Asha ~ The chapel of the sacred heart (Poem)

Asha (aka Asher Quinn & Asha Elijah) recites his poem ‘The chapel of the sacred heart.’ This is not on a download or a CD as yet, nor in a book of poems. It is only available here. There is an Asha poem playlist on his YouTube channel.

I wrote this in the spring of 2015, along with several other poems, in a kind of sun-burst of poetic intensity! I had temporarily not been able to record any more music because my producer at the time withdrew, for a variety of reasons. I did not know then how to resolve that situation, as an album was in production, or how long this hiatus would last. But a heady concoction of feeling intensity rapidly ripened into a dozen poems or so, until I completed my album with a different producer later that summer.

So, between March and July 2015 I was writing poems in the sun, on the metro, in my bedroom, over lunch… anywhere and everywhere… with an exceptional intensity. Blocked from manifesting music, I just grabbed my pad & pen and wrote, to stop me from exploding with dammed up feeling and creativity.

The themes were all spiritual and mythic, and also from love, loss and heart-break… as is often the case in my songs… but experiencing poetry in my soul rather than song was so very different. It seemed to open a new vein; a new seam… deeper, richer; different somehow.

I don’t know where the words and rhythms came from, but they came like a torrent. I had to struggle to keep up. It felt like word from on high, even more keenly than in my songs.

‘The chapel of the sacred heart’ is a poem about building an inner temple… about crafting a place of worship and devotion in the heart; a private sanctuary in the soul to give thanks and to pray for blessing. In essence, the poem is a celebration of experiencing Christ in the spiritualised, purified heart… and the overwhelming, unimaginable beauty that that brings.

I shivered as one sublime image after another tumbled into my imagination, and then somersaulted out onto the page… not things I could dream up with my ordinary mind. I was simply a scribe for something else; an artisan for the poetry of the beyond.

It also describes the conscious community we can build if we give our whole heart to God, in unconditional, loving surrender. If we do that, then God gives His whole heart to us... and we become informed by Holy spirit from within, rather than external events. That is my aspiration, anyway... to live my whole life as a prayer, in communion. And what emerges in song and poem from that is proof of the unseen world... precisely because I could not create these things with my ordinary mind.

And then later last year, one day in November 2015, by the sacred Lake Bohinj in Ribčev Laz, Slovenia, the church of St. John the Baptist was finally open! I had passed by this ancient church 100 times over a decade, never able to enter. It was always locked. But on this day the doors were open and I tiptoed inside. A church restorer, Andrej Sebalj, was inside with his team. Andrej had lovingly spent 10 years restoring the 14th century frescoes of Jernej from Loka, a work that was still continuing. I was allowed to film and to climb the scaffold, because my poem fitted so well with his work! What a find! What a Godsend!

The music you hear I composed and played spontaneously as I listened to the playback of the poem in the studio.

The film was then edited to my script, by Maggie, up in Scotland. We must have made over 200 films in the last 2 or 3 years… songs and poems. It makes me feel that such things must be wished for in the unseen world. There was… is… no plan. It’s just organic… a single flower that turns into a meadow, with harvest upon harvest.

[irmavarszegi]

Heavenly music! A Heavenly voice sounds, it calls...! It touches my heart..., and Asha sings touchingly, beautifully🕊😢❤

[lanellegael]

The Chapel of the Sacred Heart...perfect & freeing.

[candynichols]

The most beautiful and heart filled story ever to be told, told here with scholarly excellence and in Devotion's perfection. ... written by an Angel who knows this story well. Every word, every note, every photograph in Divine revelation of the Highest Beauty any of us will ever touch --- your voice at the end is not of this planet but of God's choir. At One with God. Takes us into higher realm.... Even the choir swells in its Love for the Christ.... Love remembered that seeks us out every day and beckons our hearts to come be with Him. This is killer, Asha, beyond any earthly expectation, so above

[margaretmcvickers]

This is so beautifull I love your voice, thank you asha xx

[wbworkout]

What a loverly poignant poem! Thank you Asha! Warmest regards from Hawksnest!

[jozsefnevarszegi]

Asha! Ez a dal olyan szívhezszóló! Ezt értem:, ,Éli, Éli, lama szabaktani? A végén ezt értem: ez a szeretet kiált, hív irányába, meglátogat. És gyönyörűséges a hangod is! Köszönöm: Irmi ❤