The Wednesday Poetry Corner With Keith Alan Watson

Returning to the tree today for the Wednesday Corner is Keith Alan Watson who is better known to us as Uncle Tree! Keith writes of the passion of William Blake, one of my own favourites whose writing and beliefs first became known to me a a member of The Theosophical Society and The Druid Order. I was a young girl when I graced the boards of those London, occult institutions with my spiritually delving mind into the esoteric mysteries. Blake had a profound effect on me then. I still love his art – so passion-filled, so fervent! Thank you, Keith for bringing Blake to the tree today and for your own inimitable words.

The Everlasting Gospel By Keith Alan Watson

William_Blake,_The_Temptation_and_Fall_of_Eve

Hello, everyone! From my corner of the ring today, I bring the great William Blake (1757 to 1827). Born with many a gift in the arts, this overly-talented metaphysical visionary majorly influenced me, right about the time when I began to try my own hand at poetry. In January of 2001, I visited the library and checked out “The Portable Blake”. Keeping it close by my side, at home and at work, I studied it for two months. In March, I set my eyes on a book that held The Complete Plates And Poems within its pages, and let my mind and soul feast on that for a few weeks.

The self-educational journey that brought me to the steps of Blake’s front door began with Aldous Huxley’s, “The Doors Of Perception”. It was while reading a biography on D.H. Lawrence that I learned of the close friendship between David and Aldous. Both admired Blake, so I thought I ought to check him out, too. Because of Blake, I went on to read 2 books by his friend, Thomas Paine: “The Age Of Reason” and “Common Sense”. Thanks to the many secrets contained therein, I never looked at The Bible the same way again.

I was brought up to believe The Bible was the flawless Word Of God; the true history; the facts! And we were taught to take The Word literally — all the unbelievable events, and all the miracles REALLY happened. Therefore, I was literally prepared to be shocked (indeed, I was) by the gob-smacking multitude of blasphemies parading in front of the eyes and innocent mind of a man trying to head off a mid-life crisis! Talk about throwing fuel on the fire…

Blake showed spiritual courage. He took aim at the religious and their institutions. He questioned God and Man and the ways-and-means between them, and, as far as I know, he was never struck down by lightening. Even though I couldn’t agree with him on every account, I admired him for his guts, which he spilled freely for the sake of art, conjecture, and a few good laughs from poking fun at others and himself. He loved rhythm and rhyme, and he wrote long poems (which gave me license to follow in kind), as well as a couple of epic proportion, one of which I’d like to feature today.

Care to dare! Dare yourself! Dare your family! Dare your friends! After all, they’re only words. Good Day! Uncle Tree

The Everlasting Gospel by William Blake

The Vision Of Christ that thou dost see
Is my vision’s greatest enemy.
Thine has a great hook nose like thine;
Mine has a snub nose like to mine.
Thine is the Friend of all Mankind;
Mine speaks in parables to the blind.
Thine loves the same world that mine hates;
Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.

From out the Temple of His Mind,
And in his body tight does bind
Satan and all his hellish crew;
And thus with wrath He did subdue
The serpent bulk of Nature’s dross,
Till He had nail’d it to the Cross.
He took on sin in the Virgin’s womb
And put it off on the Cross and tomb
To be worshipp’d by the Church of Rome.

Humility is only doubt,
And does the sun and moon blot out,
Rooting over with thorns and stems
The buried soul and all its gems.
This life’s five windows of the soul
Distorts the Heavens from pole to pole,
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not thro’, the eye

That they may call a shame and sin
Love’s temple that God dwelleth in,
And hide in secret hidden shrine
The naked Human Form Divine,
And render that a lawless thing
On which the Soul expands its wing.

The mental powers by diseases we bind;
But He heals the deaf, the dumb, and the blind.
Whom God has afflicted for secret ends,
He comforts and heals and calls them friends.’
But, when Jesus was crucified,
Then was perfected His galling pride.
In three nights He devour’d His prey,
And still He devours the body of clay;
For dust and clay is the Serpent’s meat,
Which never was made for Man to eat.

For more, you can visit Uncle Tree!

http://uncletreeshouse.com/2013/09/05/the-everlasting-gospel-by-william-blake/

About Dr Niamh

When I was a little girl (a very, very long time ago), I used to love learning new, really big words like ‘discombobulate’. As I grew, my love of words grew too, until I loved them so much, I could not stop writing them down. One day, as I was scribbling a particular word, a very peculiar thing happened. The word shouted at me, “Stop! Don’t put me there!” As you can imagine, I was shocked and nearly fell off my chair. When I recovered somewhat, I said to the word, “Could you stop shouting, please? I am not used to it.” Can you guess what happened next? No! I thought not. The word said, “I might be small, but I will misbehave if you do not use me properly. I will not tell the story you would like me to tell. I will say something entirely different!” I dropped my pen. I hoped that by dropping my pen, the word would stop talking. Alas! It did not. It carried on chitterchobbling, even after the ink had dried. I was in a pickle. I could not allow my words to run away with my story, now could I? I don’t know about you, but when this sort of thing happens, there is only one thing left to do if you prefer not to spend your time arguing. “Very well,” said I. “I will do as you ask if you will just be quiet and allow me to concentrate.” Since that day, I have been paying special attention to every word I invite into my stories. After all, a story should say exactly what it means to say and not be led astray. With love from Dr. Niamh, Ph.D in Learning Through The Imagination and Founder of Dr Niamh Children's Books. www.drniamhchildrensbooks.com

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