suddenly...but really it's been happening for years...
suddenly...but really, the path is always unknown...
suddenly....but really, the mystery of when, how, what next - that mystery matters
suddenly...so much is connecting to so much else....
this solstice of gratitude

the dance emerges as speech as song as rune as story
the film becomes memory reimagined
becomes  sitting around a table with kindred spirits who want their own mystery
who want to sing too

in serving this light that calls to you
or the dark for that matter
something emerges that only you can live..
that story under the skin
indigenous to the species
particular to you
humming under the breath


Sit across the table from the beloved
call the flowers by name and they will
listen
si pudiera decirte lo que se siente, no valdria la pena bailarlo.
if I could tell you what it feels like
it wouldn't matter to dance it

kehta hai kaun nalaay bulbul ko be asar
who says the song of the nightingale has no effect
parde mein gul ke lakh jigar chaakh ho gaye
look closer in the garden, see the flower, the petals torn into a thousand tatters..
ghalib in the garden
always there is someone in the garden

it was understood in Mongolia
that it matters to take the time
to sit under
the flowers and call their scent
to you
I remember he was a grandfather
and he had a thousand cattle
that's how he was introduced to me

may you call to you what seeks to bloom
may it bloom
may it bloom

...or rather a poem of a few years ago, called THE PARTING OF WIDOWS, published today in this journal called One from Jacar Press which is a lovely community oriented press. And it's a powerful issue, imho.

http://one.jacarpress.com/

The "second look" (the last section) is revisiting the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz

The other thing that's interesting about the magazine is that the editors only publish an issue when they find 21 poems that they all like...

THE BARN AT GRAVITY HILL AND FARAWAY IS CLOSE
present

a special preview of
THE GOOD MANNERS OF COLONIZED SUBJECTS
a solo play by Shebana Coelho
preceded by a free creativity session

TICKETS $20  (LIMITED SEATING)
We encourage you to buy tickets online via Brown Paper Tickets
Limited tickets will be available at the door.

R e a d    a b o u t    t h e   J O U R N E Y...

On April 27, The Barn at Gravity Hill in Titusville is hosting
a special performance/workshop combination
to explore colonization, liberation and creativity.

It features a preview of a work-in-progress play,
THE GOOD MANNERS OF COLONIZED SUBJECTS
preceded by a creativity session.

The creativity session begins at 2 pm and runs 45 min
The play begins at 3:30pm and runs 75 minutes.

The free storypoem session,  included in the price of the ticket,
is a preview of the cross cultural embodied dance workshops
that will accompany the play in the future.
If you prefer, please feel free to arrive later at 3:30pm for the performance.

THE PLAY
The Good Manners of Colonized Subjects is a
solo play about a human animal, fragmented by colonization, who journeys through memoir and myth to confront fear and reclaim lost poetry and dance, indigenous to her spirit, collective to the species.

Written and performed by India-born, New Mexico-based artist
Shebana Coelho, it interweaves poetry, monologues, improvisation and choreography drawn from flamenco and Sanskrit classical theater.

At a time when the lingering effects of colonization are manifesting in fraught conversations about borders and fear of the other, the narrative unravels the insidious ways colonization works inside and outside the skin, through culture, history, emotion and offers a healing alchemy of metaphor and movement.

The text is in English...with threads of Urdu, Portuguese,
Spanish, Caló, Konkani, Mongolian.

The project is currently being workshopped through a grassroots tour to preview the play, build audiences and fundraise for the final production. 

As part of a new cross-cultural initiative, Faraway is Close, it will be presented
with creativity workshops that nurture participants
to stand up in their own story.

The Barn at Gravity Hill hosts education and community-based organizations, as well as celebrations and corporate events.Gravity Hill Farm was founded in 2005 as a small family farm, dedicated to teaching about nature—and nurturing—through organic farming and raising animals. Co-owners David Earling and Maria Nicolo wanted to create a farm rooted in their community, and of service to that community. Their non-profit mission is to offer a space and programming for issues connecting food, nature, sustainability and community.  www.thebarnatgravityhill.com

Michael Meade's Mosaic Voices podcast is really medicine for this soul.

Listening to it this morning, this episode in particular - what to say, how to say it - it resonated so much I barely have words for it.

The failures that bring us truth, the losses that bring us to love...whittling away, whittling away so all that remains in spirit..

There was William Stafford to begin with and Rumi in the middle and Hafiz to end with and the insights of Meade who weaves together his belief, his being, his truth about this necessity of being who you are, especially the poet you are, especially the dancer you are. In so many ways, these words in this podcast mirror...reflect....give words to the silences I live and create from. Listening to this today, I feel I went on that same journey of awakening, struggle and catharsis that forms the journey of The Good Manners of Colonized Subjects.   in its own particular way, all that was spoken connected to the heart of all I am doing in my own particular way...

"Cast all your votes for dancing," as Rumi says;  yes, that! and Listen, here, below and more podcasts at the Mosaic Voices "Living Myth" website.

For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid
William Stafford

There is a country to cross you will
find in the corner of your eye, in
the quick slip of your foot--air far
down, a snap that might have caught.
And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing
voice that finds its way by being
afraid. That country is there, for us,
carried as it is crossed. What you fear
will not go away: it will take you into
yourself and bless you and keep you.
That's the world, and we all live there.

ONLY BREATH
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam or Eve or any

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

Coleman Barks, Tr., The Essential Rumi (San Fransico: Harper Collins, 1995)

~my darling Hafiz~

I know the voice of depression
Still calls to you.
I know those habits that can ruin your life
Still send their invitations.
But you are with the Friend now
And look so much stronger.
You can stay that way
And even Bloom!
Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from you companions’ beautiful laughter.
Keep squeezing drops of the Sun
From the sacred hands and glance of you Beloved

And, my dear,
From the most insignificant movements
of your own holy body.
Learn to recognize the counterfeit coins
The may buy you a moment of pleasure,
But then drag you for days
Like a broken man
Behind a farting camel.

You are with the Friend now.
Learn what actions of yours bring freedom
And love.
Whenever you say God’s name, dear pilgrim,
My ears wish my head was missing,
So they could finally kiss each other
And applaud all your nourishing wisdom.

O keep squeezing drops of Sun
From your prayers and work and music
And from your companions’ beautiful laughter
And from the most insignificant movements
Of your own holy body.

Now, sweet one,
Be wise.
Cast all your votes for Dancing!

photos: J. Kneubuhl