The Way Of The Poet - John Shane - Poetry, Music, Meditation

The Way Of The Poet - John Shane - Poetry, Music, Meditation

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“YOUR FRIENDS WILL TELL YOU WHAT THEY THINK YOU WANT TO HEAR ABOUT YOURSELF, BUT YOUR ENEMIES WILL SHOW YOU HOW YOU REALLY ARE!” What I saw…
IT’S TIBETAN NEW YEAR!! LOSAR GREETINGS TO ONE & ALL - CLICK TO LISTEN TO JOHN SHANE read ‘WHO CAN UNDERSTAND THE MYSTERIES OF THE HUMAN HEART?’ - & …
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John Shane
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PUMPKIN MOON IN MASSACHUSETTS - John Shane - A love poem addressed to my then unborn daughter…‘Who are you, intimate, yet unseen…
‘You've thrown the worst fear/That can ever be hurled/Fear to bring children/Into the world‘ wrote a young Bob Dylan to the ‘Masters Of War’. I’d say…
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John Shane
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EARTH MOTHER (For The Midwife) - John Shane - click here to listen to a poem celebrating the mystery of birth
As chaos in ‘the world of men’ seems to threaten the rule of law & the rules-based international order, I offer you this poem celebrating the mystery of…
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John Shane
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SONG OF THE MONSTROUS GRID - John Shane - Part of an unpublished long-form spoken word drama THE WINGED DRUM - Why do kids enjoy so much…
EZRA POUND: 'ARTISTS ARE THE ANTENNAE OF THE RACE.' Is it possible that that I intuited in this poem, written long before the Internet arrived, a danger…
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John Shane
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POETRY CAN SPEAK DECISIVELY TO POWER: A talk by Andrew Motion UK Poet Laureate - AND - THE VOICE OF THE THUNDER - by John Shane a poster…
'Tyrants fear poets: they convert particular truths into general truths, and broadcast them. Poets achievements...long outlast the statues and statutes…
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John Shane
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Celebrating my late teacher CHOGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU's Birthday on the 8th December...
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THIS FURNACE (Note To An Old Photograph In A Family Album) JOHN SHANE. I published this grieving poem on Holocaust Memorial Day in witness…
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'THE SONG OF SELF-HEALING' - John Shane - READ, WATCH & LISTEN to a poem with music
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POETRY CAN SPEAK DECISIVELY TO POWER: A talk by Andrew Motion UK Poet Laureate - AND - THE VOICE OF THE THUNDER - by John Shane a poster…
 • John Shane
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Recent posts

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IN THE HORNED MAJESTY OF MY ANCIENT ANTLERED ANCESTRY - An Alternative Inauguration: Invoking Personal Power Rather Than Political Power…
Using the act of writing itself as a practice to enter ‘Access Concentration’ & remaining undistractedly in ‘The Natural State’ while at the same time…
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John Shane
Celebrating my late teacher CHOGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU's Birthday on the 8th December...
CLICK BELOW TO WATCH A VIDEO & JOIN ME WALKING AROUND THE GREAT STUPA AT MERIGAR WITHIN WHICH CHOGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU’S REMAINS ARE AT REST & READ A POEM…
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John Shane
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FASCISM ARRIVES AS YOUR FRIEND - MICHAEL ROSEN’S POEM 1st published May 2014
As long ago as 2014, former UK Children’s Laureate MICHAEL ROSEN published this poem that, in the light of recent developments, seems, unfortunately, to…
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John Shane
THIS FURNACE (Note To An Old Photograph In A Family Album) JOHN SHANE. I published this grieving poem on Holocaust Memorial Day in witness…
I don't know if this previously unpublished poem, written after a family funeral, is finished, or even if it could ever be finished, but I've decided to…
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John Shane
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‘THE BAND PLAYS ON WHILE THE SHIP SINKS (Trust To The Water, Swim Towards The Light)’ Listen to a demo of John Shane singing his song…
CLICK TO LISTEN TO John Shane’s song about the sinking of the ship the USS SAMSARA & read how this demo recording of the song was made by John with…
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John Shane
'THE SONG OF SELF-HEALING' - John Shane - READ, WATCH & LISTEN to a poem with music
My gift to you at the turning of the year is this song that summons the elemental powers of the universe to invoke the healing of broken bodies, broken…
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John Shane
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"SHANESPEARE IS HERE..!!" 'The Way of The Poet': ‘the habit and discipline of the notation of consciousness'; 'the practice of creative…
How I came to have the nickname 'Shanespeare’, AND a few notes on working as a writer with the great Dzogchen Master Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, PLUS the…
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John Shane
‘TRUE VALUE’ - On The Loss Of A Beloved Child - standing side by side with two friends as they bury the ashes of their college-age daughter.
Click here to listen to audio of me reading this poem about my friends’ sad loss to cancer of their daughter Nina, a poem that also points to how life …
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John Shane
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ROLLING WAVES: watch & listen to a paen (a song of praise or triumph) celebrating the healing power that contact with nature offers us when…
CLICK TO WATCH A VIDEO of John Shane reading his poem about the healing power of being by the sea…
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John Shane
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LONE VOICE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS - John Shane
Renewing the commitment to work the benefit of others, for the common good…
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John Shane
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LIBERTY IN CHAINS - John Shane
A strange dream encounter in which Liberty herself appears and warns us of those who so loudly boast their love of their own freedom while planning to…
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John Shane
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TO THOSE WHO POISON THE WATER - John Shane
CLICK BELOW to hear John Shane reads his poem, SCROLL DOWN to read the poem and also to see newspaper articles about the pollution of the waterways of…
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John Shane
Links
John Shane on YouTube
References
Chogyal Namkhai Norbu and John Shane - Books
Shambala Publications
John Shane's article 'Mudra of Samaya'
The Mirror - Newspaper of the International Dzogchen Community
John Shane's article 'Open Letter'
The Mirror - Newspaper of the International Dzongchen Community
John Shane translating for Chogyal Namkhai Norbu - Video
The Meridian Trust - Buddhist Film Resource Archive

Conversation Starters

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Here you will find some of the teaching materials that I gathered together in the late 1970s for The Way Of The Poet courses that I taught…
A 1980 article from a newspaper in Herefordshire, where I lived when I was appointed Creative Writing Assistant to West Midlands Arts, the regional…
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John Shane
1. Can we really say there is any such thing a thing as one single 'Way Of The Poet'..? Doesn't every poet, almost by definition, have their…
Aren't we really talking about the intangibles of creativity here..? Since the 'intangibles' cannot be defined, how can they be taught..?
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John Shane
2. What is 'poetry'..? The great American poet Walt Whitman writes that, in his opinion, no definition can ever fully enclose what poetry…
Does each poet have to define for themselves what poetry means..? What about the various movements in poetry..? Does a poet have to belong to a group or…
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John Shane
3. Hermann Hesse: the Nobel prize-winning novelist explains that in his youth there were no guides as to how to become a poet...
One can teach rules for rhyme and meter, but can creativity really be taught..?
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John Shane
4. American 'beat poet' Allen Ginsberg advises young poets to abandon their ambition to write 'Poetry', and instead, more honestly, to write…
What is going on 'in the back of the back of your mind'..? Can you write that down..?
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John Shane
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