True Human Beings by Tommy Crawford
True Human Beings by Tommy Crawford has been performed as part of the "Children's Fire" book tour, with Mac Macartney, as well as at festivals from the UK to Bali to New Zealand. A note from Tommy: This piece is best read out loud. For some people that can feel a little strange, at first, but when we read in our heads then the words tend to stay in our heads, whereas when we read aloud, the sound vibrations can touch all parts of our bodies, from our hearts, to our wombs, to our fingertips.
I've heard rumours
rumours of true human beings living among us, with a twinkle in their eyes, and a golden thread in their hands.
it is said that long ago they learned a secret, that to be human is to be both weaver and nimble-footed warrior — delicately braiding our life to the invisible world, and learning to dance in all of the delicious paradoxes that this entails.
ours is a time of the great forgetting, awash with false palaces and vast armouries, where ancient parts of ourselves languish in long-forgotten dungeons, where ice and steel conceal the tender song of our belonging.
in a time like this, it is an act of outrageous courage to open our hearts up to the fierce beauty of the world.
for many of us, the first one waiting by the door when we do is our old friend grief — piercing our exposed chest with his sweet fangs of sorrow.
as a great teacher once said, to weep for a hundred years wouldn't be enough.
the trick then might be to turn our tears into libation, and to allow their salty magic to soften us, so that we may hear the ten-thousand shivering secrets that the earth longs for us to remember.
we spend a lot of time running away from heartache.
but a heart broken open grows stronger and stronger, until finally we see that it has become an altar where the wild splendour of the world can find shelter and nourishment. a place from which we can step forth in all our broken glory.
it is said that true human-beings are made, not born.
what a wonderful time to be alive.
Tommy Crawford is a Poet, Shamanic Storyteller, and Founder of the International Mischief-Making Organisation, Dancing Fox.
His poetry has been featured in galleries in London, exhibitions in New Delhi, and wheat-pasted by artists as love-notes from the streets of Belfast to the crumbling temples of Sri Lanka. He has performed at Shambala, Into The Wild and WOMAD festivals, amongst others, and toured across the UK, Bali and New Zealand.
His art is deeply inspired by the year he spent sitting at the feet of wisdom-keepers from different Indigenous Peoples from around the world, Sufi mysticism and poetry, and the wild and sensuous beauty of the British Isles.
Find more of Tommy Crawford’s work here:
Instagram: www.instagram.com/therightkindoftrouble
Website: www.therightkindoftrouble.com