Improv for Rakkasah / Rakkasah 2009

This must have been my 5th year at Rakkasah, the world's largest belly dance festival. This year has been so full of surprises, like my trip to Kentucky just days earlier... It was down to the wire, on Friday, the evening of the 13th, I wasn't sure if I would perform on Saturday, but dear friends and members from the troupe I used to dance with, Desert Heat, encouraged me to go for it. I'm so glad they did! I'll post a video soon, until then, here are a couple of shots. I was lucky enough that the gifted dance photographer, Raymond Van Tassel, happened to be in the front row and took these pictures.

Friend, architect and artist, Kevin Stong was in the audience too. He surprised me with the following poetic aesthetic response to my dance:

Her arms gracefully outreach
Quietly do they teach
Embrace our feelings in a trance
In the movement, music and dance.

Smiling peacefully at our eyes
Glancing back with our sighs
Transcends her happy soul
As she moves toward her goal.

With ease she floats above
The floor like a weightless dove.
Happy are we
Who give thanks to thee.


***

Este tiene que haber sido el quinto año que participo en Rakkasah, el festival más grande del mundo del baile oriental o baile del vientre. Este año ha sido tan lleno de sorpresas, tales como mi viaje a Kentucky hacía pocos días antes... Así que dejé todo para el último y el viernes, noche 13 de marzo, no estaba segura si iba a presentar un baile para el sábado, pero mis amigos, miembros del grupo Desert Heat (Calor del Desierto) con el cual bailaba antes, me animaron a hacerlo. ¡Estoy muy contenta lo hicieron! Pronto colgaré un video del baile, pero hasta entonces tengo estas fotos. Pues, tuve la suerte de que el talentoso fotógrafo de baile, Raymond Van Tassel, estuvo en la primera fila y sacó estas fotos.

***
Fotos de Sharif.

Poemas de Laxmi

Estos dos poemas de Laxmi que aparecen a continuación los escribí en el 2004 durante un periódo en el cual espontáneamente empezé a contemplar la diosa hindú, Laxmi. Había una bella estátua de piedra de ella en Open Secret en San Rafael delante de la cual me encontraba contemplándola en varias occasiones-- sentía su gracia, belleza, encarnación corpórea, y la abundancia que se manifiestan como un bálsamo que pasa de lo espiritual a lo material. Ella se conoce por sus buenos auspicios y poder como una diosa de la riqueza y prosperidad tanto en lo material como en lo espiritual. Para realizarla uno tiene que respetar las leyes de la naturaleza y apreciar los encantos de la existencia.

Laxmi--

Se levanta temprano
por el alba de una mañana
cenicienta surgiendo de un mar lácteo
revuelto, un lirio que brota
en la hora antes del amanecer--
su piel, tenue luz cálida de estrellas lejanas;
su sangre, Gracia manifiesta,
bálsamo sagrado
que unge el Mundo.
Con sus brazos envuelve y
alza el sol naciente
mientras criaturas tiernas de la Tierra
nacen, mientras nacemos
tú y yo.

***

Laxmi

Sabiduría tierna,
luz primera.
Amanecer del deseo,
aliento primero.
Ella toma el arcoiris
de la belleza terrenal como una rosa
entre sus dientes;
sus pies tocan la tierra
markan un ritmo creciente,
sus faldas coloridas vuelan
horizontes
al brotar el día.

At the Hideaway / En el Hideaway

Last Sunday, March 8, while visiting Ron in Louisville Kentucky, I performed with him and his band Southside at a small bar with a sultry attitude called the Hideaway. I had the immense rare and magical pleasure of performing my poetry with Michael Pollock, a singular musical genius, accompanying me on guitar. Below is a short slide show from that extraordinary evening. Myron Koch (his are identified by the http://www.peaksummit.com notation on bottom right side of photo) and I are the photographers.

***
El pasado domingo, 8 de marzo, mientras visitaba a Ron en Louisville Kentucky, hice una actuación junto a él y su banda Southside en un bar pequeño con una actitud hechicera que se llama el Hideaway. Tuve el placer inmenso y mágico de presentar mi poesía con el acompañamiento musical en guitarra de Michael Pollock, un genio singular. Abajo se encuentran unas diapositivas de esta noche extraordinaria. Myron Koch , uno de los miembros de Southside, y yo somos los fotógrafos.

Laxmi Poems

These two Laxmi poems that follow were written in a period in 2004 when I found myself spontaneously contemplating the Hindu goddess Laxmi. There was a beautiful carved stone statue of her at Open Secret in San Rafael that I found myself standing in front of repeatedly, feeling her grace, beauty, embodiment, and abundance manifesting like an unguent from the spiritual into the material. She is known for her auspiciousness and power as the goddess of both material and spiritual wealth and prosperity (1). To realize her one must respect the laws of nature and appreciate the wonders of existence (2).

Laxmi--

She arises early
on an ash-dawn morn
of a churning milk-white sea,
a pale lily bursting forth
in the hour before daybreak--
her skin, pale warm light of distant stars;
her blood, manifest Grace,
sacred unguent
anointing the World.
Her ascending arms lift
and embrace the rising sun
as tender creatures of the Earth
are born, as you and I
are born.

***

Laxmi

Tender wisdom,
First light.
Desire dawning,
First breath.
She takes the sparkling rainbow
Of earthly beauty like a rose
Between her teeth;
her feet touch the ground
marking a quickening rhythm,
her colored skirts fly
on the horizon
as day breaks.


(1) Source: http://www.koausa.org/Gods/God6.html
(2) Source: http://www.lotussculpture.com/laxmi1.htm

Puesta del sol en la bahía

Para todos mis amigos y lectores que no hablen el inglés, aquí está mi traducción de Sunset on the Bay, un poema que escribí en el `83. Hace poco empecé a dar una ojeada a mis antiguos poemas, algo que me parece ser un retorno valioso en este momento de mi vida que está lleno cambios grandes y luces nuevas. Quizá notarán que mis traducciones en vez de ser literales tratan de recrear de la mejor manera el impulso y sentido del poema original, algo que a veces requiere un reacomodo de palabras y versos para no perder esencias poéticas.

Puesta del sol en la bahía

Un tono bajo lento sujeta
en el aire melodías del sol,
y como una áurea
red flotante de encaje gira,
y como cabello de sirena
dando vueltas se extiende
hacía todas las franjas de la tierra
como si una araña elegante estuviera bailando
sobre unas piezas de ajedrez
permitiendo que aparentes extaños
volteen el hado hacía la misma dirección
y que zarpeen al encuentro de esa luz
reflejada en bocas de asombro
de pájaros dando gritos.

copyright © 1983-2009 Lorena "Lobita" Wolfman

Some early poems

Before heading to Louisville, Kentucky this last weekend, I pulled out two binders of my early poetry. I wrote the poem that follows on September 20, 1983 in Cotati and San Francisco.

Sunset on the Bay

A slow bass tone is pinning
Treble melodies in air like
A swirling tatting of floating gold
Mermaids hair that spreads spinning
To all shores as though
An elegant spider were dancing
Over sunken chess pieces
Allowing seeming strangers
To turn chance the same direction
And sail into reflected light
In the mouthes of gasping birds.

***

I wrote this next poem on June 4, 1982 in Berkeley, California.

In the night

I wonder if
I will ever know
You in the dark?
Know you under the stitched quilt
covers where at night we rest uncovered
-- Candlelight´s golden tendrils
Skeining the air.
Whispers in the wind
Made of red velvet, horse hair,
And lace.
Shivering shifts
Flowing in the leaves--
A whisper in the wind.
I wonder if
I will ever know
You know you in the dark?
Undercover uncovered.

Mystery unfolding...

This poem came from my writings on Saturday, February 28 for our last weekend of the year long level one Tamalpa Training. This was my mother's birthday. Sunday, March 1st was the second anniversary of her crossing over. In living her dying, walking with her through the dance of dying, I was led back to the path of the healing expressive arts. I shared this poem in our closing ceremonies along with a dance of prayer in honor of my mother Marianne and all of our loved ones who have passed over. At the instant I finished the dance, the candle Daria had lit in her honor went out; I felt my mother say, "In beauty it is finished."

Mystery unfolding...

Mystery unfolding beyond measure, mystery

holding mystery and giving

unimagined light fulfilling

beyond measure all hopes

all prayer fulfilled in the mystery of now...

I am reminded

by the birds of my losses, yes as they do,

I take flight, take flight

renew with a batting flutter

of my wings breast bone

to the air, take flight,

I take flight, glide

on the gleaming wings of time... all time

together now, in the blinking

mystery of now, in the joyous

song of now, in the perfect

discernment of all and perfect

speaking of all

and the joyous

speaking of now and creating

circles of listening

to the now, the sweetest taste

of essence being moving in tongues

everywhere gleaming now, gleaming

cresting distances

light on the horizon

of the present moment, stars

on the crest of the way here

and nowhere else

here here here, move with me,

dance this unfolding altar of love

and joy arising

beyond all arising beyond

all hope, tender tender kindness, loving

tender

kindness

mystery

unfolding

mystery.

Earth Prayer

This is the beautiful prayer that Daria Halprin shared today with me and others completing level one training at Tamalpa Institute. It was written by Mark Nepo, a spiritual writer, poet and philosopher.

Earth Prayer

O Endless Creator, Force of Life, Seat of the Unconscious, Dharma,

Atman, Ra, Qalb, Dear Center of our Love, Christlight, Yaweh, Allah,

Mawu, Mother of the Universe...

Let us, when swimming with the stream, become the stream... Let us,

when moving with the music, become the music... Let us, when

rocking the wounded, become the suffering...

Let us live deep enough till there is only one direction... and slow

enough till there is only the beginning of time... and loud enough in our

hearts till there is no need to speak...

Let us live for the grace beneath all we want, let us see it in everything

and everyone, till we admit to the mystery that when I look deep

enough into you, I find me, and when you dare to hear my fear in the

recess of your heart, you recognize it as your secret which you

thought no one else knew...

O let us embrace that unexpected moment of unity as the atom of

God... Let us have the courage to hold each other when we

break and worship what unfolds...

O nameless spirit that is not done with us, let us love without a

net beyond the fear of death until the speck of peace we guard so

well becomes the world...

-- Mark Nepo