By John Anstie
My introduction at the beginning to this dedication seems to constitute most of what I would wish to say about the person that is G Jamie Dedes and what she meant to me and to many. However, it only goes a small way towards fully describing her impact on various parts of our World. She wasn’t particularly forthcoming when it came to revealing her own many contributions across many areas of the literary landscape throughout her lifetime. She was extraordinarily selfless. Her mission, through the creation of her own website, ‘The Poet by Day’ as well as a collaborative online presence through a fruitful partnership with Terri Stewart’s ‘Beguine Again’, culminated in the creation of the ‘Bardo Group Beguine’, an international alliance of creative and spiritual endeavour and peaceful activism. From this collaboration evolved its primary publication that so many of us now know and love: The BeZine.
If, as often I do, I were also to make a contribution from what is to me one of the most spiritually uplifting art forms, the world of Music, it would be this: Frank Ticheli’s “Earth Song”, whose lyrics come as close as they could get to representing and to celebrating Jamie’s life and mission in song. The words say it all …
Sing, be, live, see
This dark stormy hour
The wind, it stirs
The scorched Earth cries out in vain
Oh war and power, you blind and blur
The torn heart cries out in pain
But music and singing have been my refuge
And music and singing shall be my light
A light of song, shining strong
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Through darkness and pain and strife
I'll sing, I'll be, live, see
Peace
The BeZine 