this months release on proost is explorations by ned lunn. it's a poem/prayer in the pocket size book format. ned is part of the rough edge collective in durham who did the beat eucharist if you came across that on proost or at greenbelt. so this is very much in the same genre of the beat poets. as ever it's available as a pdf or physical book. if you are outsude the uk you can order it from lulu. In the contemplative tradition there are two schools of though about prayer or two paths of spirituality. one - the via negativa - is that in the presence of god what can be said - words cannot begin to express so best say nothing or very little. the via positiva is equally in awe in god's presence but responds with an abundance, an overflow of speech. so the stream of consciousness is very much in that latter tradition. ned says why it suits him
In any sentence I want to reference or expand on individual aspects of one concept or idea and everything soon becomes interconnected. The stream of consciousness style of writing helps me to journey along the many trains of thought, to detour and find my way around the network of my inner life. It makes the act of writing a process of discovery and, in reading it, you’re invited to journey with me and, as much as we can in the static product, we discover together.
and...
The overuse of vocabulary captures, I hope, the beautiful tension between reverent silence and the drive to speak constantly about the wonder and amazement aware at all times of the limitation of our own language.
it's devotional, and quite unique.
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