jonnybaker

unfurling and a haiku

i have just realised that on my last two holidays i have read a book by ian adams. this year's was his new collection of poems - unfurling. it's delightful. it's only about 60 pages so i have probably read it about three times... ian has really found his voice i think - fusing moments of attention in the world, wisdom for the ways of the soul with a deep love and longing for the healing of all things and indeed the healer of all things. there are a lot of haiku poems - which are poems that have three lines of 5, 7, then 5 syllables. i really enjoyed these - he has an inspired retelling of the beattitudes as haikus for example. and he has a way with language that manages to be spiritual and fresh and deep without ever being overly religious or clichéd. you can see some of what ian is up to at beloved life

there's another book on my beach towel (on marloes sands in case you were wondering - one of the most amazing beaches) - it's a novel. any book cover geeks able to recognise it?!

i wrote a haiku on the beach which is pretty lame but here it is...

the expansiveness 
of gazing at the ocean
where in the city?

my first solo show in the allotment gallery at greenbelt

the presence of silence went well at greenbelt - it was actually my first ever solo photography exhibition in a rather cute shed. thanks to everyone who popped in to see it - the venue was full all the time - though it was a pretty smalll venue!

[update - for my own reference really... i spotted some photos from a lovely gb photographer on the official gb flickr photos - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]

did i mention arbuckle contributes to the pioneer gift book?!

a running joke with pioneers at cms and indeed some others is how much i am a fan of gerald arbuckle's writing. to be honest it's all fair - i am a fan! anyway i am delighted he has contributed a chapter to the pioneer gift book. when he was over i interviewed him around the themes of dissent. grief, mourning, pioneers, and newness! the video is around 5 minutes long and is one of five from authors of chapters in the book...

event horizon - worship trick 53 series 4

following the last worship trick which was music out of the ground, grace produced an amazing labyrinth type experience at greenbelt on the saturday called event horizon (i wasn't involved as i had a ton of other thing going on at greenbelt). it made use of a perfect location for it with an installation called orpheus which slopes down geometrically to a pool of water. the photos are better than a description. there were 8 stopping points on postcards on the journey down and 8 on the way back. and along the way were pieces of music to listen to. it was amazing. and steve has added all of the reflections here along with a description and a set of photos. so a definite worship trick to add to the series 4.

clean living wins the greenbelt missional entrepreneurship competition

the dragons den at greenbelt which was hosted by cms was a lot of fun! congratulations to miriam who won with her idea of clean living - 

The winning idea is for Clean Living, a social enterprise employing cleaners in the City of London for the London Living Wage of £8.80 per hour. Profits secured by the business will then be re-invested in personal development for those employed. This could include English language classes and the teaching of basic literacy and numeracy skills.

she wins the prize of attending the cms pioneer missional entrepreneurship week at pickwell manor in devon, where she will be able to work up the idea. here she is (on the right) with shannon hopkins who leads the week and who was chief dragon!

but in silence ep by flock (aka harry baker and chris read)

greenbelt was wonderful (though a little damp on monday!) - the new venue was amazing. a highlight for me was the proost poets each morning. which i blogged about below but the ep of songs and spoken word which chris goan aptly described at greenbelt as sublime is now on proost here.

learning to love - proost poets at greenbelt

there are so many new things at the moment which is fun! learning to love is a remarkable collection of poetry curated by chris goan. it's been a huge undertaking and has around 100 poets and 300 poems in it. it was a simple idea of chris' a while back and we put the word out that if there were poets interested in publishing to send proost poems. well that quickly became huge. but after sifting and organising, an amazing anthology is the result. i'm so grateful to chris and everyone who has contributed. lots of the poets are publishing for the first time in print i think. it's organised around themes such as protest or the world is broken or the far horizon. if you know any anthologies i guess it's closest in spirit to the series by neil astley - staying alive, being human. 

anyway it's just come out on proost. it's available in the greenbelt bookshop. poets themselves can get copies if you know them. and you can order it direct through lulu.com . as ever it's also a pdf download through proost. but i have found that this kind of book i prefer to have a physical copy in my hand. i have actually read all through it twice now.

there is a slot each morning at 9am in the leaves venue at greenbelt to kick start the day of reflections by proost poets that chris is pulling together. do drop in to that.

as well as the contributers to this collection another exciting new thing is that poet harry baker has teamed up with musician chris read to create a 4 track ep but in silence. they are going under the name flock and the ep is available on proost. this is a really beautiful blend of prayerful spoken word artistry coupled with soulful music and song. it's called but in silence. i'll add the link here when it's up... but they will also be performing each morning in the proost poets slots.

i love poets! not just because one is in the family but there is something about this mode of speech that is poignant, direct, soulful, and somehow the language of prophets. when i'd read the anthology i was so inspired by the range of voices, the freedom of speech, the ability to say stuff that needs to be said but that somehow never makes it into sermons and worship songs. there is this undercurrent of voice that needs to be heard. i particularly love the section in the book called the far horizon... anyway have a look and see what you think!

pioneers and cms at greenbelt

last year a highlight at greenbelt for me was connecting with lots of people who are imaginative building new things out of what they see - what we call pioneers and there was a great party/gathering one evening where we were happy to provide free drinks. well the good news is there is another this year on sunday night at 9pm also combining with celebrating a couple of new books out including the pioneer gift. but there is also a stack of other things that might be of interest which cms are involved with. download an invite to the party here which you need to bring for a free drink. and here is a link to the various things cms are doing - i'm actually first up on friday evening at 9pm talking about the prophetic imagination. if you want to chat about anything pioneering then i'll be spending the weekend meeting people for coffee or beer in the tiny tea tent or jesus arms no doubt! leave me a message or go to the cms stand in g-source.

grace at greenbelt

join grace at greenbelt in the orpheus installation on saturday between 10am and 8pm (though not between 11am and 1pm whn you should be in the allotment gallery at my photography exhibition!). i don't think this is listed in the greenbelt diary so make a note of it...

back from holiday...

just back from a wonderful holiday in wales - yes we stayed in the uk this year and struck lucky with some pretty decent weather. pembrokeshire has the most amazing beaches - they are as good as cornwall and north devon but without the hordes of people. i have added a set of photos to flickr that to be honest are nearly all of beaches!