an earlier interview with Breckland radio at the Folk in a Field festival here
June 22, 2015
Dr Who Am I And The Zen Trails of Hafiz: a trip through hell and heaven
BBC Eastern Counties radio interview on - starts 75 minutes into programme -here
sound promo - https://soundcloud.com/gaz29-1/hendrix-and-beatles-sound-bites
PERSIAN AIRWAYS BOARDING PASS:
THE LAST FLIGHT TO HEAVEN…. SUNDAY JULY 19 £7.50
TAKE OFF - 7.30 PM from THE BICYCLE SHOP,
17, ST. BENEDICT’S STREET, NORWICH, NR2 4PE
YOU CAN CAST ALL YOUR HANG UPS OVER THE SIDE…
450+ views for this post...
Tickets online here or on 01485 571828.
£7.50. Doors open 7.00 pm . 7.30 pm start. Interval and bar.
l to r Hendrix, Lt Sarah Ji O Who Ru, Dr Who Am I...
All photos by Mark Gregory
Part of Room at the Hanse Theatre Company's Four Shows In July, as featured in the Lynn News A magical combination of Hendrix music, poetry and theatre.
Slide down the cobra of Shiva and soar up Jacob's ladder with us.
Follow Dr Who Am I’s astro-knight grail quest through inner space - with Hendrix playing in the cosmic elevators.
It is Easter 1967. Dr Who Am I's life is a Dis-aster. He needs to get away from it all and find himself. He books the Tardis in for a major TOM and himself onto the Last Flight to Heaven, posing as timewaster Agent Whodo Do-be-do-be.
The love craft is a Hafiz, named after the 14C Persian mystic, perfect man and poet revered throughout the East.
Seventh Heaven agent 007 is missing, believed killed, survived by a 'suicide' note, written in whirling Dhervish.
Co-pilot Lt O-Who Ru - currently employed on the Inner Space station baggage check - topped the NASA tests but in 1967 was not allowed to fly moon missions. However, she speaks whirling Dervish and can translate Hafiz's flight manual.
and knows everything - except how to be and what to do... Is Hendrix with the trip or on a suicide mission...?
Experience a science mystical Universe, a parallel version of Dante's.
Lt O-Who-Ru ....Taj Kandula (voice)
Jimi Hendrix.....John William (guitar and vocals)
Hear Gareth's original demo
https://soundcloud.com/gaz29-1/hell
https://soundcloud.com/gaz29-1/purgatory (heaven part 1)
https://soundcloud.com/gaz29-1/the-last-four-heavens (heaven part 2)
Dante and the text:
The whole odyssey including Hell on Earth adapts The Vision of Dante Alighieri. It's the 750th birthday of Dante this year. They tell us only his Inferno suits the modern mind. But ruin your measly little Inferno ... and come with us to heaven... The view is amazing...
The Seven Heavens are as described in 'The Nothing and the Everything' by Bhau Kalchuri (the author) and Meher Baba (the source).
I used to live in a room full of mirrors
And all I could see was me
So I took my spirit and I smashed my mirrors
Now the whole world is here for me to see. (Hendrix)
**************************************************************
Heaven 004: At The Kuber Pass: Facing The Death Star In His Lucifer Starship
Hear it here
Tu dastgu shu ay khizr I pay khujastih, kih man
Piyadih miravam o hamrahan savaranand (Hafiz)
“O august master, lead me by the hand because I am traversing the Path on foot (helplessly) as compared with other companions who are riding along it.”
I see Lucifer didn’t fall – he was Pushed, by God's Whim;
God’s full Power garlands my neck, Shiva’s cobra coiling.
Nothing can stop him, this endless serpent, desire-unbridling
King of creation, his Potency can do anything.
Hell’s chaos-king farts new cosmoses, bursts worlds like bubbles;
Raises ghosts, zombies; possesses dead souls; haunts the living.
Caught between two worlds, my screen’s locked on both, my ace fuel low.
Humming occult energy eclipses thought, risks Grail’s destroying.
‘Lucifers’ have Omnipotent Divine Power, but no
Directions for use; a Joy-stick that’s stuck, controls missing.
‘Here’s the source of Earth’s destruction and the Wasteland’s dead root.
Yet here, also, Hope’s bright Threshold: the Grail that tips her wing.
Satan’s Eye thinks Earth’s destruction, and the Earth’s doom starts there
Straight away: all-anger, he wastes lands by thought’s dark willing.
King of all except himself, at black-hole tipping point of
Falling every moment, roving-proud-Eyed, All-desiring.
Owning everything there is; Eyeing everything he owns, he
Locks me with his black-hole glance, and into dust I’m crumbling.
Lucifer trolls, transforming from light-winged merlins
Flown by lesser masters, roar up the limitless ceiling.
Light flows from within - without, above, below, all round me,
Streams behind, before, the white rose of a bright noon’s shining.
Shielded thus, ‘Lancelot’ soars, high as an archangel’s sword
Sheathed in spells Morganna sings, Mother of All-healing.
Cutting edge, State of the Ark, pure simple light, Christ to sky
Risen; as a hundred rays to the Sun connecting.
Closely guarded Key to the spirit world - Infinite Power
Without Gnosis, all heavenly Secret enchantments, turning.
Who-do-be do-being; Voodoo-be do-being, Who-do-be
Done being, Voodoo-be done being, Dis-Dissed, Dis-Dissing...
Satan peaks, HOT FEELING HARD-WIRED, ALL-SUBLIME-THOUGHT KISSING:
MOI!- gone– thinks he’s stone now, lies flat on the floor in ruin.
Highest ace, your measured mind beats the Lucifer in flight.
Love remains, the love’s you: sends your dark side Kuber-flushing.
*
Notes:
The form is the Persian ghazal, Hafiz’s favourite. It combines a formal control with a passionate content.
The Sun is a metaphor in this sequence but the reality of this life-giving heart and home of light is astonishing: visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b048nlfb
Women topped the NASA tests in the 60s, especially the endurance of boredom and pain, but didn't fly moon missions until the 80s due to ‘lack of combat experience’. Dr Who experiences each heaven in both genders.
For more mind-blowing stuff about the seven heavens and seven planes see ‘The Nothing and The Everything’ by Meher Baba/Bhau Kalchuri, published by Manifestation Inc, California, 1981.
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