1983 - Aussie Peace Poem & Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

Inspirational message along with the Peace Poem and Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream in this archival video.

1986 - Peace Poem

We need a revolution of Love.

There's a name for war and killing
There's a name for giving in
When you know another answer
For me the name is sin
But there's still time to turn around
And make all hatred cease
And give another name to living
And we could call it peace

And peace would be the road we walk
Each step along the way
And peace would be the way we work
And peace the way we play

And in all we see that's different
And in all the things we know
Peace would be the way we look
And peace the way we grow

There's a name for separation
There's a name for first and last
When it's all for us or nothing
For me the name is past
But there's still time to turn around
And make all hatred cease
And give a name to all the future
And we could call it peace

And if peace is what we pray for
And peace is what we give
Then peace will be the way we are
And peace the way we live

Yes there still is the time to turn around
And make all hatred cease
And give another name to living
And we can call it peace

Shared for inspirational and educational purposes only.

Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research.

1984- John Denver - Spreading the Message of Hope

 Spreading the Message of Hope

Just A Country Boy with the World on His Shoulders: 

There’s not much that gets John Denver down. Not for long anyway. Not world hunger, nor nuclear proliferation, nor destruction of the environment. All are issues he worries about, but they won’t get the best of him. He simply refuses to accept negativity.

"There is purpose in all of this,” he says. “We have to have a greater sense of compassion for what it takes for people to learn.”

·         So Denver has put considerable time, energy and financial backing into helping organizations such as Environmental Action, Save the Children, Friends of the Earth, The Wilderness Society, Environmental Defense Fund, the Kushi Foundation and the Hunger Project - to name a few. But it’s hunger that has probably taken up the most of his time, even as his anthems to the wilderness have garnered the most attention.

...Progress takes time, he believes, and sometimes only after much waste and destruction can meaningful progress occur. “I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday, [folk singer Artie Traum], who has always been an optimistic person,” Denver said. “Over the last few weeks he’s been terribly depressed and he just can’t seem to get out of it with all these events, the Korean airlines, then Beirut, then Grenada.

·  It seemed like we’re on a course that we can’t get off of.

And he’d started feeling futile about the whole thing. But in our conversation, as we talked about this, all of a sudden he was feeling optimistic again.

·         You see, there’s purpose in all of this.

What if we look back, twenty years from now, and the thing that turned it all around was having missiles over in Europe and finally the whole continent got together and said, “No, no more”, and really forced the rest of the world to take a different look.”

All of these issues are related in his mind. He believes in “akido politics” or the politics of harmony.

• “To my mind, a world without hunger will be a world without nuclear weapons.
• A world without hunger will be a world without crime. 
• A world without crime will be a world where people are truly environmentally conscious. 
• And a world without hunger will be a peaceful world.”

This optimism may well be John Denver’s most famous trait. Natural beauty offers solace from the world’s problems; it’s as though, when things are darkest, the power and beauty of the earth will be enough to restore vitality and happiness.

Denver was coping with a dark period of his own when we spoke. He was on his way back to his Colorado home after a long spell of traveling ... and he could hardly wait for those country roads to take him home. .... By the time this reaches print, Denver will be back home, “my base, the foundation in my life.” His confidence tells him that more progress will be made there, his belief in progress is unshakable, for himself and for everyone else.

“I don’t feel that I’m serving my career right now so much as these really strong feelings about what’s going on in the world today and all the changes that are taking place. And people are making real positive changes that just don’t seem to be getting quite so much attention as some of these other things do...”

“But we’re all learning and, as it gets to be more and more a part of our consciousness, we can get a magazine like Vegetarian Times to come out and be more and more on the newsstands and have more exposure of these kinds of ideas, the ideas of macrobiotics, more and more people all the time are making that little click [between diet and health]. And we’re changing our lives, we really are changing our lives.”

Denver’s involvement with charitable organizations is the most direct form of this education he speaks of. But he believes his music - which is not overtly political - puts across a message as well.

“What I’m trying to do in this world is to give myself to those things that bring people together.

I think music brings people together. Working on ending hunger in the world can bring people together,” he said.

“These things we’ve been discussing are just constantly on my mind. What I’m looking for is another way to say it.

I don’t want everyone to think the way I do.

But I want them to think, and if I can be a catalyst at all for them widening their perspectives, then I think that’s worthwhile.”

[excerpts from February 1984- Vegetarian Times]

[Shared for inspirational and educational purposes only. Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research.]

1988 - Aussie Interview

@JDHealingTimeOnEarth. This folks, in addition to being an archival video interview, is also 'retro' in the fact that it is all in black and white. Don't let that deter you from watching. There was something about the connection that John had with interviewer Ray Martin from Australia, that always resulted in thoughtful interviews. The topics of this interview range from hunger, to Windstar, to the environment, to singing message songs, to being political and casting your vote. John was truly a voice for humanity, and this interview represents that fully. 

Shared for inspirational and educational purposes only.

Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship and research.

1983 -January Interview Clips About Deeply Held Convictions

[John Denver, despite his ostensible vulnerability, is a far tougher cookie than any of the singer/songwriters who originally defined the genre; not one of them proved to have the kind of personal staying power that could lead to a double date at Lake Tahoe with Frank Sinatra. ...What reaches out from the hotel suite are the bone-to-flesh sounds of a fistfight, only somehow the blows fall too regularly, the rest of the room is too quiet….and on the couch beside the coffee table, John Denver clenches his fists for another assault. Visibly disturbed and with that drumhead-taut look of someone who runs harder and eats better than you do and knows it, Denver appears a lot less like a man-sized Muppet than we’ve been led to expect. He looks more like an angry young man.]

“The thing I object to is that in regards to a nuclear freeze, we have two distinct sides and they’re like this! (thump),” protests Denver, starting to methodically pound his fists together with unnerving force. “Nothing gets done! My observation is that nothing has gotten done (thump) for close onto 40 years now. (thump) After the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (thump), many of the scientists involved said that the world is different now. (thump) We need a new world order. (thump) Violence is no longer an appropriate way (thump) to resolve conflict. Forty years they’ve been talking about it, and this! (thump) Nothing (thump)..(thump) Nothing.”

[In the World According to Denver, we’d better start thinking in new ways about some old problems. Like hunger, pollution and war. We may stand at a new evolutionary step, and he’s ready to march on. It’s something he feels very strongly about, and he’ll explain why until his publicist is climbing the hotel room walls. It’s something he can even get angry about.]

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“It’s frustrating to me when people say that I’m always trying to be a ‘nice guy’, or something like that. Well, I was raised well. I do have respect for other people, and consideration for the planet, and I like to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. That’s just how I am. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I think it’s good.”

“I want to touch people, and I’ve said that from the very, very beginning. More than just entertainment, I want to connect with people and songs come out of that feeling. Of primary importance to me is that whatever song I do, I want to be able to do it with just me and my guitar, and have it work. Because that’s where they come from. Hit records are not what my business is about. What I’m trying to do is communicate.”

“Some people cannot play to the general public out there who watches television. They have either not the desire, nor the specific talent. Not that it’s any big deal or anything, it’s just that some people you invite into your living room, and some people you don’t. Finding that you are perhaps the kind of person people feel comfortable enough with to have in their living room, then you ask yourself, what are the kinds of things I can do with that. You find over the years that my success and career are not really based on any one particular medium or thing, unless it’s my personality and the way people relate to me. I think that’s my most specific talent. I don’t think I’m a great singer, and I’m not a great guitar player. But I think I’m comfortable, honest and easy to relate to, and people like that. It’s like I’m a superstar, but I’m not a superstar. That’s not the way I live, not the way I want to be, and I don’t hold it over anybody. It’s not something special or incredibly unique, except that I’ve had the success I’ve had and I’m just like everybody else. That’s the rarity.”

“The music is universal. Even in China, where a lot of rock and pop music doesn’t have any meaning to the people, they know my music and like it. 

• It’s not the Rocky Mountains I’m talking about, it’s self-discovery.
• It’s not West Virginia I’m talking about, it’s country roads and going home. 
• It’s not the wheat fields of Kansas I’m talking about, it’s family. “

“If people feel comfortable with you and feel that you relate and articulate something they feel, then perhaps you find within yourself a lot of other strong feelings about things going on in the world. There’s something happening on the planet. People are becoming more health-conscious, more aware on a worldwide basis of the threat of nuclear war.   

Where we are now perhaps, is an evolutionary change taking place, that life is no longer about survival and you or me, but about living and you and me. We have the opportunity to make a conscious choice. We can no longer live the way we used to.”

Meditation

As the cycles of the year begin to unfold, let our hearts move into opening and accepting the challenges we may all face, while remembering that we are all connected by Love and Light, and that we are all One.  We can each make a difference.

1986 celebration by Joe Henry

celebration

The vision is an open flame

Consuming darkness yet again

To burn your candle in the sun

To walk until you've learned to run

To recognize what must be done

So celebrate the journey home

The door, the feather and the stone

With reaching hands and open eyes

The Quest becomes the reason why

The pilgrim's thirst is satisfied

If wishes were eagles

And sparrows and doves

If wishes were warm lips

that whispered of love

If wishes were promises 

Made on a star

Would we leave our wishing

To be what we are

resolution

by Joe Henry

photography by Doug Franklin

Published in the Windstar Journal - Winter 1986

Shared for inspirational and educational purposes only. No copyright infringement intended.

"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Education tips the balance in favor of fair use".

Inspiration

Allow yourself to move into the Light and Loving Energy that sustains the Universe.  Be that.