Saturday, March 18, 2006

Rose Mandala, or the Whorls of Angels

An MP3 recording of this piece:
Rose Mandala, or the Whorls of Angels: Lo
Rose Mandala, or the Whorls of Angels: Hi

I am with you like an angel. Can you feel kisses, a caress of breeze perhaps, or a sudden warmth that lightens your spirit? I hold you enfolded in my wings when you weep, inconsolable, disappointed. Can you sense a blessing of radiance about you? My wings, woven of sun and moonlight on veins like leaves. Surely you see their shimmer breaking through what separates us. You are my prayer, my vigil.

But I am an earthy woman who laughs, storms, cries, rants, pesters, and loves.

And I am unable to settle, come into being in one place, crystallize. Can I play in the garden palaces of the heart? And retire in solitude when the day is done, to rest?

Even as I sweep across the sky of your consciousness, a roseate sunset, mandala whorl of sun, the choral clouds, like a hymn, a sacred song, something ebullient and therefore holy, I am racing away into the night and disappearing.

I offer you a guardian, a keeper of the flame of your heart, a high priestess who holds your innermost secrets, a temple to honour your prayers on love, but it's ephemeral, Akashic, in the place where everything is recorded, where what we are, our memories, our dreams, are held safe. Nothing you could hold onto, nothing at all.

I am here; but you cannot see me.

9 comments:

  1. You have written this in a warm swirl of images that eddies like moving water as it rushes by, and can't quite be pinned down. Lovely.

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  2. Anonymous1:35 AM

    This piece is utterly breathtaking. Again, I see the gossamer wings of connectedness. Has there ever been one who has loved and not left, somewhere in the deepest soul from one to another, these things?

    You have captured the images and the deeper depth of experience~profoundly.

    Blessings~

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  3. Guess sometimes we have to hide in plain sight...

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  4. I will never see a rose in quite the same way. Thank you for this expanded vision!

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  5. Thank you dear Laurieglynn, as ever.

    Hey, NYJoyce! I actually read your every post on bloglines... :)

    Yes, Patry, up close is a whole other view, isn't it- :)

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  6. I have to completely agree with Patry. I too will experience the rose unlike I have in the past.

    The voice adaptation is quite wonderful Brenda. I read a book called "Disappearing Ink: Poetry at the end of print culture," by Dana Gioia. He makes a very persuasive argument for what happens to poetry in a culture that no longer depends on books." As the book points out he offers "...a compelling account of how new technologies and innovative forms of oral poetry -rap, slam,spoken word, performance art- are revitalizing the art in unexpected ways."

    For me, to hear your voiced version of the poem brought an experience to the subject that I did not get from reading it. I thoroughly enjoyed the reading but hearing your phrasing was a whole different experience. It was marvelous! I kept thinking how nice must be for your child to be able to hear your poetry! In whatever form it takes when you read to her. Your voice is very captivating. It adds an entirely unique dimension to the subject.

    Very, very, nice Brenda.

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  7. lhombre, honestly, you leave the best comments... yes, poetry arose out of an oral tradtion and in many ways it's revivifying itself by returning to those roots, though in a different way of course. Gioia's book sounds fascinating and thank you for mentioning it and quoting from it- the "new media" is revolutionizing everything, including art isn't it. The multi-media and performance art of the future, one can barely imagine it.

    Thank you for responding to the recording too, I appreciate that. SoundClick now has a "poetry" category... so, my friend, we could listen to you read your poetry too? And some jazz, too.

    The rose, ah. Yes. Quite erotic, indeed. :)

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  8. Hey I treid that sound click and for some reason wasn't able to set it up correctly. Can you give me the url for it again? I need to give it another try. Yes, I would like to start leaving aural poetry on my post too. You may have started something interesting for me. Thanks Brenda!

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A Pulsing Imagination - Ray Clews' Paintings

A video of some of my late brother Ray's paintings and poems I wrote for them. Direct link: https://youtu.be/V8iZyORoU9E ___