Joy
Music
Connection
Poetry
One must still have chaos in one's self
to be able to give birth to a dancing star
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Momentarily
spirit led by
golden thread to
a little schism
of ruckus and adventure
gathering particles
of matter
from ephemeral
to flesh
materialized momentarily
into a landslide
of madness and ecstasy
the wayward twins
then at last
satisfied or disrupted
folding into
the silk of twilight
-Shashi Light
In New Mexico, I had the unique privilege of participating in a special group that got together every so often to carry out an ancient ritual of creating a sophisticated array of symbols and glyphs on the earth with cornmeal --
an ageless Native American tradition.
We all spoke our prayers, personal and global to a slow drumming heartbeat. We could literally feel the sweet essence of our prayers flowing through this magic circle. I have no words to describe the other-worldly ecstatic expansion I felt -- only that I longed to keep drinking the nectar that stayed on my lips long after our circle was completed and we all went our separate ways.
Cornmeal Circle
a circle of prayer
flowing from ancient cornmeal hands
gathers cryptic pieces
inner murmurings
like the river’s unnoticed distant din of day
that couches my night ponderings
smoothing the yellow circle into earth
my thoughts slow
my fear calms
flaxen droplets
hold my definition of hope
to a vespered mist rising from
this wistful heart
potent with courage
they draw me to untie the weight
of my clumsy words
caught in the press of a discordant world
and the clamor of mundane details
pushing from within
In this circle
each breath of life is recognized
as brother or mother
sister or father
crawling flying rooted finned
courtesy of Getty Images
here i drink deep and slow
to the beat of a heart
bigger than my mind can hold
stronger than epochs of unmitigated violation
fragments of bones rest against
the dusty gratitude of my feet with slowing grief
that her patient wisdom bear the ignorance
of her children
that the red hands of a People
who understand her
have all but disappeared
sacred nuggets of liquid sunlight
settle into the weave of
a spiraled time continuum
spilling past and future into the space
that wraps my senses within now
the fire speaks through my skin
“here is my hand to hold
it is not too late
all that was ever known to the two legged beast
past eternity still glows
in that illusory chasm between flesh and soul”
the door opens
through a timeless glyphic
circle of gold
-Shashi Light
courtesy of Getty Images