a walk
Jackie McTaggart
with contributions from Caroline Howitt Rose Snow Angelika Sivyer Annette Dunn
Illustrator Story writer Poet Midwife
contents preface
introduction
my walk, note from the author the map the path the walk the walker meeting place
2 4 8 9 10 12
invitation
13
in the beginning
14
hydrogen series
silicea series
3 samples haikus
16 24
the girl with the red shoes
26
synopsis of acts
48
gold series
king archetype
walker’s companion
routes lands the adventure compass
58 96 98 102 106 110
presentations of haikus
116
in the end
118
periodic table
120
1
my walk Every day I go for a walk in the meadows near where I live Come rain or shine What I have noticed is even though I do a similar walk each day Each walk each day feels different Every walk has a different feel As to how I am and how the weather is What I know is that the weather patterns shift As do my moods pass Feelings have arisen only to blow over And another feeling to take its place The weather never stays the same for long I have come to know the beauty of all of it And to appreciate the whole of it
Once in a while there comes along a story That has not yet been told This is one such story It is the adventure of the whole of humanity And every human being It is a story That has stayed with us throughout time The story of evolution, insistence and intention Of characters, symbols and patterns
3
the map The map we are using for the story is the periodic table For this is the origin, the source And it is already here On the periodic table we see all the components of the universe And how they evolve over time It shows us that every single thing Is connected to everything else The periodic table was put together to join All the elements, a bit like a giant jigsaw It was based on the assumption of an inherent logic in nature And therefore an inherent logic in the universe That there is a code inherent in the universe Which when deciphered defines its essential nature We recognise it as a chart on the walls of our science classrooms Flat, linear and two dimensional Yet we can pick it up and bend the ends around in such a way That the last element of every series joins up with the first element of the next series
In breathing life into it, we animate it It becomes dynamic, three dimensional and alive By so doing we end up with a spiral Every series representing one circle within the spiral A series of cycles tied in with the seasons The rhythms of day and night, life and death If we follow the whole periodic spiral until the end We find that in the end lies the beginning A return to the next level of human evolution So on the surface the map is a table of the sequence of elements And how they all fit together If we look closer we can see that it is a map of life Of people and of nature We may see the map as a universal expression of life As the very essence of life This allows us the possibility to use it as a map to explore Who we are, what we do and where we are going
5
We may now imagine it as an artistic template As well as a scientific construct For when we see it as a map of science and a map of art We let ourselves into the mystery of it all We suspend disbelief And see what adventures lie ahead It shows that human evolution and the evolution of elements Follow a similar story It shows us there are dark times and light times And where our resources are tested to the limit It shows us where we get lost in the difficulty And overwhelmingness of the circumstances of our lives It shows us where we hibernate when days are short and dark And where we make hay while the sun shines It shows us the openings of new vistas And the closing down of tired, worn out ways
It shows us the ends and the beginnings And the periods of pause where we take a breath For the periodicity of the map Is something which comes back again and again And most of all it shows us that knowledge of the map Is not the same as the experience of it For it is in the experiencing of it That allows us to see more clearly how we are
7
the path In the beginning We simply set foot on the path Content to take tiny steps at first And simply trust the path in front of us As time moves on We realise we are making steady progress As it weaves through unchartered waters It creates itself as it moves along It winds its way through different landscapes Appearing and disappearing It threads its way along Back and forth, in and out, from high points to low points We come to recognise familiar landmarks And notice the way the path connects place to place These paths are well worn Yet there is always a possibility of a new path to follow For this path runs as much through us As through the places we come across
the walk This particular walk is a poetic walk Undertaken by a poetic walker It is a walk through the vast landscape of the universe And through the vast landscape of our life A walk is a way of getting about It is something we do on foot The walk is always on common ground The walk is our story. It is our everyday life The walk is between places The places linking one to another At each place along the way a walk is complete We may have a break at any of these times The distance of a walk varies For some it is brief while for others it may be long
9
the walker The walker moves along Rather than stepping foot on the ground What is common to all walkers is We all know to keep walking The walker’s story is one of many And in walking so we write our own storyline How we walk is unique to each of us We are shaping what we do and who we are Some of us rush along at breakneck speed While for others the pace is slow and quiet A walk that may appear dull to one May be rich and fruitful for another Some may stop, take stock and start again While others flow smoothly along Many of us will get lost on the walk, some for a long time This is part of the course
We will trip up, fall down and pick ourselves up Only to trip up again in the same place Sometimes we have the feeling that as we walk We are staying still We may feel we see more of the world in these moments Than when we rush along trying to see as much as possible At times we may feel we are on a random walk At others that there is a reason for the walk, a purpose We may find that our walk takes us far away And then we remember we want to return We learn there is not a set way to walk Other than to walk in the manner of how we are It is what we learn from living our life The way we are made. The way we are
11
meeting place Along the way There are a multitude of meeting places These are like natural stopping points The top of a mountain, the edge of a cliff, beside the sea They may be solitary or busy, it doesn’t matter These are simply places we meet one and another We may find something of ourselves at these places And something of others too These are the places where we arrive at And where we move out from
come dream a dream
13
a cosmic event each one of us rearranging stardust
15
hydrogen series
17
swallows returning weave victory loops before looming snow clouds
swallows returning weave victory loops before looming snow clouds
19
did your face emerge from a tideless sea, or drop, marked with wind and sky?
did your face emerge from a tideless sea, or drop, marked with wind and sky?
21
my soul has become a carrion bone, hollowed and white harmonies echo
my soul has become a carrion bone, hollowed and white harmonies echo
23
haikus
stage1
swallows returning weave victory loops before looming snow clouds
stage 2
did your face emerge from a tideless sea, or drop, marked with wind and sky?
stage 3
the choice of a path with joy in the heart on unsteady legs
stage 4
whisper in my ear and my wild leaping stills I become a still life
stage 5
sometimes something is there sometimes nothing does the sum equal the two sides
stage 6
stone drop of the hawk sudden rush of air leaving a dead rabbit
stage 7
no climbing for now our feet walk together to the cool of the tarn
stage 8
I’m all the battles lost, or won, no matter; I am your defeat
stage 9
gazing down the mountain our eyes move to the final height
stage 10
apart we’re balanced where is the point that holds us firm and separate
stage 11
an indian summer I sit full of sun and fruit while swallows muster
stage 12
cocks fight claw to the death mangle opposition
stage 13
retreating from a retreat; shall I look back for you, in front, in space?
stage 14
my soul has become a carrion bone, hollowed and white harmonies echo
stage 15
stones spit and sing, I drown in crazy waves, spoiling for my blood, O moon!
stage 16
out of my mind I see my cardboard self try to comprehend horror
stage 17
fool I am; fallen skewer’d, drown’d - to live again and living, fool death
stage 18
interweaving bones make a nest for my spirit full with unformed song
25
silicea series
the red shoes
27
swallows returning weave victory loops before looming snow clouds
In an ancient city asleep under the sea, a pretty and delicate girl of nearly fifteen, was forced to wear ugly sensible shoes, which made the other girls laugh at her. She was not allowed to paint pictures or do anything that made her dirty. A few girls took pity on her. A tight feeling rose up inside her. She had tried to be a good daughter but now she felt a fool.
did your face emerge from a tideless sea, or drop, marked with wind and sky?
One of the girls had lots of shoes and gave her a pair. They were red shoes with a dinky heel. There was a hole in one of them, but they meant more than the moon and stars to the girl. On the wet day of her mother’s funeral she wore them for the first time. The girl’s foot felt soggy but she didn’t mind. At the funeral it was said that the mother had died young because she was a woman who loved too much, but didn’t love herself. She was always busy and she didn’t rest, or even sleep.
29
the choice of a path with joy in the heart on unsteady legs
A school teacher who didn’t have a daughter adopted the girl. Just before she was sixteen her new mother crept into her room to kiss her goodnight. The red shoes glared at her from the floor. She picked them up and put them on the fire. The flames burned red like the shoes, and cackled like a crone. When she woke, the girl did not know why she had been born.
whisper in my ear and my wild leaping stills I become a still life
A neighbour was making high heeled shoes covered with red gemstones and glitter. The girls empty heart filled. She had inherited a gold bracelet from her dead mother. She grabbed it and ran to the gold merchant where it was sold. That day the girl stood in front of her mirror five inches taller in the red shoes. Now she cared only about how she looked. She and her friends spent much time sending holograms of themselves to each other, in every imaginable pose. They were always making plans, and when some of them went to the marble clothes kingdom without telling her, she felt dead inside and cried all day.
31
sometimes something is there sometimes nothing does the sum equal the two sides
It was time for an important naming ceremony, and girls looked forward to this for years. They always wore white flowing dresses, and gold threads in their hair. They painted their feet gold, like their great grandmothers did, and wore turquoise sandals. The girl had plans to wear the red shoes. She thought she would be a sensation in those shoes, and become a celebrity, yet she woke too early with a sense of dread.
stone drop of the hawk sudden rush of air leaving a dead rabbit
The huge statues of the old gods and goddesses seemed to fix their eyes on her shoes. Everyone looked at her feet. As the wise woman laid her hand upon her head, the harps rang out, the sweet children’s voices sang, but the girl felt only love for her shoes.
33
no climbing for now our feet walk together to the cool of the tarn
In the morning the new mother heard from everyone that her shoes had been red, and she said the girl had not respected the traditions, or the culture and customs. The girl had a heart within her, and saw the new mother was right and that her friends were modern, yet still found meaning in the old ways.
I’m all the battles lost, or won, no matter; I am your defeat
The next week another event was to take place. The girl looked at her old shoes and at the red shoes and chose the red ones. An old artist sat near the entrance to the event, she caught his eye, black as a moonless night. The place was crowded, and her friends were enjoying themselves, but the girl was gritting her teeth and fighting the energy in her feet, which had wrapped one foot around the other.
35
gazing down the mountain our eyes move to the final height
The shoes suddenly started to do a stunning dance. People stopped and stared. The sun cast rainbow reflections on the crystal steeples while a soundtrack of yelling cut the air, as she trod on people. The old artist laughed, his black eyes dancing with her. Once home, tired out, she took off the red shoes. She fell asleep thinking of the clothes and shoes she would wear when she was famous
apart we’re balanced where is the point that holds us firm and separate
She dreamt her own dead mother was very sick and wanted her only child, to be with her in her last hours. But the girl was a famous star, so a nurse was called to her mother instead. That night the girl danced better than she had ever danced before. When they brought the flowers on, the shoes leapt off the stage right over the musicians, and spun through the crowd. People jumped back as she got near them. Suddenly she was terrified.
37
an indian summer I sit full of sun and fruit while swallows muster
She tried to dance to the left but the shoes danced to the right, she tried to stop but they danced faster. She danced out of the arena, through field and forest, by river and burial mound. She danced through the night and tried to fall on a poor child’s grave, where the hairy bitter cress grew, but there was no rest for her. She danced into a dark stone chamber and a black angel with red eyes flew up. She heard a loud voice in her head. Dance in your red shoes until your flesh falls off. Let your skeleton dance, in blood red shoes, into the dreams of selfish vain children to terrify them.
cocks fight claw to the death mangle opposition
She begged for mercy but did not hear the answer. She danced past doors where sleeping girl’s screams rang out from bedrooms in every street. Drops of blood from her tortured feet marked the ground, as she passed. She felt so alone.
39
retreating from a retreat; shall I look back for you, in front, in space?
At midnight she danced to a creaky door where she knew the executioner lived. She tapped on the door. He was waiting to see who had come to have their head chopped off. When the executioner stood up, his axe jumped off the wall and hummed loudly. She begged him to chop off her shoes instead of her head. He tried, but her feet had grown into the shoes.
my soul has become a carrion bone, hollowed and white harmonies echo
Then she begged him to cut off her feet, and with a swift crack of bones her feet were sliced off. But they did not lie still. The red gem shoes danced them away to the dark woods. The executioner made the girl little wooden feet, and shoes and crutches. The girl kissed his hand and kissed the axe that had cut off her feet and she left.
41
stones spit and sing, I drown in crazy waves, spoiling for my blood, O moon!
One last hologram of her, leaning on her crutches, appeared on the main hologram site. After that she was never heard of again. Broken with loneliness she went over and over in her mind how much she’d suffered and that made her pain and anger worse and worse. Then she remembered the kind executioner and she felt some hope. She went to the place where the wise woman lived, to sing with her, but the red shoes always followed her, which made her cry and give up.
out of my mind I see my cardboard self try to comprehend horror
For months, she cried bitter tears that stung her face, and she tried again and again to go to sing with the wise woman, but the shoes always followed her and terrified her. She felt alone in the universe and the red shoes danced around her to keep her company. She regretted ever liking them, and a massive truthful sorry came up from the bottom of her heart. She went to a sanctuary that looked after sad and neglected animals and she asked if she could help. The girl did not want wages, only to do some good and be around innocent creatures. She loved and comforted them. She was liked by the young workers, but when they talked about clothes and holograms and beauty, she shook her head.
43
fool I am; fallen skewer’d, drown’d to live again and living, fool death
A wise woman asked her to come to a ceremony in the forest. But the girl looked sadly at her crutches. So the wise woman said that she should stay with the innocent creatures instead. The girl’s favourite animal, a wild black puma, called her to be with him. She looked into his eyes and saw how he had been cruelly treated, and also how wise and beautiful he was. He melted all the hardness in her heart.
interweaving bones make a nest for my spirit full with unformed song
She threw her crutches away, and walked without them on her little wooden feet to be with the wise women in the forest. They said it was right that she was with them. She never saw the red shoes again. She felt so much love her heart could not hold it and it broke. She woke up suddenly, an ordinary teenager from a sunken unconscious world. She knew she had been dreaming, but she was forever changed.
45
the stage is empty I have wept for the actors how quiet it is
47
synopsis of acts
the ugly duckling • Set in mid twentieth century rural England. • An eight year old boy from a large family lives on an isolated farm. He is slight and unlike them, doesn’t like getting his hands dirty. • The boy is very different from his brothers and sisters. They are mean and tease him all the time. • The boy loves the birds, and they join him in his imaginary world every day. • The birds encourage him to sing which he likes to do. • Feeling badly treated by his whole family, the boy turns more and more to his imaginary world and his friends the birds. He decides to run away. • The birds lead him to a house where a musical family live. He hears the beautiful music though an open window, and he sings along from the garden. • The children hear his angelic voice and invite him in.
49
the red shoes • See sample chapter on page 26.
the tinder-box • Set in the present day in England. A young soldier is just home from war and wants to do well and settle down in the town. • He is walking along the road and a magician jumps out of the hedge. He says he can get him a rich girlfriend, a house and a car, if the young man will do as the magician asks. • He must break into the candle factory on the outskirts of the town and find a trap door guarded by a black cat, and two more trap doors within guarded by two more black cats. • The first black cat has eyes like dvd’s the second has eyes like dinner plates, and third, which is very fierce, has eyes the size of car wheels. • He must pick up each cat and place it aside. He must bring a small tinder-box situated within the third room, back to the magician, but he can keep any money he finds. • The young man, driven by his desire to do well, overcomes all the difficulties and returns to the magician with his rucksack filled with money and the tinder-box. • Knowing that the tinder-box is magic, he asks the magician what he is going to do with it. The magician refuses to tell him, so the soldier stabs him in the heart. • A self- made rich man still lives in the area. He protects his beautiful teenage daughter to the point of imprisonment. It was prophesied she would marry a soldier, which he forbids.
51
dark cinderella • Set in New York in the present day. • An aspiring artist’s mother is very ill and her family are poor and cannot afford medical care. • Her father begs her to marry a rich man in the city who has promised to look after all the family needs. • The older man is kind with many good qualities but her heart does not dance. Also he has two selfish and vain teenage daughters living with him who do not like her. • One day she goes to the Art Gallery, to see an exhibition of paintings by a well-known artist. The artist happens to be there. • Immediately their eyes meet the world stops still. • Thrown into panic by her thumping heart she makes excuses and flees. • She leaves her slip on shoe behind and returns to her unhappy life in the penthouse.
the doll • Set in the past in rural Ireland a middle aged widow looks after her aged mother and runs the horse breeding business inherited from her father. • They live in a fine detached house in front of the forest. On her deathbed, her mother gives her a small doll, which has been passed down through generations of women. • Her mother says she should feed it and give it water, and if the daughter ever needed anything she should ask the doll for help. • Soon after her mother dies the widow is asked by her aged uncle to go to the distant town to bring a concoction for him, and while there she should buy a new hearth for the fire. • She sets off on horseback along windy unmarked lanes. His horse hurts his foot. He needs to rest and darkness falls. She is alone and frightened. • A witch appears from behind a bush, and looking like a neighbourly woman, she offers her shelter, which the widow accepts. • A black horse and a black rider pass by the house which is dark and sinister and the witch, now an ugly hag, holds the terrified widow captive. • The widow is given a series of impossible tasks which she must complete or die. Each time she asks the doll in her pocket for help and she manages to achieve them.
53
rumpelstiltskin • Set in a palace in the vast kingdom in Ancient China. • An ambitious warlord brags that his daughter is a gifted doctor who can make gold from metal. • The greedy King summons the daughter. He orders her to make gold by the morning or he will feed her to the bears. • She is very frightened, as she has no idea how to make gold from metal • A goblin appears. He says he can make the gold for her if she gives him a cure for his big ears. • In the morning the King sees the slabs of gold and brings in much more metal for her to make into gold. • That night the goblin returns. He says she will help her if she gives him a cure for his bulging eyes, which she gives him. • The next day the greedy King sees the stacks of gold, and wants to marry her, demanding that she turn a whole ton of metal into gold. The goblin wants no more cures so he demands her first born child.
bluebeard • Set in the future in a castle in France. • Bluebeard is the biggest shareholder in a conglomeration of corporations that rule the world. He has a sharp blue goatee beard • He is obscenely rich and extravagant. His wealth is beyond imagination. Bluebeard has an insatiable desire for glamorous women. • No woman would dare to refuse his advances. But there is a great fear because of stories that all the women he marries seem to disappear without trace. • One day he hears of a newly discovered international supermodel whose beauty exceeds anything Bluebeard has ever seen. His entourage are sent to bring her to him to be his next wife. • He shows her around his empire, and says his wealth is hers to share. She has access to everything except one room in the castle which she must never enter. • Bluebeard works around the globe so the beautiful woman is often left alone in the castle. The temptation builds and becomes unbearable and she enters the forbidden room. • To her horror she finds the room is filled with the grotesque dead bodies of all his former wives standing in glass slabs with their heads chopped off.
55
la loba • Set in the distant past in the Southwestern desert in Arizona, USA. A woman has a profound dream which leads to a non-ordinary experience, in which the story is set. • In an atmosphere that feels dangerous everything that is familiar to the woman disappears. The very ground beneath her falls away. • All that is left of her old self is her heart, which takes on the persona of a wolf. • She is transported to a well in the desert north of Phoenix Arizona, which feels like home. • Time and space have disappeared as the wolf woman becomes attuned to the ancestors. • Her purpose is to collect the bones of animals strewn in the desert, but especially wolf bones. • When she lays out the bones on the sand, to make the exact shape a wolf, she sings over the bones and the wolf fleshes up and comes back to life. • The woman and wolf run wild together.
peter and the wolf • This story will be told in simple pictures with no words • There are seven characters: Peter, The Bird, The Duck, The Cat, The Grandfather, The Wolf, The Hunters • Peter plays outside in the meadow with The Duck, The Bird and The Cat • Grandpa has warned Peter about The Wolf. The Wolf appears and swallows The Duck • Peter tries to capture the Wolf by the tail • Some hunters come out of the forest ready to shoot the Wolf • Peter gets them to help him take The Wolf to the zoo in a victory parade • We see The Duck alive and quacking inside The Wolf’s belly
57
gold series
Cs
59
Ba
61
La
63
Hf
65
Ta
67
W
69
Re
71
Os
73
Ir
75
Pt
77
Au
79
Hg
81
Ti
83
Pb
85
Bi
87
Po
89
At
91
Rn
93
95
the walker’s companion
The periodic table is the template For the Walker’s Companion It is here we find a code Within the vast landscape of the cosmos The table has a naturally attractive logic Which will appeal to many of us Because this book is a boiling down of all that is Then there is nothing to really understand We can let our minds off the hook And give up any attempt to make sense of it There is nothing to do other than find a space To spend time with things bigger than ourselves Any page can be our starting point We can move around according to what feels good We can immerse ourselves or simply browse Noticing what intrigues and draws us in For it may speak to us in different ways At different times We may be attracted to read one story Time and time again And perhaps that story will be the only one We remember our whole life Or one image that stays in our head all day That stirs us to our own sense of adventure In essence, this is a book of poetry, art and stories A book to sit down with and step closer to
97
routes
The routes are the pattern Here we see how everything is interconnected How the universe hangs together These patterns are the lifeblood of the map They bring order and help us make sense of nature The periodic table is all about patterns Patterns of information, patterns of energy Patterns of atoms, patterns of relationships and patterns of behaviour This table simply makes clear all of these patterns And sets them out in a logical sequence The elements are the fundamental building blocks of the universe All placed on the table as to how much they weigh Each of the elements is totally unique Each has its own symbol and its own weight Elements we know like hydrogen and helium They are the lightest so they are at the beginning While the radioactive elements like uranium and plutonium They are the heaviest so they are near the bottom
99
Stories make patterns of the world too And many of us prefer stories to chemistry We may imagine each element is a story And each story is a pattern We may imagine that human patterns and human stories Are reflected in the patterns of these elements All the stories follow a sequence, as do the elements So each element becomes a story within a wider story This joins them up And lets us find new meaning within a bigger picture As we follow the pattern so we follow the thread In this way we easily pick up how it works Matching the pattern of the periodic table To the pattern of life Gives us the idea that these patterns of behavior Already exist and underlie all human experience That the pattern contains within it The life story of human beings We can imagine this story is like a play The horizontal groupings (the series) are the Acts And the vertical groupings (the stages) are the Scenes
And we are the Actors The series show where the journey is taking place While the stages show how the journey is handled We start the play as a beginner Grow through meeting difficulties along the way We reach the peak And then let go of all that has been achieved This pattern is repeated many times Through all the periods of our lives From childhood to middle age From teenager to ripe old age In this way it can be seen as an unending cycle Of birth, life, death and rebirth This is a highly distinctive pattern With a deep underlying sense of unity People love patterns as we know the patterns We live the patterns Patterns sound true, they are resonant When we recognize a pattern, we trust it
101
lands
The lands are the horizontal groupings in the periodic table They are called the series. Or we can see them as the Acts Each series manifests a different territory A new land that the walker arrives at along the way The walker starts off staying very close to home And then ventures further afield We can see that the walker’s horizon moves further and further out As we cover greater distance from home We notice the size of the territories Getting bigger and responsibilities heavier A new series changes the whole backdrop To a completely different landscape These represent new chapters in our lives Where we live our life, let go and move on Along the way the walker discovers certain things And affirms different aspects of themselves The walker is given an opportunity to do this In each of the adventures we have along the way At the end of each adventure the walker has a well earned rest Before leaving that land and entering a new land For a new landscape is a wonderful thing As the walker begins the next part of their walk afresh It may take a while to get our bearings Then we are ready for the adventure that lies ahead If we look at the series as imaginary landscapes We see the unfolding from birth to death
103
each series is symbolic of a territory
a period in our lives an affirmation of an aspect of ourselves a feminine or masculine quality
hydrogen
womb unborn child existence feminine
carbon
silicea
ferrum
silver
home child needs masculine neighbourhood puberty relationships feminine village or tribe young adulthood work masculine city middle age creativity feminine
gold
lanthanides
actinides
uranium
country old age outer power masculine country old age inner power feminine globe ripe old age intuition masculine universe the ancients knowing feminine
Both the gold and the uranium series Are longer than the others We see how the Lanthanides loop behind the gold series elements Whilst still following the same consecutive stages Similarly we see the Actinides and the Uranium elements, Most unknown or undiscovered, follow the same pattern
105
the adventure
All of the adventures Are like a dream within a dream
107
As each one begins we are invited to drop down And listen with a different part of ourselves We sit still and travel to a different place And see what happens Every adventure has a brief and simple narrative Which is easy to follow The landscape is set, the actions described And the results shown The storyline moves swiftly along The only concern to get across the plot It lets us see what happens to the characters All two-dimensional and straight forward There is an honesty with them For they all do what they say they do The villain is the villain, the beautiful woman is beautiful And the wild woman is wild These characters have been repeated so often in stories They have sunk deep down into us The main character has an archetype in picture form Split into two to show the dual nature of ourselves
There is a conscious side we know And an unconscious side we don’t Or we do know but we don’t like So we keep it hidden or pushed down Every story builds up until it reaches the part Where the main character has to make a decision They must meet a challenge Or face a part of themselves they don’t want to face At the end of each adventure The character has a sense of completion and pause The sequence of adventures are the unfolding periods of our lives So one follows naturally on from the other Each has its own rhythm, its own momentum And each advances the wider story Because it is just a story We don’t have to take it all too seriously All convey something which may touch the walker In ways we don’t know how or why In this way stories are like medicine
109
compass
The periodic table gives us the idea That the whole universe is constructed into 18 stages And that the 18 stages explain life The mathematical expression of life The stages are the vertical groupings In the periodic table. Or we can see them as the Scenes The stages follow one another A dynamic flow resembling the climbing of a mountain
Like this... TOP
RISE
1
2
3
DECLINE
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11
12
13
14
15
16 17
18
111
The foothills are the early stages, stages one to three Stages four to five slope gently upwards A sharp gradient and steep climb at stage six Flattening out before the summit at stage ten. On the way down the other side there is a steep descent at stage thirteen With a steep descent at stage thirteen Until the ground is reached at stage fifteen Stages sixteen to eighteen resembles the gentle terrain Back to the beginning of the foothills again In this way we see how all things arise and grow (1 - 6) Have their prime stages (7 - 12) Become older, decay and die (13 - 18) The stages are possibilities of how we handle life They are precise in that they are like window openings They provide us with regular reference points To pinpoint where we are Along the walk we become more familiar with them Repeated so often we learn to know them well They encourage us to notice afresh What we have felt and known our whole lives Important information revealed about our feeling lives The unnamed part of ourselves It takes us to the edge of what can be explained For the feelings are beneath the words They show the whole range of feelings across all times Familiar to all of us
The language of the heart is a common language Spoken on common ground It is what connects us It is what we all know Each one has a unique sound Each portrays a certain feeling Together they are like An inner harmonic scale Each one pouring into the other As notes in a piece of music It is like a rhythm beating underneath everything Creating atmosphere like weather patterns do The imagery and the haiku help convey The features within this landscape of feeling Help connect with that part of ourselves We know well So the stages provide us with a compass To help us navigate our way A walk in all weathers means we experience these feelings And all the shades in between many times over
113
a walk in the dark
impulsive inadequate confused overwhelmed cautious vulnerable lonely resistance insecure failing miserable defensive fixed detached destructive neglected rejected everything matters or nothing matters
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
a walk in the light 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
instinctive capable clarity dynamic sure strong togetherness ease knowing successful enjoying acceptance loose connected creative nourished belonging everything matters and nothing matters
115
presentations of haikus
no climbing for now our feet walk together to the cool of the tarn
carbon
no climbing for now our feet walk together to the cool of the tarn
silicea
no climbing for now our feet walk together to the cool of the tarn
ferrum
No Climbing For Now Our Feet Walk Together To The Cool Of The Tarn
Silver
NO CLIMBING FOR NOW OUR FEET WALK TOGETHER TO THE COOL OF THE TARN
LANTHANIDES
NO CLIMBING FOR NOW OUR FEET WALK TOGETHER TO THE COOL OF THE TARN
GOLD
NO.CLIMBING.FOR.NOW. OUR.FEET.WALK.TOGETHER. TO.THE.COOL.OF.THE.TARN.
ACTINIDES.
no.climbing.for.now. our.feet.walk.together. to.the.cool.of.the.tarn.
uranium.
117
the stage is empty I have wept for the actors how quiet it is
119
periodic table
4.003
1.008
6.941
9.012
10.81
12.01
14.01
16.00
19.00
20.18
22.99
24.31
26.98
28.09
30.97
32.07
35.45
39.95
39.10
40.08
44.96
47.87
50.94
52.00
54.94
55.85
58.93
58.69
63.55
65.38
69.72
72.64
74.92
78.96
79.90
83.80
85.47
87.62
88.91
91.22
92.91
95.96
(98)
101.1
102.9
106.4
107.9
112.4
114.8
118.7
121.8
127.6
126.9
131.3
132.9
137.3
178.5
180.9
183.8
186.2
190.2
192.2
195.1
197.0
200.6
204.4
207.2
209.0
(209)
(210)
(222)
(223)
(226)
(265)
(268)
(271)
(272)
(277)
(276)
(281)
(280)
(285)
(284)
(289)
(288)
(293)
(294)
(294)
Livermorium
Flerovium
138.9
140.1
140.9
144.2
(145)
150.4
152.0
157.3
158.9
162.5
164.9
167.3
168.9
173.1
175.0
(227)
232.0
231.0
238.0
(237)
(244)
(243)
(247)
(247)
(251)
(252)
(257)
(258)
(259)
(262)
Alkali Metals
Transition Metals
Actinides
Metalloids
Halogens
Alkaline Earth Metals
Lanthanides
Other Metals
Other Nonmetals
Noble Gases
121
design by Bridget Fitzpatrick www.manchesterdesignfactory.com
klaw a