Prelude:

This is our mantra
patter noster
words our voice said
phrases repeated
spoken together
older younger
matins compline
now forgotten
as meaningless jargon
thy will be done
What will be done?
- desire of the universe
Who will do it?
through whose life
when, where, how?
Questions unanswered
answers unquestioned

Daily bread is not tomorrow’s
tägliches Brot not yesterday’s
carpe diem, seize the message
open-minded receive and learn -
deep in nature’s curious kingdom
we arise, adapt and change
while beyond our earthly planet
our intensive brainwaves range -
Do we trespass? – who’ll forgive us?
Can we forgive our trespassers:
those who would confine, prevent us
listening to the messengers?

This our mantra
our chant our dance
our gathering, feasting
our wisdom-field
pain de ce jour
draw its sustaining
strength for the step ahead -
breathe out the wastage
from mind and blood -
we will be tested
and misunderstood
yet we keep balance
hold hands with each other
dancing onward
like fireflies in darkness
shining our weakness
through the strewn minefield
of little brown Earth

Allemande:

Steady now forward march
step by clichéd step langweilig
we want to run, to fly, to break-
dance, to climb, to mountain bike
to snowboard, surf-ride
deep-sea dive, rally drive -
why hang about for word
from philosopher or poet?
We’ll taste and see, vision blinded
addicted to the latest gadget –
Zeitgeist? Zeitgemäss?
Keeping time? Outdoing time

We put to death whoever warns us
everytime, we will not hear;
yet when Mandela speaks forgiveness
we recognise his great-heartedness;
why not Israel, why not try
another way, the other cheek
ecce homo Palestinian
why not listen, why not speak?
Words are gifts we have as humans
to sound us out and understand
yet we tie our tongues and exile
heart and sense in no-hope-land

Out of time and out of place
out of kilter the human race
running out of food and water
squandering the oil and gas
wind and sun and wave may save us
not without exacting price
will we respect them, realise
love:
the required sacrifice?

Courante

Down by the river
le pont d’Avignon
we float on for ever
like twigs on the water
we find our way further
and into the mid-stream
bearing a sun-beam
divided re-gathered
we dance on the ledges
caught in the sedges
skid under bridges
not fishes not midges
not dippers not divers
we are the free floaters
who cares where we’re going
as long as we’re flowing

Sarabande:

we dare say, we can feel
we must think and these three
in community, make humanity

don’t ask much.
expect work
for children
we listen
we love them
we earn them

look after us
the unborn ones
be there for us
we grow minds
to fly with them
and still you
peck around the pen

we dare say we’re dancing
support us, don’t thwart us
we give the world
as we are given
duende
a destiny
we can feel, we do think
we dare say, we must speak

Gigue

if life is a jig or a twirl or a whirl
or a neat minuet where we practise the steps
or a g-g-gavotte we do - or we’re not
going to - join in the dance
while particles spin through the world
and the brain and we seldom can tell who
concocted the spell or if not interfered with
life could work some magic yet we
want to enjoy once again (ere we die)
the tune and the turn
so we take up the fiddle and step to
the middle till mopping the brow we finish

and bow