Such majesty- Divine Springtime

The Divine Springtime is hiding, but it is there…

Image – June Perkins

Glory to Thee, O my God! The first stirrings of the spring of Thy grace have appeared and clothed Thine earth with verdure. The clouds of the heaven of Thy bounty have rained their rain on this City within whose walls is imprisoned Him Whose desire is the salvation of Thy creatures. Through it the soil of this City hath been decked forth, and its trees clothed with foliage, and its inhabitants gladdened. The hearts of Thy dear ones, however, will rejoice only at the Divine Springtime of Thy tender mercies, whereby the hearts are quickened, and the souls are renewed, and the trees of human existence bear their fruits.

Baha’u’llahPrayers and Meditations, CXVII

Today is a day to think about divine springtimes, renewal and the growth of spirituality in the world. After days and days of rain the sun has been shining, warming up…

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The World is Singin’ its Blues

Seems strangely apt for present times.

World Citizen Dreaming

Guitar Boy by June Perkins

The world is singin’ its blues
askin’ for a bit of time to heal
askin’ why it’s so hard to feel
that nothin’ we do is gonna make
peace be real

askin’ for a DJ who understands
the need for peace
who can give us some
musical release
to bleed out the fears
dress them in a mother’s tears

The world is ringin’ out its questions
why, oh why’s a piece of land
or your religion
something to kill or die for
and why are people so quick
to tie their fate to
those noose of hate?

askin’ for a DJ who can change the down beat
into an upbeat
bring some kind of optimism into play
dress that sorrow
in a technicolour tomorrow

The world is singin’ its blues
askin’ for a bit of time to heal
askin’ why it’s so hard to feel

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Joining International Ridvan Celebrations

It was so delightful to be part of the You Tube Ridvan is Everywhere Celebrations online. And a great honour to be the epigrammatic beginning to day 7 with a brand new never before shared poem. This poem is now being included in the next issue of Tokens.

“The “Is Everywhere” Collective, which brought us this wonderful online Naw-Ruz celebration, is celebrating the Festival of Ridvan! They are excited to provide family-friendly programming for all 12 days of Ridvan and this video features their program celebrating the 7th day of Ridvan.

The Local Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Los Angeles (USA) is sponsoring special program for the 1st, 9th and 12th days of Ridvan but every day in between features videos sharing poetry, storytelling, music, art, dancing, cooking, and crafting—all by friends from across the world!

You’ll find the playlist for Ridvan Is Everywhere here on YouTube. You can also subscribe to their YouTube channel for updates.”

(Cited from Baha’i Blog)

Dust Jacket, Illuminations

The first supply of hard cover Illuminations is arriving Tuesday and is almost sold out, so now taking orders for a second one.

If you want the hard cover, dust cover jacket version and live in Australia, please let me know and I will start to take some orders for that now. 😉

For international orders go to the Book Depository.

If you know a bookstore in those countries,wanting to supply the book so that you and others can then buy it then direct them to Ingram It is already available to bookshops and libraries in soft cover through them!

Celebrating new books in troublesome times 11: June Perkins

Delighted to guest on Sophie Masson’s blog.

Feathers of the Firebird

Today, I’m delighted to welcome June Perkins to my blog. June’s new book, Illuminations, which is a collaboration between her as a writer and illustrators Ruha and Minaira Fifita, comes out early next month, and in this guest post, June writes about the process of creating Hope, one of the poems from the collection, which is reproduced below.

Writing ‘Hope’ for Illuminations – June Perkins

My poem ‘Hope’ is a speculative imagining of how Emily Dickinson would respond to Cyclone Yasi if she had been a poet based in Far North Queensland and draws particular inspiration from her work 314, often titled ‘Hope’ although she didn’t give it a title.

I first heard of Dickinson from a vinyl record, Parsley, Sage Rosemary and Thyme by Simon and Garfunkel, the song was’ The Dangling Conversation’ And yet it was years before I took the time to learn more about her…

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