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A cycle of poems celebrating the earth.
About the poems
"Songs for Gaia" is a cycle of 51 poems: songs, hymns, praise poems and laments for nature personified as the living being of Earth. They belong to no religious tradition but weave elements of many different times, traditions and cultures. There are echoes of Jewish and Christian liturgy, and forms and cadences borrowed from Sufi poems and Hindu devotion. There are elements from various oral traditions as well: African praise poetry, European folk traditions, Native American song, Siberian and Eskimo cultures and others.
These traditions seem to rub along together as best they can in whatever fashion they can. I am happiest with a piece when it seems unidentifiable (it could be from anywhere almost) or seems to hold two traditions in an impossible simultaneity so that maybe something else can be born.
Sometimes a piece may be in the voice of a particular character. There is a child, a thief, a priest, a scientist, a jazz musician, a fisherman, a shaman and an alcoholic among others; all wanted to sing their praises, make their complaint or have their say.
"Songs for Gaia" was written in London during the winter of 1998-1999. A section was published in Resurgence Magazine (issue 201 July/August 2000) and later another section was published in Caduceus Journal (issue 60 Summer 2003).
