This Silent Voice
Current mood: pirate
Category: Writing and Poetry

I write words in sand

And messages on water,

Whisper to the wind

Questions I had no chance

To ask of you.

Trapped in this silence

Not knowing

If just for a moment

I stole your heart.

I tell the bees

There is no human ear

Entrusted with my secret

My poems to you

Are carved in the sky

Littered prettily in meadows

Where none will read them

And I listen to the larks

For news of you.

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Hunting the Egret Excerpt
Current mood: wild

They were going to kiss. He could not have said how he knew this, and although the voice of reason in his mind told him this was a bad idea, he made no move to resist. Her lips closed against his, bestowing the lightest whisper of a kiss. It seemed so very easy to cup her face in his hands and kiss back. He could remember how to make the right moves, how to part his lips and offer up his tongue, even though he hadn't shared such an intimacy in years. Hers were cautious kisses at first, just nibbling at him and teasing the tip of her tongue against his mouth. Her arms found their way around his waist, and something caught her— confidence, lust, he knew not which. He could feel the change in the way she moved. Her lips pressed hungrily over his. Then all he could think about was the softness of her mouth, the feel of her moist flesh inside him, with slippery and tangling tongues cavorting as their lips crushed together. His fingers found her neck, her shoulders. He pulled his glasses off with one hand so that he could get his face closer to hers.

"I really wasn't going to do that," Verity said.

"Neither was I."

"It probably wasn't a good idea," she added.

"No," he agreed. "It wasn't, I'm not a good bet I'm afraid."

"That's usually my line." Verity smiled.

4:17 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Random poetic scribblings
Current mood: adventurous
Category: Writing and Poetry

When the dust settles

I am in love with your voice,

Those seductively rich tones,

Emotive, tantalising.

I remember when we talked

Late into the night,

Low and secretive.

Words humming with possibility.

Sharing obscure delight.

Girls who dress as boys.

Stories from times past.

An hour to remember.

Time stolen from reality.

When I close my eyes,

When I recall, and listen

I hear you still.

Sometimes I know you,

In glimmers of intuition

I want to trust.

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Hunting the Egret

Some years ago I wrote 'The Shifting Heart' - a darkly erotic otter shapeshifter story. I always meant to return to otter shapeshifters, but it took me a while to find the right story. This one is set on the banks of the River Severn - I grew up near to that river and love the Gloucestershire countryside. There's a mix of real places and pure fiction in the tale.

Verity is an absolute outsider. Daughter of a shifter, and granddaughter of a witch, she was never going to find life amongst normal people easy. Her love affairs are usually brief and unsatisfying. Then she meets Gareth, a troubled and damaged submissive with a terrible history. As couples go, they are unlikely - he's a rational scientist, and she's impossible in his understanding of how the world works.

The Egrets are new arrivals in the UK, a quite etheral bird, related to cranes and herons. I fell in love with them over the internet, and saw them in the wild not long after completing the book.

Tom Brown has created a stunningly beautiful cover for this one.

The book is available from www.loveyoudivine.com

2:02 PM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Alcester

Just a few words about this year's festival at Alcester. Great to catch up with Mike Agranoff, who had me weeping with laughter... lovely to see His Worship and the Pig, GU4, Pete Castle, Colin Pitts, and Cerri Davies - all good performers who I have seen and enjoyed in the past. New to me were Sarah McQuaid, Barrel of Baddies, Les Sullivan, and the Harvesters. Much to considere there for future folk club bookings.

It was also great to catch up with old Birmingham Trad people - Alan, Eric, dave and Sue, Andrea - as I've not been to said club for a few months now. We had a bit of a sing outside and when the weather turned nasty, we took over the rotunda and had a big circle of singers and musicians running into the early hours of the Sunday morning.

Roll on the winter festival!

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Dyan Garris blog tour
Category: Music

Healer and author Dyan Garris is on a blog tour, so I asked her a few questions about her musical work.

1)     What is it about music that makes it a good healing tool?..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Music soothes the very soul. On vibrational levels music has the ability to move and shift energy patterns. If you've ever felt moved by a piece of music you know what I mean. You have just felt that music in your heart chakra, where it "moved" you vibrationally. We feel music with our souls rather than process it with our brains. Music can help us integrate the etheric bodies with the physical body.

2)     What kinds of music do you find most effective to work with?

I'm a composer and performer of music in the New Age genre, but that is a really broad way of putting it. Personally, I find it most effective to work with soothing, relaxing, ethereal music.

3)     Do you consider participation, performance and live music benificial?

Yes. With live performances you end up having a group dynamic going on. The energy flows from the performer and into and through the group and then back to the performer. It's very powerful medicine. It's like electricity making a complete circuit.

4)     What issues are most effectively treated with music therapy?

I think most issues can be treated effectively with music, however, anyone that needs unblocking of the heart chakra will benefit from music therapy because music flows so easily to that chakra and opens is automatically. However, as I said, the other chakras benefit as well. Music with a strong beat can be very grounding, (working on the first chakra) as well as centering (working on the third chakra) and so forth. Music can unblock things in the body when nothing else has worked.

5)     How did you get into this particular line of work?

That's a really long story, Bryn. But simplified, in childhood a blind piano teacher taught me to feel music in a whole different way and through "different" eyes. And then playing the violin taught me how music vibrates through the physical body and through the etheric bodies as well. In the early 1990s I wrote a guided meditation  - A Healing Journey – which became the foundation for all of my work, the Voice of the Angels – A Healing Journey Spiritual cards, the entire line of music and meditation CDs for Automatic Chakra Balance,™ and everything else that naturally followed. In 2005 I heard entire songs from the angels and I wrote them down as fast as I could. That turned into my first CD in the series. And after that the rest of the CDs were channeled to me as well.  It's been a very interesting "Healing Journey."

For more information about Dyan Garris and her virtual tour, you can check the full schedule at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/04/dyan-garris-may-schedule.html and there are more details at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/04/dyan-garris-may-blog-tour.html.  Her website is full of great details about all of the items within her "toolbox" and there are many special features. She provides the tools you need to have a full and happy life – www.voiceoftheangels.com and it's not as hard to achieve as you think. Visit Dyan's Amazon profile for links to many of her products - http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AYREZNHQDLRFM/.

6:21 AM - 1 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Closing the Circle
Category: Writing and Poetry

Jeanette Stevens novel 'Closing the Circle' is now out at www.loveyoudivine.com

I can't claim to be a disinterested party, because I edited this one. But as someone who knows the book intimately, I consider myself qualified to talk about it!

With a Celtic setting, 'Closing the Circle' follows the fate of a man captured in battle and obliged to live as a slave. The dwisewoman takes him into her home, heals him, dominates him, teaches him and gives him a new life. As Barra, the slave, grows and learns to cope with the way he has been transformed, he comes to realise that all is not well with his mistress. She might teach him sex magic and spirituality through sexuality, but is unable to accept anything for herself. Here begins a journey of healing, full of generosity and beauty.

I found it a very moving and affecting tale. Anyone who has ever had their sexual confidence shaken, or been hurt sexually (is there anyone out there who hasn't?) this is an inspiring, healing piece of writing. In addition, its a great story with some engaging characters, a fascinating setting and some very powerful magic.

www.loveyoudivine.com

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Skin Art and Druidry
Category: Life

Four years ago, or thereabouts, I started out with the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids course. I promised myself that if I completed it, I would have the Druid Symbol tattooed onto my skin. Having reached the winding up stages of the course, I felt the time had come.

Last Saturday morning I went to the tatoo place on Mount Pleasant, nervous and high and all over the place. A delightful young man did the tattoo for me, and listened with remarkable patience as I explained what it was, what it meant and why it mattered. 'Everyone has their reasons' he said. I wondered how many confessions he'd heard.

So now its in the process of healing, which is slow because of my steel allergy, but I'm getting there, and very proud of it. It didn't really hurt all that much, and I have a beautiful blood awen from the pad that was used as a dressing.

A Pictish creature next? Not sure.

There's an erotic tatooing tale of mine over at www.loveyoudivine.com 'Virgin Skin' - quite a dark tale about reclaiming your body.

11:28 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Busking

I’ve been busking again the last few weeks - which has mostly been cold, and today it was wet so I gave up early. I’ve noticed I get a lot of agro from young men. Taunts, criticism, piss taking, that sort of thing. There’s always a few. A very angry young man shouted ’get a life’ as he walked past me today. I find myself wondering what it is about me singing and playing in the street that inspires such anger and resentment.

As all these lads have to do is wander round Redditch of a lunch hour, they clearly have no legs to stand on when it comes to ’geting a life’. What I’m doing isn’t normal of course - standing up on my own in a public place, playing weird instruments (bouzouki, violin, viola, none of it electric) and doing folk music of all things. I stared a couple of the piss takers down today, watching them nervously maintain eye contact as they made their escape, noticing how uncomfortable they looked. Why are they so bothered by me? What are they afraid of? Why do I make them angry? So many of them feel the urge to do something that draws attention to themselves, in response to my presenbce. Most curious. I’d dearly like to know what it’s all about. Perhaps the next one who does this will get more than he bargined for!

6:19 AM - 1 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

Alcester in February!

Alcester festival had a fundraiser this weekend, and a bloody good weekend it was too! I particularly enjoyed seeing GU4 (excellent 4 part harmony group) George Papavgeris (hope I spelled that right!) the wonderful Duncan McFarlane (who I followed round, but as stalkers go, I'm quite friendly). Sadly I missed Tom Bliss and Young No More, His Worship and the Pig, and Pennyroyal - all of who I really like, but wasn't quite organised enough to get to.

I also got to play in the Saturday night concert - Dave James and I had a set, and the feedback was good. Beforehand, I was nervous as hell, but once we got out there and I realised I couldn't see beyond the first row, its was quite good fun. I'm terrified of microphones - I use them so rarely and am not good at keeping still while playing, but sound-guy Lawrence was brilliant, so I didn't spend much time stressing over that in the end. So, the new bouzouki has had its first proper gig (I used it for a cover of Dan McKinnon's River song).

I'm really looking forward to the main festival in the summer, and hope they do another one of these next year.

5:58 AM - 2 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment