Poetry

Random Thoughts Prompted by Genius

2026 Rewrite

2015-2026

RANDOM THOUGHTS PROMPTED BY GENIUS

(Written listening to TIME by Hans Zimmer with no for thought or preplanning)

CHAPTER ONE

Part I

FIRST RANDOM THOUGHT

2015

To the glory of Humankind.

Of Creation.

The magnificence of the Mind.

The creation of the most incredible sounds

That we call music.

The beauty of humanity’s absolute triumph

over every tyranny,

over every attempt to self-destruct.

To Live and to let Live.

“Where there is life there is hope” }i

Speaking of the multi- billions

Up to make up

What We call.

‘Our’ Universe.

Yes, indeed.

Life and hope.

THAT is Genius.

}i Professor Stephen William Hawking CH CBE FRS FRSA.

Here is the Genius that prompts these Random Thoughts

Part II

SECOND RANDOM THOUGHT

2016

Go on!

Challenge yourself.

Step outside time.

Step beyond man-made boundaries

And work things out.

Not lose your faith by so doing.

It is heightened to levels.

That thrill you.

That extol you

To ever greater quests…

Where there is life there is Hope.

Part III

THIRD RANDOM THOUGHT

Writing this on 28 April 2015 I had been greatly moved by the composer Hans Zimmer in the soundtrack to the score for the film INCEPTION, the piece being the track Time, and which can be viewed through YouTube or purchased through iTunes.

In writing, I rediscovered my faith and ever since then it has grown steadily stronger but in a completely different way. It is, perhaps, the strongest yet, for it has become the relief against the backdrop of a lifetime of learning, of mistakes, of misunderstanding religion per se, of experiencing horror, unwittingly, of the wilderness, and then that incredible sense, spiritually, when one feels the sand and stone change to earth, the Earth to grass, the locks, two trees and vert pastures; at last, shade from the terrifying heat of the noonday sun, the sound of freshwater, living water, and an awareness of just how small I am and just how large whoever or whatever is the creator.

I have gone full circle and it seems that I continue on another circle.

Part IV

FOURTH RANDOM THOUGHT

As with the prodigal, returning to my roots is daunting, not wanted, but eventually deeply earned for. Nothing compares with the experience and the new perspectives I gain by going to different places, living and working in different regions, counters or even countries.

This pails into insignificance when I return to my real roots, my own country, my own Shire, my own family, to see out the remaining years at a leisurely pace determined by age and health. There is also the perception of ‘Phenomenon’. I’m reminded by well-meaning friends that this is because I “walk righteously before the Lord”, as it is written.

But!

However, we perceive that phenomenon, I do know this. Religion is not the answer. Not one religion proves to me that it has the sole right to occupy centre-stage.

No.

Never.

Religion comes from within the minds of people, fashioned down the ages, with all of its warps and twists, that always result in unmitigated horror.

Part V

FIFTH RANDOM THOUGHT

Therefore, I note well those last five words…

However, we perceive that phenomenon

My upbringing is that of a Christian. An Anglican.

In the 1950s, Christendom was still a term of daily use. Bibles on bookshelves belonging to family and ancestors, and upstairs, where the Archive sits, the two-hundred year-old Family Bible.

As a family in the 1950s and 1960s we were, and still are, practical in our faith, and whilst I enjoyed Sunday School, I recall as well my paternal grandmother reminding me that as a child and teenager in the 1890s –1900s, that the whole family was required to attend church every Sunday not once, not twice, but thrice. Morning Service, Afternoon Service and Evensong. That always shut me up!

Part VI

SIXTH RANDOM THOUGHT

In the gallery section on this website, there is a video of the late Christopher Hitchins in which he talks about the disappearance of the universal term “Christendom”. Hitchins was no conventional Christian. Arguably, an atheist. Yet a breath of fresh air is the depths of his perception.

My faith remains as secure as ever. Simply put, these days it is free of religious dogma. I have no patience with literal belief. Yes, I can’t believe that the Crucifixion took place. Yes, I have seen with my own eyes Golgotha ~ the Place of the Skull. That is why I have written What? He is Risen?!?

Part VII

SEVENTH RANDOM THOUGHT

When I wrote that summary in November 2016. I was only just tentatively venturing into the challenge of Ancestry and archiving family history. That is now coming to an end.

I am brought full circle. Long lost names become real again, letters are as fresh as the day written, sentiments in them as real as ever. The roots go ever deeper into the ground. The branches of the tree extend above as they reflect the even greater loop system below ground so that the tree now becomes a great tree with the potential to become greater still. In all of this my own character and personality develops and takes home perspectives Heather to unseen or unimagined. Memories I thought I had lost forever. I’m in fact found to be lying just below the surface of the subconscious. I begin to truly see who I am, where I came from what I am, and where I am going, and how the future will unfold for the generations that follow me.

CHAPTER TWO

Part VIII

EIGHTH RANDOM THOUGHT

I sit on the promontory

Looking over Cheltenham,

The wind in my hair,

My mind in a whirl…

Of resignation,

Defeat,

Subjugation.

Numbed still,

That my knowledge of the Bible,

I’m told,

Apparently equates to that of the devil…

“Even Satan knew the word for he quoted it in his challenges, did he not?!”

— das Verbegen

In the length of a single step,

On the stairwell,

A lifetime of faith

in tatters.

Such a charge means

That I can never again

Speak with authority

By quoting scripture.

Some things are said,

And can be taken back.

Some things said,

Can never be taken back.

The damage is too severe.

No!

That is out of the question.

Give youth room to manoeuvre.

Be Patient.

Ignore dogma.

Accept simplistic solutions in the short term.

Solutions’ intricacies come only

With the passage of time.

For now, allow the rupture.

Allow this moment to evaluate afresh.

What, then?

How do I write another anthology

that I thought was inspired by personal faith?

(Pause)

Do I have really

Only the authority of Beelzebub?

Of course not.

It is cold.

The future has momentarily darkened.

Two days from now

A general anaesthetic…

Am I to be consigned to oblivion?

Absolutely not, foolish man!

It is cold.
Future has momentarily gone dark. IBM KTW digital artwork 2023.

The chill wind warms,

There is a shimmering.

Loan figure,

Ordinary and extraordinary,

On fire.

Yet the appearance.

Of water gushing from

Standing rock.

“… Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.”

— Psalm 114:8 KJV

My vision is hazy.

Cast away my spirit. I give up my soul.

No desire to remain

Here Anymore.

Suddenly, I am aware

of that ugly phrase,

Its harsh reality…

“The spirit is broken, the soul is ready to depart…”

— IBM KTW

*The spirit is broken,*
*The soul is ready to depart …*

CHAPTER THREE

Part IX

NINTH RANDOM THOUGHT

Your words?

Yes…

Inspired by

The Ruach HaKodesh?

Perhaps?

Do not be carried away.

Give yourself not such lofty thoughts.

Open your mind to

All Possibilities,

All and any number of Dimensions,

All and countless Perspectives.

Consider Three-in-One.

You mean the Trinity?

… Silence…

Part X

TENTH RANDOM THOUGHT

Consider every dimension.

Every dimension has its own perspective,

Perspective has its own dimension,

Presume each is one and the same.

Should I take my shoe off?

No!

You see a person in the guise

Most comfortable for you to cope with

You should, by now, have realised

Deity is rarely, if ever, revealed.

Let us speak.

Walk together awhile.

(Within, a sense of Emmaus perplexity disquiets me)

COME!

Let us stand on Favourite Rock

Ashes are scattered.

It is where the groanings of your spirit,

And your distress and elation

Are heard and received.

Remember the refrain?

Remember the lark ascending,

High above and over you?

Perceive that The Higher - Whoever - is seen in a million ways

and more besides.

Here on the Favourite Rock

Countless times across decades

we have met here.

You no longer recall all of them,

A few at most.

You are merely a human being

But they are ever-present.

You are seen and you are felt.

You are indeed indwelt.

Your perplexity is noted.

The rejection by one so Young

In place of another Creed.

This suggestion that your knowledge

is no different to that of the devil’s knowledge?

It is of no consequence.

Pay no attention

to lurid stories and fantasies

about the devil, Satan, Beelzebub,

And all the other names

by which the serpent goes.

Evil, yes, there is.

But a serpent?

That is the silliness of people.

Who hear an allegory and then?

Take what they hear literally.

Generation by generation

Gathers strength

Eventually, such silliness

Is the harbinger of death?

Not just here and there

But for Millions

And across centuries, many.

Sometimes things are said in The Name

That are, shall we say, wide, very wide, of the mark.

That is merely the writing of people.

There is no end of time

I Am - We Are - outside time

Good.

At last, you perceive Eternity.

Part XI

ELEVENTH RANDOM THOUGHT

I looked across the plains of England

And thought of Houseman

As I watched the evening clouds

Racing with Majesty across the skies.

“… The lamps in England lighted
And evening wrecked on Wales.”

— Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936)

Somehow, I knew

Who it was who had been speaking with me?

And that I keep to myself.

But recalling those thoughts,

I saw dimensions the like of which

I have never before comprehended.

I am at peace.

I live in openness of spirit,

Mind, body and soul.

Yet these dimensions and perspectives

Tell me a very different story;

They give me a very different understanding

of that which once upon a time,

I accepted as ‘gospel’, as the saying goes.

The Gospels?

Surely, they have their place and purpose.

As, too, all sacred writings.

But when writing is thrust in my face

“Read this. Be saved. Without it, you are lost!”

I see another dimension,

Another perspective,

A horrid book, Mein Kampf

Another one is Das Kleine Rot Buch

Yet another Was ist Zu tun?

Each demanded adherence,

To some they still do.

Total obedience!

History shows the litany of death in billions.

Spewing from the ugly pages of this unholy trinity.

Keep perspective.

EPILOGUE OF RANDOM THOUGHTS

Now and again, I’ll read, last thing at night, something from a prayer book or the Bible. It becomes old hat, though, when the same advice and the same sentences are trotted out. I become irritated when writers tell me that there is nothing that I have experienced that a character, Jesus, did not experience; therefore, this character knows all about whatever it is that is taxing my mind, and so I can just put it all to this character in some Jeezy-Jeezy way. It drives me up the wall.

I want to say to these people… Get real. I think you talk about the Messiah. The Most High. Stop making me see this character as a “Jesus running around Galilee in a white nightie!”

Another part of me increasingly takes a different line. All sixty-six books are the writings of people. They do not remain closed. Now, they are open and I am able to read in my own way, finding my own route through these books and according to my fancy. I am able to discern the frailty of human nature, the misapplication of human nature when it attempts to portray itself as it would like to do – “the ineffable word of God”.

I cast aside all the writings that portray the god in those pages seeking, creating and directing horror and revenge - “for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children...” The writer of Exodus lost me at that point.

When I raise the drawbridge, I find my own way through things, and I pop in and out of That Most Secret Place, and I find life becomes far better, far happier, and much less judgmental.