A Celebration of Life and Achievement

I've attended many specialist festivals on the Dartington Hall estate over the last ten years, all of which have been stimulating, nourishing food for mind, heart and soul. But of all the festivals visited within those stunning grounds and buildings, Tagore 150 was the most rounded, holistic and nourishing I've experienced. A dynamic, inspirational programme of music, discussion, theatre, daily Culture Cafe's, dance, celebrated authors, philosophers, artists, scientists and activists bringing to the frontline the huge body of work of one astonishing human being.

Rabindranath Tagore was a man, an activist, an artist, a radical teacher, an environmental champion, a dancer and best loved of all a writer of many great literary works culminating in his award of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. This was a festival and celebration of life that he would have been proud of.

Before the festival I knew very little about Tagore's work and life. After the festival I feel I have stepped deep into the personal and professional world of one very fine individual and the celebration of an extraordinary career brought vividly to life through the words, ideas and art of over 100 different contributors throughout the week-long celebration.

What's important to me when faced with an individual's overwhelming achievements is not to be daunted and deflated in the face of such a visible, powerful body of work, but to be inspired by it, energised and galvanised to keep pushing ahead, keep moving forward; to keep the faith in the darkest hours of life. To be motivated by the belief that however small my contribution to this world is, what I do will ripple out into the future like a pebble on water. I've no idea where the fluid, rippling rings of my life's work will end up. If the pebble is dropped into the ocean, my life's work might perhaps one day become a mighty wave connecting to all living things. The wave of Tagore's life is still moving out, inspiring the world, one person at a time, to dare to offer their unique talents to society in the hope that they may also inspire reverence and respect for a life well lived.

Well done to all the volunteers, staff, artists and to Victoria who produced the festival from start to finish.

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback.

http://www.casparwalsh.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/caspar-walsh

Radical Ideas for a Radically Different World

'I slept and dreamt that life was joy
I awoke and saw that life was service
I acted and behold, that service was joy'

Tagore

There was never a guarantee I would even find standing room at The Great Hall let alone get a seat for the Deepak Chopra event. I confess I am not a trend or guru follower – something about the rebel in me. But I am always open to new ideas and possibilities. I was given Deepak's best selling book, 'Synchro Destiny' and found it hard to get into, so I came to the event as a curious journalist not a follower.

I found a seat with a mix of other journalists. There was yet another issue with sound in The Great Hall space, Deepak's tie mic didn't work so his honeyed voice had to be forced through the main PA. I spent the entire event straining to concentrate on his treatise on the relevance of Tagore today whilst wincing at the piercing sibilance hitting the audience every time his words required an 's'. I heard moments of clarity and brilliance from his delivery, but ended up feeling frustrated that I'd missed out on something special. Despite my gripe, the audience clearly revelled in his presence, words and indisputable charisma. He could've sat up front for 45 minutes and meditated and he would still have received a very warm reception.

There was a short break, then Deepak moved into his next event discussing the power of healing. I hovered on leaving but my gut said stay. It was in this next gathering that I was to discover what the fuss and legend attached to Chopra was all about.

His tie mic was fixed, the knife-like 'S's' were softened and he hit his stride from the first word. I was captivated throughout. He talked passionately about his time as a young doctor in training in Calcutta and how he encountered so much death accompanied by the painful stages of dying – from denial, to apathy to panic. Death is not a subject spoken nearly enough in our culture – in the UK. Deepak brought a sharp reality and a tangible sense of hope for all our paths as we journey inevitably into the metaphysical stages beyond life.

He connected his understanding of death to lives half lived in jobs that 80 per cent of the population of the world are dissatisfied with. I was shocked that only 20 per cent of the population of the planet love what they do for a living. He went on to drop the statistical bomb that more people die at 9am on a Monday morning than at any other time. I suddenly felt very blessed to be doing what I love and making what I believe is a difference in the world. His point was that we must use our lives and the time we have to follow our deepest dreams for change within ourselves and for the world as a whole. It was a call to arms delivered with passion, clarity and empowerment.

I left the Great Hall converted (still defiantly independent!), connected to the masses of readers of Chopra's work and followers of his philosophy; feeling reassured, empowered and determined to carry on with my chosen path to help others find their unique paths into lives of service and joy.

That evening, legendary Sarod player, Wajahat Khan played a mesmerising Gitanjli inspired set accompanied by a fantastic tabla player and Wajahat's two sons on sitar. The music was interspersed with stories of Wajaht's father (composer of the Gitanjli musical work), Ustad Imrat and the early days of Indian music played at Dartington; a period inspired and directly linked to Tagore's time on the estate. Wajahat made the bold but entirely believable statement that the seed of UK World Music was sown on the Dartington Estate. Peter Gabriel's Womad is a direct descendant of the early musical heritage of Dartington. I now have fresh eyes on the estate's link to World music and feel that much more proud to be living just down the road.

The 'Poem's on the Move' dance group was yet another first for me. Contemporary dance, as a writer craving literary, coherent narrative, is not a form I'm drawn to, but I couldn't deny the beauty of their Tagore poetry inspired dance to a powerful, moving soundtrack. It was clear their heart was in their work and this transmitted directly to the audience. I want the music they played in my car!

There is a theme in the events I saw on this day. It's all about being open and willing to engage with new ideas, to let go of the attachments to what I'm comfortable and familiar with and deepen my understanding of and connection to the wider world. My eyes, mind and heart have been nourished and opened just a little bit more and my work and writing has been inspired and energised.
Encore!

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback.

http://www.casparwalsh.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/caspar-walsh

World Class Poetry Day

“Love adorns itself; it seeks to prove inward joy by outward beauty.

Love does not claim possession,

but gives freedom

Love is an endless mystery, for it has nothing else to explain it.

Love's gift cannot be given,
it waits to be accepted”. Tagore

Sharpham Poetry Fair – a houseful of poems

I've been to the Sharpham Estate many times. The beauty of the building and its location on the Dart never fail to move me, actually the place blows me away. As I turned the corner to the entrance, gentle music drifted from speakers and I was greeted by the view of the river below and the bright green growth of the woodlands lining the Ancient river's embankment. A river brought into national and international consciousness by Alice Oswald and her tribute to its waters and the life touched by it. Alice was present and organised the poetry day at Sharpham including an impressive selection of local, and global poets.

As I entered the main building and walked through to the foot of the grand staircase I was hit by that familiar festival feeling – which event to go to? I wanted to be in more than one room at once. There were a series of stairwell performances mixed with open performances in the various rooms on the ground floor including a captivating, interactive digital tribute to Tagore by Jerome Fletcher and J.R Carpenter.

Matt Harvey made his second appearance at the festival. I've probably heard his 'Thwoc' tennis tone poem, created during his residency at Wimbledon Tennis Club, performed live at least 5 times. I try and resist it, wanting something new, but each time he gets to the match point of the piece I am humbled into submission by the fact that this is a gentle work of genius. He told me after the event that his father was illustrating the poem and a book was in the pipeline. This I want to see.

Yet another festival first for me was Zena Edwards. Zena mixes her soulful voice, street speak and a prodigious gift for sharp, emotive poetry like a DJ – powerful, moving and magical. Her song, words and rhythms filled the stairwell and brought the house to fierce life. I moved closer, sat on the hard floor and looked up the stairwell to the audience leaning over the balcony, realising this space was refreshingly unique in providing a performance platform that could be seen from above below and at eye level. I found myself drawn to watching the crowd as much as the performer. Poetry surrounded me in the form of artist, performance space and audience.

The final performance of the evening was due to be from poetic champions Simon Armitage, former poet laureate Andrew Motion and Brian Patten. Brian and Andrew made it but Simon had broken his leg that morning, the announcement drawing gasps from the crowd. Motion and Patten filled the space Simon sadly had left, beautifully. These men make poetry look easy but it is clearly a result of many years hard graft. I had heard Patten's work on Radio 4's 'Poetry Please' many times, but to hear him in person was a powerful connecting experience, bringing me closer to the realms of death, friendship, shirts and dresses!

At the end of the event I found myself sitting outside in the warmth of the May evening on the same table as Andrew Motion, Matt Harvey, Tagore translator, Anuman Biswaz and London poet Malika Booker. It was for this writer and part -time poet a surprisingly relaxed (there is understandable awe and a little angst in this kind of company) and connected end to an evening of blazing, moving and thought provoking poetry.

Celebration for the power of the written word and its ability to connect us all to the beautiful, finer details of everyday life and the divinity that exists within it and us all.

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback.

http://www.casparwalsh.co.uk/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/caspar-walsh

The Soul and Heart of Environmental Art

"I touch God in my song
as the hill touches the far-away sea with its waterfall.
The butterfly counts not months but moments,
and has time enough.
Let my love, like sunlight, surround you
and yet give you illumined freedom.

Love remains a secret even when spoken,
for only a lover truly knows that he is loved"
Tagore, excerpt from 'Fireflies'

Having feasted on many events in the first few days of the Tagore festival, I scaled back and made the decision to go to only one on Tuesday. A tough decision. I opted for Chris Drury. It was the best possible choice. I had seen Chris's work for the first time in Resurgence and was immediately struck and captivated by the simplicity and beauty of what he is creating in the world. Artworks in stone, wood, water, ice and even mushrooms... ! draw easy comparisons to Andy Goldsworthy and Antony Gormley, artists I've admired for many years. Chris's work equals both Goldsworthy and Gormley. He very much ploughs his own furrow, creating completely original, environmentally inspired works of art.

I arrived a few minutes late to the event because I 'd spent ten minutes looking for a parking space. The festival is very well attended – the eco worrier (no spelling mistake) in me was muttering and wondering how many of the rides were shared?

Chris's event was presented as a slide show of some of his recent works across the world with different groups, communities and tribes. He narrated his way through the creation of stone and wood works in a UK hospital inspired by the images of a cardiogram. Massive reconstructions of the formations and flows of arctic wind on the freshly snow covered ice sheet where he used satellite images of the wind flows uploaded onto a GPS satellite navigation system. He then attached the GPS to a skidoo (motorised sled), and followed the lines carefully, scaled up large and 'drawn' in the snow by the skidoo's skis. He then photographed the reconstructed lines of wind in ice from a high vantage point. Utterly inspiring and ingenious.

I literally drew a sharp in take of breath when he talked us through the slides of his recreation of a nuclear mushroom cloud out of sprigs of sage from the New Mexico desert where the first nuclear tests changed the world forever. The dried sage (used in cleansing rituals around the world) was hung from the ceiling in a multitude of pieces, forming a facsimile of the mushroom-shaped cloud that became synonymous with mankind's most destructive bomb. Chris repeated the concept in Italy using dried mushrooms, lit stunningly from beneath. I have never seen anything like it. I absolutely loved this work.

A sharp observation from the audience from a long term environmental campaigner highlighted the recent acceptance from environmental groups that the heavy message of environmental catastrophe simply wasn't getting through to the masses. What was though, was environmental art. For me the kind of art Chris creates opens up the heart and soul before the cynical mind can distract me from a deeper truth, leaving me much more open to the messages that relate or connect to that work.

Chris clearly has a message and a passion for the natural world and is constantly looking at ways to connect technology, nature, life and death and create artworks that move and inspire. He warned that as an artist it was a bad idea to approach environmental art with a world changing agenda; 'it kills the heart of it.' He said he always looked for the connections in nature, the bridges between objects and ideas and this was his driving force. The eco message comes later, as a bonus not a primary driver.

As I'm writing, I realise I wish I'd gone to meet him and buy his book so he could sign it for me. I will buy it anyway. His work, the heart and soul of it, filled The Barn Cinema with hushed reverence from the audience and left me feeling nourished and connected and even more ready to bring my own creativity deeper into the world in the hope that hearts and minds will be opened and if I'm lucky, agendas aside, there will be a greater reverence and respect for our life and impact on the earth.
Tagore would be proud.

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback. www.casparwalsh.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/caspar-walsh

A Feast of Ideas and Passions

Tagore 150 at Dartington Hall
1^st to 7^th May 2011

I stand under the golden canopy of thine evening sky

and I lift my eager eyes to thy face

I have come to the brink of eternity from which nothing can vanish

– no hope, no happiness, no vision of a face seen through tear
Tagore, extract from 'Brink of Eternity'

A full day of food for thought, belly and heart – and a little more food for the belly than usual! The curry tent and its hypnotic music is becoming a regular haunt for this writer with its generous portions of wholesome spicy, home cooked vegetables served by a friendly duo who clearly love their work.

Wandering through the grounds listening to discussion sparked by events and talks, bumping into old friends, making new ones easily through the shared, unspoken understanding that by the nature of being at the festival we are of the same tribe, idea, belief and passion, wanting a better world full of creativity, connection and a desire for deep change. The weather held and at times offered bursts of sunlight followed by welcome warmth cutting through the cool days of May after so much April sunshine.

I have heard and read much of Jane Goodall and her work but had no idea just how much she has done and is doing in the world to help make it a better, more loved and respected place for humans, animals and plant kingdom alike. And it is clearly a better place for her life within it.

In defiant defence of our world and all the beings within it, Jane is indeed a force of nature. The Great Hall was packed. Her message delivered clearly and simply. No one could mistake her feelings of despair for the world we have created; she made the 'we' very clear. But she possesses an unflinching faith for the possibilities of change and the hope she has for a better world. Very much in line with here her Roots and Shoots charity motto 'Never Give Up.'

It would be easy to be overwhelmed by the staggering accomplishments of her life and for me to think, “how could I get close to that, why bother?” but she clearly believes we are all capable of making an important difference in the world no matter how small – and in fact we must. It's not simply up to the politicians to do this. We are the leaders we've been waiting for. I couldn't agree more.

Questions from the floor seemed at times to be more about personal platforms for individual work and beliefs and at one point a gallery questioner almost seemed to be moving into a heckle about the destructive force of technology, demanding a response from Jane. She held the question firm, making it clear that for her, technology used correctly, was a key part of our future and has a place in helping to alleviate poverty and the reliance on fossil fuels. I couldn't help thinking about her momentous discovery of the chimpanzee who had created a tool to eat termites and how this changed the world view of humans being unique because they are the only species to create tools.

She then unseated religion and belief as being another key division between animals and man with her story of seeing a group of chimps dancing by a massive waterfall, hurling rocks into the water, staring up at the cascading water in wonder and how this echoed mankind's nature based beliefs and the worship of mystery and beauty in the natural world.

Jane received a much-deserved standing ovation.

Stephan Harding and Philip Franses delivered an ambitious 45-minute talk on the relationship between Einstein and Tagore using Goethe as the bridging point. I heard somewhere that it is good to read or engage with material, words or ideas that requires thought, every day. This certainly demanded some mind bending concepts to get my head around, imagining riding beams of light and ending where you began before you've even left your starting point (part of Einstein's discussion on light as an immeasurable force). I left a little baffled but boosted by the colour they brought to the talk and their evident, shared passion for blending science and belief in a positive and workable way.

There is a feast of ideas and passions at this festival and I would be wise not to gorge myself too early in my hungry search for creative, spiritual and intellectual satisfaction. Time to wander and sit and digest and let the ideas percolate and of course, eat a little more curry...

Tagore Tales
Rabindranath Tagore. William Rothenstein in his book Men and Memories quotes a story of what happened when Yeats arranged a small dinner for Tagore before he left for India. After dinner, “we asked Tagore to sing Bande Mataram. He hummed the tune but after the first words he broke down; he could not remember the rest.

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback. www.casparwalsh.co.uk

The Vision Becomes a Reality

Tagore 150 at Dartington Hall Estate

1^st to 7^th May 2011

“O Sun of India's sky,
O World-Poet,
O Moon of Bengal's heart,
You were beautiful in your inner life,
You were beautiful in your outer life,

You were beauty incarnate in God's entire creation.
Gloriously and triumphantly you secure your place
In the world-assembly with your creative force,
Supremely meaningful and fruitful in various walks of life.”

- Sri Chinmoy from 'My India'

Illustration by Norman Young

There could be no better or appropriate place in England than the Dartington Hall Estate to hold the celebratory festival marking 150 years since the birth of the great artist, philosopher and social activist, Rabindranath Tagore. The festival has been two years in the making and spearheaded by Tagore adorer and Resurgence Editor in Chief, Satish Kumar. The high level of organisation involved; the vision and passion to honour Tagore and his life's work is now buzzing through Dartington Hall and the surrounding grounds. There is a palpable sense of pride at the many events on offer and the list of luminaries who have signed up in great number to discuss their unique interpretations of Tagore's work and life.

I am drawn to the festival as a writer and I confess, prior to the first day on Sunday the 1^st of May, I was for the most part, ignorant to the scale of Tagore's work and its impact on the world.

My many teachers told me about the great writers and poets, but only ever about the English ones. I never heard the name, Tagore once mentioned. He began to get my attention proper soon after I moved to Dartington in 2008 in relation to his significant influence on the founders of the Dartington Hall Trust, the Elmhursts'. But Tagore still remained pretty much, just a name, making little impact on my ill educated western mind. I had also not heard of Tagore's epic work of poems 'Gitanjali', which won him the Nobel prize for literature in 1913.

An interpretation of 'Gitanjali' was presented on Sunday evening in the Great Hall as an audio visual event to mark the opening day of the festival. Within five minutes of being immersed in the beautiful montage of slides projected onto the Great Hall walls, Tagore's poetry writ large alongside, exemplary live music and dance and pitch perfect recitations, I became fully and acutely aware of what the fuss was and still is, all about. The poems featured within these sublime ninety minutes were clearly devotional and expressed the pure joy of Tagore's life in relation to nature and nature in relation to the fullness of blissful, human experience. Believe me, it's not easy to write poems about bliss. Poems about pain and heartache flow easy compared to the unique ability to express a view of the world through joy and a pure heart without reverting to shmaltz. Tagore achieves simple, clean and beautiful devotional poetry with apparent ease, producing something brilliant, clear and memorable. The show received a much deserved standing ovation.

Preceding 'Gitanjali' was the staged performance piece, 'The Awakening' bringing together three women from Tagore's poetry, fiction and drama. Four very accomplished dancers brought this work to life accompanied by a storyteller and traditional musicians. Aside from an early problem with sound, this was superb. Another first for me. Their skill as dancers was mesmerising; each with their own individual style. Having the story unfold through dance, alongside recitations kept me fully engaged throughout and falling a little in love with the colour of the outfits and the beauty of the dancers.

I noticed an artist scribbling away next to me trying to capture their rapid movement and energy. I asked him to scan and send them to me to share them with you here:

Tagore Tales

After Wilfred Owen lost his life in the first World War, a letter written for his mother in the event of his death was found in his tunic. It quoted Tagore with these chilling, beautiful words from 'Gitanjali':

“When I go from here, let this be my parting word, that what I have seen is unsurpassable”

Caspar Walsh is the film editor for Resurgence. He is an author, journalist and wilderness teacher. His new novel Blood Road is available in paperback. www.casparwalsh.co.uk