TEMPEST, Kate
From ‘Brand New Ancients’
See - all that we have here is all that we've always had.
We have jealousy
and tenderness and curses and gifts.
But the plight of a people who have forgotten their myths
and imagine that somehow now is all that there is
is a sorry plight,
all isolation and worry -
but the life in your veins
it is godly, heroic.
You were born for greatness;
believe it. Know it.
Take it from the tears of the poets.
There's always been heroes
and there's always been villains
and the stakes may have changed
but really there's no difference.
There's always been greed and heartbreak and ambition
and bravery and love and trespass and contrition -
we're the same beings that began, still living
in all of our fury and foulness and friction,
everyday odysseys, dreams and decisions . . .
The stories are there if you listen.
The stories are here,
the stories are you,
and your fear
and your hope
is as old
as the language of smoke,
the language of blood,
the language of
languishing love.
The Gods are all here.
Because the gods are in us.
The gods are in the betting shops
the gods are in the caff
the gods are smoking fags out the back
the gods are in the office blocks
the gods are at their desks
the gods are sick of always giving more and getting less
the gods are at the rave -
two pills deep into dancing -
the gods are in the alleyway laughing
The man Tiresias
It came out of nowhere.
All teeth and tussle.
Shouting like huge crowds behind him.
It stamped on his bones.
It shovelled his muscle.
Alone in a clearing where no one would find him.
He writhed in its jaws:
his lovers flashed past him.
The routine, the dinners, the dishes.
He felt the dense forest
close in and enchant him.
Cleansed of his longing for kisses.
He rose like a wreck on a winch.
Swaying and derelict.
Suddenly boy again. Soon to be man.
All of his grief was a burden to keep
deep down in his guts.
And he turned and he ran.
Fighting with shadows.
Swinging at birds as they laughed.
Too shaken to hate what had happened.
All that he'd learned to be true
fell to pieces.
He stared at the sun till it blackened.
Watching his body like it wasn't his.
He pushed his new shape
to the edge of the clearing.
And found the red road
that led out of the city.
And screamed until no one could hear him.
He journeyed for days,
until he was purified.
Feasting on tree bark and roadkill and petrol.
Macho man; ate cars for breakfast.
Natural man; skin the same texture as cactus.
Hands grew wild and dextrous and flew at his side like two kestrels.
His feet became tougher than limpets
his eyes became keener than knives,
his breath melted padlocks.
He heard a leaf falling
from five miles away,
and he moved like a dog on a ham hock.
All knowledge was his
and he learned the old words
for the things that he saw. He spoke out their names.
He learned to forget
his hurt and regret
he walked on his own, legs like two flames.
He grew dirty and tired and thirsty,
at the next town
he decided to stop at the bar.
And he saw then: no matter how far you have come,
you can never be further than right where you are.
People's Faces
It's coming to pass
My countries coming apart
The whole thing's becoming
Such a bumbling farce
Was that a pivotal historical moment
We just went stumbling past?
Here we are
Dancing in the rumbling dark
So come a little closer
Give me something to grasp
Give me your beautiful, crumbling heart
Another disaster
Catharsis
Another half-discarded mirage
Another mask slips
I face off with the physical
My head's ringing from the love of the stars
There is too much pretence here
And too much depends on the fragile wages
And extortionate rents here
We're working every dread day that is given us
Feeling like the person people meet
Really isn't us
Like we're going to buckle underneath the trouble
Like any minute now
The struggle's going to finish us
And then we smile at all our friends
It's hard
We got our heads down and our hackles up
Our back's against the wall
I can feel you aching
None of this was written in stone
There is nothing we're forbidden to know
And I can feel things changing
Even when I'm weak and I'm breaking
I'll stand weeping at the train station
'Cause I can see your faces
There is so much peace to be found in people's faces
I saw it roaring
I felt it clawing at my clothes like a grieving friend
It said
"There are no new beginnings
Until everybody sees that the old ways need to end"
But it's hard to accept that we're all one and the same flesh
Given the rampant divisions between oppressor and oppressed
But we are though
More empathy
Less greed
More respect
All I've got to say has already been said
I mean, you heard it from yourself
When you were lying in your bed and couldn't sleep
Thinking couldn't we be doing this
Differently?
I'm listening to every little whisper in the distance singing hymns
And I can
I can feel things
Changing
But it's so hard
…..
It's not enough
To imagine we'll be happy, when we've got enough stuff
All this stuff is blocking us
I'm neat with no chaser
I'm all spirit but I'm sinking
Beause the days are not days but strange symptoms
This age is our age
But our age is rage sinking to beige
And yes our children are brave
But their mission is vague
Now I don't have the answers
But there are still things to say
I stare out at my city on another difficult day
And I scream inwardly
When will this change
I'm beginning to fade
But my sanity's saved, 'cause I can see your faces
My sanity's saved
'Cause I can see your faces
It’s hard
…..
Grace
It was Grace
Stunned by the last light of the sun
We were swimming in a green sea, as deep as a drum
There are things I must record, must praise
There are things I have to say about the fullness and the blaze
Of this beautiful life
The beloved watched the world on its knees with an infinite degree of separation
That was something to see
And my friend told me death is like taking off a tight shoe
And when I stopped looking for me
I was able to find you
Right there where everything is, transcendent
I can feel myself opening up, getting closer
No hope is enough
I've stopped hoping, I'm learning to trust
I came to under that red moon
I was completely crushed
Please use me
Please move through me
Please unscrew me
Please loosen me up
Make music with me
Make everything stop
Make noise and make silence with me
Make love
Let me be love
Let me be loving
Let me give love, receive love and be nothing but love
In love and for love and with love
In love and for love and with love
Surrender, I do surrender
Move through me and feel me get out of the way
And tune into something more deep and reflective than what's to be achieved
Or perceived
Or affected
What's my problem?
I'm always drawn back to that wrestling match
Ten thoughts in the ring of my mind playing catch
I can't live for the noise in my head
I just want to dig a big ditch in the soil of my breath and bury my brain there
But love said
"If you bring forth what is within you
What you bring forth will save you
But if you do not bring forth what is within you
What you do not bring forth will destroy you"
It was Grace
Stunned by the last light of the sun
Swimming in a green sea as deep as a drum
There are things I must record, must praise
There are things I have to say about the fullness and the blaze
Of this beautiful life, of this beautiful life