Christopher Cypher

Contemplative Poetry

Welcome this website celebrates the contemplative poetry of Chris Cypher. Although Chris is no longer with us, he was a keen gardener and an author whose poems celebrate the nature of Perth, Western Australia. His
poetry stemmed from a deep relationship with the natural world around him, and in the later years of life discovered an unexpected and deep affinity with a spirituality that had previous been hidden from him.

Almost all of Chris’s writing was spontaneous, often jotting down notes wherever he happened to be, but most of all he considered this style of writing a gift that should be passed on to others to enjoy as they desire.

Chris Cypher's Books

SKITASH (2014)

The book’s title of ‘Skitash’ is an onomatopoeic word creation from the extraordinary sounds of hailstones smashing or you could even say slamming into the surface of the ocean. Most of my poetry originates from the sounds and images of creation
experienced in the environment where you could be at one with nature.

It never ceases to amaze me how the natural world continuously offers me glimpses of beauty and the magnificent power of creation. I believe it is my God and Creator offering me the freedom of choice to accept and appreciate the amazing world
in which I live. I would like to hope that my reflections will lighten up the reader’s day for a moment.

I have been exceptionally fortunate that I receive an amazing amount of challenges, peace, and joy from a source I am yet to fully understand. I try to translate my observations of the natural world in relation to human behaviour.

All the poems selected in this book revolve around a common theme: the unexpected events that occur in our lives. Human experiences and the whims of life are not entirely without parallels in the natural world. Within each poem is the potential
to reveal some aspect of life that is about joy, happiness, illness and sadness. It is our choice as to how we respond to the unexpected events that occur in all our lives, all of which provoke the question: what is life all about?

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Skitash Book

WHISPERING SPIRIT (2013)

“Whispering Spirits” title is derived from my experience of a life working within the boundary of a challenging garden setting, where it is possible to feel a spiritual affinity with the earth and its fragile inhabitants. It is about how life and death is always present in its many forms in this amazing environment. The pure ecstasy of plant forms; colours, sounds and movement that set the human soul alight with hope and joy. It enables one to understand the amazing vitality and struggles of every day life, and depends upon resting mind and body at the end of a busy or stressful day.

I hope readers of “Whispering Spirits” find their minds and souls touched by my poems and also when they sit quietly in their special place of solitude and quiet, hear the whispers of nature communicating to calm the body’s core and stimulate the mind to prayers or imagery of the Creator of nature’s wonders.

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Whispering Spirits Book

ESSENCE OF THE LIGHT (2011)

I had a great deal of difficulty selecting a title for this book. The final decision occurred after I had been working in a garden. A thought occurred to me that without light, I could not see the world. I could not appreciate the texture of the soil or the colours, beauty or delicate patterns of the plants as I worked. I realized that everything in most people’s daily lives involves the use of light.

Essence of the Light contains my observations in poetic form. The beauty and glorious spectacle of flowers, trees, rock formations, the oceans and rivers and fauna in all their complexity and diversity. It is only necessary to choose to recognize them.

I pray that some words will offer a source of thought, that provokes opportunity to look carefully at the rare beauty of Nature; robust and yet so fragile. Perhaps it calls upon our modern world, to think carefully about the influence and effect that changes in scientific and social decisions will create, upon nature’s resources and both their survival into future generations.

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Essence of the light Book

IMAGES OF CREATION (2009)

“Images of Creation” is a joyful record of images received from the extraordinary and spectacular beauty of Nature.

I strive to capture the concepts of images I receive, at any moment in my life, and translate them into poetry.

I offer a prayer of grateful acknowledgement to humanity’s Creator, for all the diverse forms of Nature’s exquisite beauty that creates a deep and sacred spiritual connection with the environment. I hope my poems offer a means of contemplation to give richness and comfort to the meanings of our lives in the busy modern world.

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Images of Creation Book

THE GARDENER'S PRAYER (2009)

I have found a need to share with others, although hesitantly, some of my experiences of life as a grounds keeper and gardener, which I call prayers. I feel that I have been blessed by what I believe to be an inner wisdom of the wonder of Nature’s simplest creations. This has set the heart and mind ablaze with occasional moving relationships with a spirituality that I have found difficult to understand at times. The thoughts or ideas that inspire these prayers occur unexpectedly and spasmodically; so briefly that unless I write them down at the time, I am unable later to recreate the thoughts because they disappear from the mind.

It is a joy to experience the excitement of how small fragments of living plants can set the senses contemplating; how they appear so common place and ordinary yet can become beautiful and fragile, while surrounded by the majesty of mighty towering trees of so many seasonal characters. These bring about clarity of recognition of the relationship and progress of our human growth, to the cycle of Nature’s living and dying process in this earthly world. I have tried to capture these concepts and understandings and share them with anyone who has an open mind to hear my prayers.

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Gardeners Prayer Book