Recent Offerings

The Queen

‘The Queen’ – Ahmarnya Price

In her tower
All forlorn
A Queen, she stands
Looks to the land

Her heart
It longs to be reborn
Upon a breeze
To find release
From a life of solitude

Servitude
Dissolves in vision
As arms, they rise
To bless the skies

In the light
Of indecision
She grasps the door
And asks for more
And wakes into a world unknown

So many things she should have said
So many things she wanted to
So many things that she has seen
So many times she needed to

Collapse into the arms of peace to find
That she is kind

The Queen

Revised and recorded by stringmansassy for Dragonfly (2004).

Frond

With single touch
I shall unfurl
A frond so coiled
Unwind, uncurl
One vertice stroke
‘Long lines so bound
Down spine and bone
Til soft place found
And with one stroke
Surrender comes
To all life’s vice
All will-be-dones
With one caress
A soul is found
Neath frond so coiled
Unfurled, unwound

Little White Clouds

Little white clouds
Light as cotton candy
Catch us as we fall

Little white clouds
Soft as soft embrace
Catch us as we fall

Little white clouds
Floating on the wind
Catch us as we fall

Little white clouds
White as dirty snow
Catch us as we fall

Compassion all but left us
Integrity retreats
Humanity, hands held high
Justice bids defeat

Little white clouds catch us
Catch us as we fall

Little white clouds
Suspensions in the air
Catch us as we fall

Little white clouds
Interlacing like a blanket
Catch us as we fall

Little white clouds
Of singular persuasion
Catch us as we fall

Little white clouds
Intermittent vagabonds
Catch us as we fall

Gratitude, head bowed down
Love sheds salty tears
Morality, the first to leave
Conscience lives in fear

As we fall from grace and favour
We fall in space and time
We fall to false not candour
We fall to rob life blind

Little white clouds catch us
Catch us as we fall
The great descent of fallen angels
Little white clouds
Catch us

The Mirror Pool

I came to you
To watch
To watch you drink
The small, the grand
The young, the old
The hunters and the hunted

From plain and wilderness
Mountain and savannah
From the far reaches, you’d come
To surround a single body
Calm and still
Clear
Translucent
A body of life
To refresh and to replenish

Humanity, it circled
An ever revolving scholl of two legged beasts
Revolving
Contemplative
Without threat
Without malice
In circumference of wonder

A single droplet rippled
A single point
Followed by circle
After circle
After circle
Concentric mirrors of the last
Singular reminders of the infinity of life
Birth to death
To death
To birth

And you, each and every being
Your heads were bowed
As if in understanding

I too, knelt to join your throng
From my two legged magesty to four
At once an animal seeking succour
At once, merely another creature
One small creature
In the cycle of the earth

stringmansassy…new songs…mini tour….the next instalment

In November, stringmansassy (guitarist Aaron Hopper and vocalist Kacey Patrick) will embark upon a ‘mini’ tour of QLD with some new songs on offer, previewing material they hope to record in 2015. Check out the stringmansassy events page from more details!

It has taken us 5 years and for that we humbly apologise….but we do hope you will join us for this next instalment of stringmansassy. Kacey xox

TOUR DATES

Friday 7 November, 2014

Tanks Arts Centre – Jazz Up North

46 COLLINS STREET, CAIRNS, NORTH QUEENSLAND

Saturday 8 November, 2014

Tablelands Regional Gallery

ATHERTON, NORTH QUEENSLAND

Friday 21 November, 2014

soundlounge

165 DURIGAN STREET, CURRUMBIN, GOLD COAST

November 22nd, 2014

Studio 188

188 BRISBANE STREET, IPSWICH, SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND

The Kiss

The night is old and still I am not sober
Sweet intoxication lingers on my lips
Bursting forth
To conquer oceans of alone

A look
And at once, a flame
Warmed that part
And pricked the layers most exposed
Filled my dreams
And banished thoughts which sought to chain my heart
To the rocks of vacillation

From glance to touch
The sequence retains no form nor function
The passage blurred
A convoluted series of frames shaded with desire
Laced with passion
Each an enigma
Each a mirage
Each an apparition

But I did not see
More felt you, as you moved
Your presence
Increasingly near, drew me in
And my perceived self
Iron filings
A million sharp and brittle fragments
Descended, with such alarming force
En masse
Determined to satiate desire

The kiss
Tender, it was not
My alarm
My hesitance, was
For one brief moment
Reflected in your eyes
Like the hover of a hummingbird
Before sweet nectar is all consumed
Then the dissolution of space
Between limbs
Between lips
Between reluctance

How long did passion last?
A minute …
An hour …
An evening …

Sweet intoxication lingers on my lips
Bursting forth to conquer oceans of alone
The night is old
And still
I am not sober

‘The night has passed and still we are not sober.
In the garden of the heart the feast goes on.
The nightingale sings and the lover and beloved are entwined into one.’

Rumi (Quatrain 1257)
Translated by Maryam Mafi & Azima Melita Kolin

The Rose

A rose in bloom in a gardened room
Plucked by hands so fair
A table laid, preparations made
The rose is placed with care
A shy ‘hello’, eyes search to know
If the other feels the same
A shy ‘goodbye’ met by hopeful eyes
A rose exchanged
A promise made

A blushing face neath a veil of lace
Her hand, passed on, entwines
And with reverence placed on a tome of grace
The rose encased inside
Eager words are spoke and emotions choke
Her lover’s turn of phrase
From this day on, two lives now one
A vow exchanged
A promise made

As seasons pass, first child to last
A family two, has grown
And each head blessed with the words that press
The rose, now chestnut brown
Between ivory page, the rose it fades
Each child, with wings, takes flight
All that remains, great love yet pain
A rose exchanged
A promise made

Some years on grandchildren come
Support a man so frail
With weathered hands, upon the land
He lays the rose now pale
A story is read about a life well led
The lovers’ rose in bloom
From the book of grace with scented space
Their rose exchanged
Their promise made

Jars

A jar for love
A jar for joy
A jar for solitude
A jar for hope
A jar for life
A jar for seeking truth
A jar for melancholy
A jar that holds one tear
A jar for saying sorry
A jar for all you fear

Pick a jar, take it down
Which one will you choose
A jar for every nuance, every purpose, every mood

Pick a jar, take it down
Choose one from the shelf
Take only what you need to truly find yourself

Ancient jars of mystery
Hold tales from long ago
Jars clear and fine with crystal lines
Hold secrets never told
A jar of brass for courage
A jar of ebony
Holds the darkest thoughts and dreams
Of who you might have been

A jar for strength and fortitude
A jar to test your faith
A jar which holds compassion
A jar of rage and hate
A jar for every story
All regrets, all love affairs
A jar for every child
Who’s whispered magic to the air

Aubergine for passion
Cadmium seeks a friend
Azure blue for all the days
When sorrow never ends
Scarlet whispers promise
Vermillion keeps you safe
The jade looks to serenity
For calm and quite space

Pick a jar, take it down
Which one will you choose
A jar for every nuance, every purpose, every mood

Pick a jar, take it down
Choose one from the shelf
Take only what you need to truly find yourself

Performed with Linsey Pollak – ‘An evening of improvisations’ – Maleny, May 2013.

Nawar and Athar Duet

The “Nawar and Athar” Duet.
Performed by Nadia Sunde and Kacey Patrick.
From “The Dream of Zedkat Nabu”.

Performed at Woodfordia, Woodford Folk Festival: 28th – 31st December, 2012.

“The Dream of Zedkat Nabu”. This was the World Premiere of a new work devised by Linsey Pollak and performed by 4 wonderful singers – Kacey Patrick, Velvet Pesu, Jeunae Rogers and Nadia Sunde and 4 musicians triggering the calls of endangered animals by striking bamboo poles – Jessica Ainsworth, Fatima, Linsey Pollak and Zaia. This a Musical work with strong visuals – lighting design by Andrew Meadows and costume design by Velvet Pesu. The core of the piece is the sounds of the animals themselves. Evocative calls of endangered species that speak directly to us in a way that words cannot. It is a call to action. A call to save this planet from the impending crisis. This is The Dream of Zedkat Nabu. — at Woodford Folk Festival 2012/13. – filmed by the WFF video archiving team & edited by Robert Sneddon.

Katoomba

6 currawongs
Perched on a bush
On a cliff
Suspended above the forest
The edge falling
To where the faint white spec of a cockatoo
Is illuminated against the moss green canopy

As the winds begin to gale
One currawong takes flight
Buoyed towards the clouds
He dips then soars with the breeze
Circumnavigates the cliffs
And dives towards another perch out of sight
His black and white complexion
Silhouetted against the mottled sandstone

The valley stretches below
– GODOOMBA –
And the hues change as the light begins to fade
Amongst the moss
The grey filaments of tree trunks
Reflect a purple aura into the undergrowth

A storm draws near
It sweeps across the valley
Pulling a veil over the landscape
As the once blue horizon
Is shrouded in a curtain of payne’s grey
A single lightening bolt illuminates a lone tower
A sentinel for a different time

As the rain descends
The sounds of Godoomba echo through the valley
The birds have taken voice
Mingling with the languages of humans
A symphony of song fills the vastness
The birds, the bells
The humans, the timpani and the fanfare

The storm has reached the cliff
And the once defined horizon
Has receded into the blanket of the clouds
The hues of blue and purple, moss and sand
Have become all shades of grey
As mother nature
And her blessed rain
Enfold the valley

Katoomba – Written in-between gigs at ‘The Clarendon’.

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TOUR DATES

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