Not Knowing Guides our Feet

Poems and Drawings by Rashid Maxwell

On this page you can see and read parts of the book.

There are four poems to read - click on the poem titles below to see them.

To see enlarged images of the drawings, click on the small drawings down the right-hand side of this page.

Biographical information and a picture of the author can be found at the bottom of the page.

Spec

140mm x 216mm

Paperback

Perfect bound

140 pages

ISBN 0-9546099-7-2

Back Cover

Readers' Comments

He sees deeply into the Heart of Nature and its mysteries; join him in exploring divinity in its ordinary and lively expression.

Pamela Wilson

He is a poet of Nature and Spirituality. His language is both lyrical and modern in tone, and the witty drawings are a reminder that the poet is equally the artist. Through the poetry we hear the voice of one saddened by our greedy and harmful age but, in a wry and compassionate way, it suggests an alternative path towards inward tranquillity and self-transcendence.

Professor A.R.H. Copley

Read some of the Poems

Four poems are available for you to read. Click on these titles...

He Wants to Know

Sing your Life to the Bees

You are so Unreasonable

Typical Pages

This book is laid out with a drawing on each tight hand page and a poem on each left hand page.

Drawings

Click on one of the above drawings to see the enlarged version.

Biography

Rashid lives in Devon now. He’s done a lot of things, like keep bees, design buildings and landscapes for sacred use, build the buildings too, have kids, lecture in fine art, watch birds endlessly, farm a smallholding, live in Osho’s communes and in cities and in desert places on several continents, teach art as therapy, make furniture, write articles for international magazines, do nothing in a cave, exhibit his paintings, grow organic vegetables, have lots of grandchildren, write a book and get really into beekeeping.

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He Wants to Know

He wants to know the time
I don't know what time is

He wants a hot shower
I am a warm cascade

He wants to read a gossip magazine
I see only coloured dots on white

He wants to clear out the top shed today
I say it is clear already - always has been

He wants to go for an afternoon walk
I ask where on earth can he go?

He wants to write a poem
I feed him drops of honeydew

He wants to make love to his woman
I am everlasting orgasm

He would like to know who he is
I am

He says for god's sake stop this divisive dialogue
I say - Quite.

Top of the page

Sing your Life to the Bees

Rain fills the landscape
fills the heart with tenderness
the bees are settled for the winter
sing your life to the bees.
They know.

We are pilgrims on a journey with no destination.
We are a rational species with no reasons for our being.
We are hunters of a fragile prey that vanishes when sought.
We have five senses and we can't perceive the all-pervading presence

We are diamonds believing that we're pebbles.
We are attar of bergamot pretending to be twice-warmed tea.
We are prospectors in a desert trying to find sand.
We are in free fall looking for direction.

The doctor says the cure is never certain.
He hands me the prescription - one
enigma well digested three times daily after meals.
He presses the red button;
as the floor gives way he says, 'Wait . . .'

Rain fills the landscape
fills the heart with tenderness
the bees are settled for the winter
sing your life to the bees beloveds.
They know.

Top of the page

You are so Unreasonable

you're so unreasonable
just because I look at that girl in the street
it doesn't mean I want to sleep with her
this is not the first time that you've erred

jumping to conclusions
I only have to say one word to her
and you call it chatting her up
trying to get off with her

okay so we have a goodbye hug
you call her look blatant come-hither
no need to sling dirt she's not a flirt
it doesn't mean a thing

and even if I do meet up with her
so what? you project your fears a lot
on nothing
on just how a thing appears

it doesn't mean I want to be with her
just relax and try to understand a simple fact
just because I sleep with her
it doesn't mean that I don't

love you even though
you're so unreasonable

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