Lift, Lift, Lift

First, there is a bottom

“Where is it, toes?”

Reach for it,
Reach for it.

“Beneath you.”
Feel for it, low, low, low.
Go deep.

Going deeper, feeling for
the spaces within the spaces,
“Where is the root of this
space?”

She says she doesn’t know where it
is, but she’s found “Planet 9
on the
news.

The news that people miss.
When news is
speculative, uncertain, eager
More interest, please,
but it doesn’t get enough ~ not enough hype.

(It’s actually too unusual to be too newsworthy.)

Meanwhile, some telescope gropes in the night
for physical proof of our maths.

“Ok, what are we lifting?”

Our own personal sky.
That cross we bear.

It doesn’t exist anymore, so we are lifting it
off the planet.

Roots anchor so far down beneath her
toes. The roots of the roots of the roots
told her so.

Expansive, grounded, open and free.
is how WE are meant to be.

Life in Dialogue

Living is in our actions.
It is in our breaths,
our footsteps,
our pulses.

When we give a word, we extend our hands.
When we open our eyes to the written word,
we open up our ears, too.

When we read, we lend our shoulders.
When we read, we become tripods upholding a vision

Opening and closing
at just the right time,
to let in the light –

and just enough,
and not too much.

at once.

We      are       book-stands
for the young –
supporting small hands everywhere.

Let us support the growing, the honest, the innocent; the undefined.

The process.

*****

My life is long-lived and ripe.
I want to grow around you and all through you.
I am the vine of life.

Enjoy me speaking with you, through you.
Divining with you.

Together WE are God and Goddess.

Let none claim which is which.

For I am a witch who will not tell.

Hunger for Life

Cannot fall for deception when
hungry for life.

There’s an angel inside of me
her name is ‘faith.’

Life is eating, breathing, loving.
Loving is the eternal present
moment.

Every face is beauty
and it always works out somehow.
I don’t know how how, but it does!

The angel and the warrior in me
are merging. The face of what I cannot
see, nor need to believe.

I am alive now. What matters is
all the past is now gone. There’s this
wonderful now moment, even in the midst of fear.

I do not fear fear today.
Moving toward my life, living in my breath.
What other temple is there?

Sitting at the alter of my broken shadow,
loving all parts, and trusting in the sacred.
Seeing the monsters on the walls have
shapes that form into smiles, too.

I will hug myself through it.
I CAN do it!

Today I don’t have survivor’s guilt. Today I DO for my family, for my sangha.

Today I find a little bit more bravery than I had yesterday.

In the Razor-Sharp Focus of My Red Tail Feather

Make me into the softest
razor blade
of your truth-edged clarity,

chiseled by your loving warmth
and compassionate understanding.

Your [Mars-meets-Venus]
Soft Electric Love Touch –
Let the sparks fly!

You should know
that I am forged from the fire,
every day.

Yes, I am phoenix –
8th house
Mars and Pluto conjunction in Libra,
in love’s service.
Follow me and our spiritual marriage transforms!

I have seen my
own demons more than enough!

God dresses
up for Halloween.

The treats are always
the unexpected visitors that come
in and rescue any memory of OUR grace,

with a smile and a little open bag.

Jupiter and Neptune do not disagree.
While they transit,
they play Rummy.
I’ve got the leftover
potato chips to prove it – all those
notes I took for 20+ years of transits
are plenty crusty from love.

At the middle now,
I eagerly anticipate
sitting down
to attend
to the details
of expressing my perfection,

from the fruit of thy womb.

I am babe and elder
the in-middle years,
receiving and
sending off
souls of yours,
at your request.

Please do not
give me more than I can bear!

Love us, dear divine!
Bring us into an understanding where
the atheist, theist, pantheist do not
care if they agree or disagree.
The agnostic does not need to know
what she knows. It’s still none of
her business!

Where the word ‘I’ is
not a message in and of itself,
but a vehicle
for courageously attending to our truths
beyond divisions
and seeming perceptions
of splitting hairs.

‘I’ is one of the
tiniest words i know.
ya know? I still like it, though!

For all is
impermanent and pertinent.

Let us recover
the child lost to the shoreline of
warsome devastation,
Join in the only prayer worth
having:

A request for freedom in peace,
peace inside freedom, and justice for all.
Hallowed be thy…
Kingdom come.

Where and when the vague admissions of
the heart are seen as the clear
night and day offerings
of refuge.
We do not care
when we are needing help,
In Who’s arms we are held, just
that we are loved by you, Divine!

Here I am. Ready.
Amama, A’ho!

Universe Speaks through Dazzle

Going with the flow
I don’t know if I’m spreading myself
too thin. I see myself spiraling
in all directions, using more arms
than I was given, on a given day.

We’ve got thick skulls
and thick roots
and hefty rain boots here.
The diamond of compassion
nestled in our center, ironically as
soft as puppy nose kisses
can melt the age off of a face.

His name was Francis, yesterday
reminds me of the Sage Francis,
a rapper and priest for barbed
hearts and false starts
a lyrical collection of lonely hearts…

And driving through the rain. at night.

Here there’s no rain anymore
it’s all sunshine and yesterday I
joked with a hippy saying he was
really a troll because he told me
to get my head out of my phone.
Interesting imagery.
Sure he didn’t like being called a hippy either.
But he preferred it to troll..

It was an appreciative smile…
and a nod to our connection over big fish
and the pier. Words were carrier pigeons,
and the pigeons
did not represent words.

Still the Universe speaks
in people, in whispers
in loud car honks and the puppy
left alone who cries all day to the whole
neighborhood.

Those with ears like auricle satellites
don’t exactly rotate to precise coordinates
but vibrate on existing strings, historic
symphonies that the souls played
from time immemorial.

Here’s to tonight’s viewing of the Perseids
while the moon is silent in Leo.
And sitting in the darkness
is the best way to see the show.

Why not? Break the Silence…with Darkness & Sound

To make a sound, any sound
I may need the screech of pitch
or a certain definite
round-bound-pound
to break the glass in.

I interrupt this silence which
has seeped so deep inside of me.

This is not the calm silence of balance
and equilibrium, not the settled outcome
of a ripened meditational fruit-flower.

This is the compression of so much left unsaid,
unwritten. It gets caked up, stucktogetherinstuff-ness
and becomes downright flammable.
This is the build up of Movement-Qi without
Exit-Qi.

It is also natural,
when your busy-busy in a particular kind of way.

Crack! Awake!
And who are you? and what is this? How did we get
here in this blogcar, wearing our blogflipflops
and our blogshirts on blog-backwards with all the blogtags
sticking out under our bloggychinchins.

There is a fire in consciousness that’s exploding
With the wicked heat of thought; and
it’s building up, and it’s leaking out
Steaming the edges of Consciousnesses-es
Crisping the light-and-shadow contours
Spitting with energy, just to
release some pressure.
Water Filling-in complex edges with deep dimensional
ridges, building on a new Form.

We are molten and molted.

There’s no other poem I want to write now
than the one that leads me out here naked, and
leaves me wondering, How DID I get here?
Where ARE the Extraterrestrials?
How DO I account for this loss of time?

The release valve has been found, and the nozzle
ambitiously turned.

Once upon a time…when film was film

I have experienced so many profound things… and, I never wrote that story. I never became that professional photographer. I never found those words.  I never became the hero that I wanted to be. I couldn’t return to the townships in South Africa and say… Let’s play some music together again. I want to hit that drum with you again – join hands, transcend worlds…

So, here’s something from 2001.

Dear Woman, when the National Press Club notified me that I won the photo contest with your picture, I felt embarrassed. It took me a long time to find that smile you wore – to find it inside myself.

I could not afford to fly and see your image on the wall in the gallery. At the time, I could barely pay my rent. I wanted to see you again, not fly to Washington D.C. I needed the sunset and the sunrise to enter into my heart, just like it did when I could feel the whole jungle wake, as the funny monkeys stirred.

Old times, they do tug at my heart. People who I’ve met and exchanged with in depth of spirit, people on the journey. They moved on; we all just moved on.

Aloha.  Aloha. I love you. You have been in my heart all this time….

Your smile… is like no other I’ve ever seen. Here at Angkor Wat. Here at the temple where I continue to worship. The temple of shadows where smiles are forged from the hearts of connection. Where we don’t need things, or even hands, to smile.

Woman with smile_Angkor Wat

Dear Children, I want to see you free… free and free….

Children at home_Cambodia

Overcoming the desire to want everything NOW; Releasing the past

We’ve got the transiting Sun, Mercury, and Mars all in the tropical zodiacal sign of Cancer, and many thoughts and themes are about reminiscing and looking into the past. While I’m currently not writing deep analysis of the astrological themes at work, I am keeping a hand in it, or shall I say more aptly, a feeler out there for it.

In fact, I am ‘living’ it, just like all of you. Every week brings new challenges; and each day is another day to ‘find the fun’ in it. Which brings me to the comfortable, dare-I-say conclusion that:

‘I am here.’

The temptation to dip into the past is a juicy one, each year it can be all the more enticing. Carrying one’s past with them is inevitable, and at the same time, it can be a wonderful, pleasant, momentary respite to just reminisce. Sometimes some of us, we may discover a desire to start anew. Why not? Why not take every opportunity to give a fresh look to your situation, at your moment.

I want to introduce you to: The Sedona Method  I’m not trying to get you to click on the link, but I just wanted to quickly write this post and put it out there, because I want people to benefit from this technique, just like I have benefited. It’s that simple.

May your summer (or winter depending on where you are) days be fun!  If you think this method might be something that will help you, I will file it under ‘meditation,’ so you know where to find it for when, and if, you are ready… I also (and especially) recommend the book by written Hale Dwoskin. That was how I discovered the technique several years ago.

Image 1 credit: meditatecenter

Image 2 credit: Forgiveness butterfly, http://sevenstonesgallery.com/

Honestly, I want to introduce to all of you: The Sedona Method

Here’s a brilliant song inspired by a friend who reminded me of Toad the Wet Sprocket, and I like it for this post, it wasn’t an old personal “old favorite,” but it certainly fits the transits in the maternal and creative aspect of the sign Cancer:

Story of One

From the beginning
There was no beginning.
You and I were One.
And One, times One,
equals One.

It’s math for witnesses
It is Math
for multipliers,
Appreciators.
Math for the pregnant
Creators,

Who among them are
Male & Female
Yin and Yang

There’s a quality to the One,
which has Two basic flavors.

Each within and without.

From the beginning
There was no beginning.
Then there was One Who Observed Day and Night.

Poem & Photography by ©2015 Ka Malana

The Lady returns to Her Tower

John_William_Waterhouse_-_The_Lady_of_Shalott_-_Google_Art_Project

waterhouse_the_lady_of_shalott01

Stacked up
in old cases
are micro cassettes,
fragments
of conversations
made with coffee,
beer, and cigarettes.
spun together by the
wheels of travel,
and the comings and goings
of creation.

These
are the fingerprints
and logbooks
of times gone uncatalogued,
but recorded.

Laced among these
etchings of memory is the
antique smell of old wishes,
Fingerprints of old selves’ images
cobwebbed around
corners, breaking the rhythm patterned
slats of black and white into some
gossamer diagonals.

Even the cobwebs have shadows!

What were once
only some dog-eared remnants are now
the blackened, forgotten
bones of unchew-ed material,
rendered unidentifiable by time
and the consequences
of improper scrapbooking.

Time has lost its identity
and persons no longer care
about the era of happenings.

Edges fade in the total room
of all things attic-bound.
Behind the curtains of civilization
how the peopling of these
selves somehow happened
in conjunction with planetary
transits and their unmistakeable North Nodes
plastered to fate of the Earth, Moon, and Sun.

The bittersweet musk of unrequited love
descends like light rain
while the sound of a passionate banjo
breaks the air
and movement steps
to kick up some dust in order
to go forward.

Dust, falling like un-trained rain,
just scatters…

What’s left are the new
finger prints of recent visits
and the markings
of an explorer who has
left the continent of
the outside world
to traverse again the terrain
of his unkept inner chambers.

A rich collection
of untouched photographs
and other stains of memories
Layers of interpretation gone
missing. The witnesses
dissolved into their own stories.

Now with the lantern beside her,

The Lady of Shalott who is only
“Half-Sick of Shadows” returns
For she knows
there’s more area under the dark of the sun
than in all the light in the universe of awareness.

And holy ghosts visit
among the dead as much as the living
Marking each traveler as
a historical vagrant, an elusive shutterfly

One who becomes the reluctant
commentary of classical books
Lives on the island of the misfits

Here’s where all the fires are still
lit, and the inhabitants are most
unapologetic for their long dark shadowy arts.

Welcome back to the tower my dear!
May it enchant you with all the surprises and
remembrances of its forgotten inhabitants.