Phillip Mann – writer, teacher and theatre director

A Song  of St Francis Dionysos

I affirm the oneness of life.
Among my friends I number the stars,
Shining in darkness and the serene moon.
I praise the rising sun that gladdens me.
Everything holds to its rightness:
The leaves that fall in autumn,
The sap that rises in spring,
The strong roots that break stone under soil.
Everything holds together: the fish, the birds
And the things that crawl in the darkness.

I affirm the oneness of Life.
I celebrate tangled branches
The tumbling of clear water,
The flowers of spring and the berries of winter.
I am in everything and everything is in me.
I am where the red desert meets the blue ocean,
Where the white mountain joins the green valley.
Everything joins. The stones too have their life.

I affirm the oneness of Life.
Where  the baby cries and the woman opens,
Where the man calls and the child stands,
There too am I.
I glory in opposites, in fragrance at nightfall,
In death in the morning, in tears and laughter.
I hear the voice that whispers
Gentle and deep, from old sea shells,
Content with centuries of ocean,
And it is my voice,
And many voices.
I affirm the oneness of Life.

***

Song of Achilles, Christ and St Francis Dionysos

(To be transcribed)