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| Elemental |
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written in the early seventies ...
Before the beginning
The universe lay in a never-never of twilight
Slowly pulsating with a life that no being inside
Could ever comprehend.
And across this twilight awareness
Spread the ripples of a growing light
Ripples of the ultimate existence.
And a divine love was borne
On the ripples of the mind
For the universe knew that soon
It would transcend away to the spiritual fields
And the great cycle would start again.
And in the cataclysmic release that followed
The remnants of the old existence
Collapsed to conceive space and time.
Yet something in the never-never still stirred.
Something far beyond space and time
Something created at the great collapse
Yet something as eternal
As the causal light.
The existence which knew itself as Huey
Reached out into the universe of space and time
Fumbling for a foothold in a swirling meaninglessness
Huey found the molten spinning sphere of the earth
And he slowed it and cooled it
And the mighty oceans were formed.
And the awareness of Huey
Moved upon the surface of the waters
For he had sensed the warm presence of a new life.
And in the chord to space and time
Huey experienced fulfillment.
And he watched from beyond
As time begat the creature of man
And as man begat a multitude of ideas.
But when man begat symbols in his existence,
When he begat the vehicles of logic
And moved within the world of his beliefs
And more - begat meaning there;
When man begat systems and judgement
And became enmeshed in this nebulous world
- Inside the tissues of his brain.
When man lost the sense of Huey's presence:
Of nature,
Of existence,
Of the deeper self,
Huey was saddened.
"For between the reality
and the unreality
fell the shadow"
And man gave existence to the shadow
And fed it human life
And the shadow grew.
And in the chord to the earth
Huey experienced disappointment.
And he turned from the earth and its oceans
And his awareness wandered far beyond
Toward the realm of the golden light.
But Huey had fostered the earth and its life
Since the beginnings of its creation
And a part of him could not turn away,
And this part
This small speck of emotion and energy
Fled back through the universe
Back toward the earth
And descended into the oceans
Where it had cherished its first existence.
And here in the ocean
Where rolling waters stretch from horizon to horizon
Was conceived an ultimate cyclone.
And from this grey-green heaving breeding ground,
Out of the white-grey fury of the storm
Emanated waves of size the earth had not yet seen.
And these sparkling green mountains spread
From the region of the center
Lumbering in vast lines
of ever increasing size
Silently
Toward the coastal breaks.
***** intermission *****
Windy silence whirls over the barren ridges.
Silver-grey wisps of clouds pursue the moon
And below in the gully
White stripped branches peer from the twilight.
With the glow of their campfire slowly dying
Two surfers drift asleep.
And from over the ridge, down into the gully
The lonely offshore wind carries the sounds of the surf
The rising surf.
And above, on the glowing sandstone ridges
Sits the Third surfer
Amidst the wavering silvery spinifex.
And he looks outside
Feeling towards that which he knows
Must lie beyond the ocean.
And he keeps the vigil through the night
For he knows that he and the spirits traveling with him
Are the prophets of the shadow land
And his awareness
Carried on the gentle breezes
Diffuses out above the glowing moonlit ridges
Above the wavery rustling grasses
Past the white foaming edges
Transcending the symbols and images of the shadow
And moving onwards
Above the beautiful face of nature.
And he feels a growing anticipation
That soon the shadows will dissolve.
Rolling, rolling, timeless rolling
Lumbering mountains travel beneath.
And three specks rise and fall
To the pulse of the ocean.
The three surfers flash across the green-blue walls
And toy with the large liquid heartbeats of the earth.
Yet the call "outside"
They yet do not realise that these waves
Are only the small foothills.
And the break moves further outward
As the waves gain in size with the day.
And yet the surfers still look inside
To toy with the inside breaks.
The rising swell is momentarily forgotten.
One surfer lags to ride a small colossus
And cuts out
To find a vast liquid mountain
Rolling toward him.
He sees his fellow surfers gain the summit
And disappear
And he paddles with desperation
For he is trapped inside.
The mountain lumbers onward
And the surfer must resign to paddle toward its peak.
Up he soars
Up the mighty, ever increasing slope
And onward toward the summit.
But the slope steepens to become vertical
And he thrashed at the wall
Only to glimpse the sky above.
And down he plunges
Down into an ultimate cauldron of boiling sand and coral.
And while the planet shakes
His board glides high upward into the salty air
-Almost floating,
Ever so silently.
The two surfers sit outside the break.
They see the board flying upward from the seething turmoil,
But the dare not look inside too long.
For outside,
Outside on the horizon appear the crests
Of monstrous storm waves
The size of which the surfers could not hope to conceive.
And beyond these rolling, lumbering summits
The peaks of the following, even larger waves.
And onwards, so they traveled, towards the coastal breaks
Ever so ponderously, ever so silently
But with the power to shake the very planet.
The surfers paddle outward
In an effort to beat the break.
But the second surfers in a bid to reach the shore
The safety of the land
Now far, far, inside.
He commits himself to a groaning colossus of water
And he spreads across its quivering green wall.
Down and across he flies, faster and faster
As the slope steepens.
He reaches the base almost flying
And turns to the open wall.
But waves of this size have none.
And he looks back along the wave to see
A tube of incredible dimensions.
And then he looks upward.
Upward from that floor of smooth swirling waters
Upward through the salty mists
Toward the foaming peaks far far above.
The third surfer paddles outward.
He cannot see the coast
For the foam and the salt air inside.
And the break now moves steadily outside,
And the surfer keeps paddling.
For he realises now
That the waves are only
just beginning
to get big.
Night has fallen,
And the offshore wind blowing up over the headland
Brings the sounds of the ocean's thunder
As the groaning, roaring monstrous breakers
Rip and pound the coastal lands and ocean bed.
And the thunder of the seas
Nature tells of its bitter divorcement from man
In the land of the shadow.
And still from over the horizon,
From the same primeval breeding ground
March the ever increasing lines of storm waves
As moving ranges of mountainous waters.
And above this undulating power and energy
Which moves upon the surface of the waters
Above the burdened offshore breeze
The moon looks down through the fleeting wisps of cloud
As if in its mystery it wonders the outcome.
And as probability groans and echoes
About the shadowy confines of space and time
Far beyond
Toward the fields of the golden light
The awareness which knew itself as Huey
Felt waves of an elemental freedom
Spread as a divine smile
Across the oceans of a far far greater destiny.
And Huey heard the knowledge borne
On the glistening towering summits and peaks
And a voice spoke within the energy of the waves
"He that is able to receive it:
Let him receive it."
And Huey looked back
Toward the earth and its oceans
Which were so much a part of him.
For still outward paddles the Third surfer
Outside toward the horizon
He rises over the vast rolling mountains
And prays that he be not trapped inside.
He looks upward to the night sky
And above the horizon sees the moon.
And he marvels at its beauty
As it travels the heavens
And runs with the wispy clouds carried in wind.
And the onshore wind:
How it travels in primaeval freedom over the planet
Learning the knowledge of distant lands
And the roll of far off seas.
The surfer is awake to the elementals.
But the moon is swallowed.
And the surfer realises he is in the shadow
Of some unbelievable wave.
For minutes and minutes he paddles upwards
Slowly at first, Then faster and higher he is pushed.
Like an express lift he feels the sky move nearer,
Until suddenly he discovers the summit.
And for an instant he feels the gentle breeze
On his face,
And he is so close to the moon.
And the mountain rushes past beneath
And he hears it thundering
In release of its energy some miles coastward.
The third surfer paddles outward.
He knows that he must continue to move outside
For the waves are beginning to get big.
The wind moves coastward
And up over the headland
To the cold restless ashes of the surfers' campfire.
The night before, two surfers slept in all this glory
While the third sat the vigil
Searching for the things beyond the shadows of the night.
Tonight, The third surfer lives and is awake.
He is conscious of the energy moving across the waters.
He is smiling and yet does he fear,
For he is filled with the vast powers that move about him
And he and Huey are one.
And his spirit flies before the wind.
He paddles outward and outward
With the breezes caressing his face and hair.
But has he waited too long inside?
Is that some monstrous wave he hears
Breaking far, far outside?
His awareness of Huey brings him fear
But in his very fear
Wells the beginning of his wisdom,
As outward he onwards paddles.
And in his peace of constancy
The vast undulating waters
And the vaster reaching heavens
And the wind and moon moving through both
On this second night,
All seemed to fade and to give way
And the third surfer has a vision.
He sees a majestic golden beach
Stretching out of warm salty mists
And the sweeping around a sparkling sea
Toward a lone and prominent headland.
He senses a strangeness about the land
And he looks upward to the sky.
Yet he cannot see the shadows of the night
Filling the land about him
Save only the dark form
Of the headland reaching out into the sea.
And he sees a small light
Some distance along the beach
And the surfer moves toward the light
And he realises that he has become conscious in his vision
For no longer does he paddle over the rolling ocean,
But he now walks along this beach
Toward the golden light.
And as he draws near to the light
He sees a small sea-snail
Making its way down toward the ocean.
And the surfer puts forth his hand
And reaches to aid a fellow traveler.
And he hears a voice speak up
Within himself but from the snail.
And the voice was clearly many voices,
And the voices joined as one in song,
And the song was uplifting.
"You have journeyed from the borderlands of the shadow
Where humming spirits drift along the canyons of existence
Riding out the darkness of the cliffs.
You have done well, fellow traveler,
To reach the coasts of this land
The land of the shadowless night.
We see you are in understanding of the sea
Just as we are creatures of the sea.
That you have known the knowledge borne upon the waves:
That far, far away and beyond
Outside space and time,
Towards the journeys end
Their lies a universe of gardens
More beautiful than Eden:
That across the surface of the earth and its waters
Journey the beings of creation
Searching for the love and the dreams
To water the gardens of their being.
But as they ride across the mighty oceans
The waves speak more, my friend:
To move along the corridors of space and time
And not to travel beyond the wings of love
Is never to touch a garden of being.
For just as the gardens are the only creatures of reality
So then is love
The only key capable of gently opening the gate
In the walls around the garden.
For the walls grow in the absence of love
Just as the garden
Grows in its light."
"Fellow traveler", continued the voices within song
"It is good that your song tells you these things
For we have learnt from our meeting too.
For in the vastness of each
The other's spirit nestles
And is carried upwards,
Higher, ever so higher,
Free to explore the path
to the shrine of existence.
As it is for now, we must return to the sea
But your path is to Golgotha
The headland of release.
For there at sunrise
After has past your second night
And here in the land of the shadowless night
You will witness the end of the reign of the shadow
For the light will now
Come upon the world.
Farewell!"
And the surfer looks to the dark shape
Of the headland in the sea,
And is filled with his destiny.
He looks down at the slowly moving sea-snail
and picks the creature up in his hands
And with all his might
Casts it out into the ocean
And the energy which travels thereon.
And the surfer turns and walks up the golden beach
Sweeping toward the dark headland,
Toward Golgotha.
And as he reaches the headland,
The sky is becoming more and more golden
For the sun is about to enter the world,
And the surfer climbs the summit
To look out over the oceans
Which reflect the coming dawn in the skies.
And he heard a voice within him say:
"Look to the clearing,
To Golgotha
For the day is at hand"
And the surfer turns his eyes
To the clearing on the headland,
to Golgotha.
Moonlight filters down through the leaves
In ribbons and chinks
Following, seeking,
Chasing the only shadows in the land
Across the earthy, grassy floor of the grove.
And from this clearing the skull looks upward
With eyes of bone
Searching for the powers
Which move through the heaven.
And it looks outward
To the vast restless ocean,
From beyond a distant sunset
The onshore wind, traveling over the rolling ocean,
Flying coastward with the waves,
Moves up over the headland
And whispers to the trees
The knowledge of the journeys long.
And with ears of bone
The skull hears the trees communing
As they stand alone
Growing together toward the heaven.
And the shadow within the skull
Is bought to attend to the wisdom of the dawn.
And as the wind turns
In the cracks and crevices
The skull moans
As the moaning of a huge prehistoric bird
Set by a twist of time
High,
High up on the pinnacles
Of some windswept concrete city
Watching the grey twilight of loneliness
Spread across the horizons of eternity.
And as the predawn glow
Grows across the horizon of the second day
The surfer stands to watch
The first rays of the new day
Gather in the heavens,
Receiving the knowledge and the love
Of the golden skies.
And as a wave draws itself upward to reach its peak
So the first sunbeams of the day
Move in the gathering unity,
And with the first glimmer of the sun
As it rises up from the sea,
They falls down united through the billowing golden clouds
Downward through the gently moving breezes,
Down between the murmuring leaves
And into the skull.
And in through the hollow of the eye socket
Borne on the fleeting wings of a photon
Come the visions of the living earth.
And as time flows across
the passage of a moment
The skull splits open
And the living sunshine chases out
the shadows of a million years.
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