Pushing Through by Rainer Maria Rilke (trans- Robert Bly)

It is possible I am pushing through solid rock
in flintlike layers, as the ore lies, alone;
I am such a long way in I see no way through,
and no space: everything is close to my face
and everything close to my face is stone.

I don’t have much knowledge yet in grief-
so this massive darkness makes me small.
YOU be the master: make yourself fierce,break in:
then your great transforming will happen to me
and my great grief cry will happen to you.

Into The Fire lyrics Sarah Machlachlan

Mother teach me to walk again
Milk and honey, so intoxicating

I'm reunited
Into the fire
I am the spark
Into the night
I yearn for comfort

Open the doors that lead on into Eden
Don't want no cheap disguise
I follow the signs marked "back to the beginning"
No more compromise

And into the fire
I'm reunited
Into the fire
I am the spark
Into the night
I yearn for comfort

Free the water that carries me to the sea
You, I see as my security

And into the fire
I'm reunited
Into the fire
I am the spark

Into the night
I yearn for comfort

I will stare at the sun until its light doesn't blind me
I will walk into the fire 'til its heat doesn't burn me
And I will feed the fire

Into the fire
I'm reunited
Into the fire
I am the spark
Into the night
I yearn for comfort
Into the night, Into the fire

Into the fire
I'm reunited
Into the fire
Oh, I am the spark
Into the night
I yearn for comfort
Into the fire, Into the fire

into the fire
I'm reunited
Into the fire
I am the spark fade

WE HAVE COME. by Jewel Mathieson

We have come to be danced
Not the pretty dance
Not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance
But the claw our way back into the belly
Of the sacred, sensual animal dance
The unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance
The holding the precious moment in the palms
Of our hands and feet dance.
We have come to be danced
Not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance
But the wring the sadness from our skin dance
The blow the chip off our shoulder dance.
The slap the apology from our posture dance.
We have come to be danced
Not the monkey see, monkey do dance
One two dance like you
One two three, dance like me dance
but the grave robber, tomb stalker
Tearing scabs and scars open dance
The rub the rhythm raw against our soul dance.
We have come to be danced
Not the nice, invisible, self-conscious shuffle
But the matted hair flying, voodoo mama
Shaman shakin’ ancient bones dance
The strip us from our casings, return our wings
Sharpen our claws and tongues dance
The shed dead cells and slip into
The luminous skin of love dance.
We have come to be danced
Not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance
But the meeting of the trinity, the body breath and beat dance
The shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance
The mother may I?
Yes you may take 10 giant leaps dance
The olly olly oxen free free free dance
The everyone can come to our heaven dance.
We have come to be danced
Where the kingdom’s collide
In the cathedral of flesh
To burn back into the light
To unravel, to play, to fly, to pray
To root in skin sanctuary
We have come to be danced
WE HAVE COME.

--Audre Lorde

I

Is the total black, being spoken

From the earth's inside.

There are many kinds of open.

How a diamond comes into a knot of flame

How a sound comes into a word, coloured

By who pays what for speaking.





Some words are open

Like a diamond on glass windows

Singing out within the crash of passing sun

Then there are words like stapled wagers

In a perforated book—buy and sign and tear apart—

And come whatever wills all chances

The stub remains

An ill-pulled tooth with a ragged edge.

Some words live in my throat

Breeding like adders. Others know sun

Seeking like gypsies over my tongue

To explode through my lips

Like young sparrows bursting from shell.

Some words

Bedevil me.





Love is a word another kind of open—

As a diamond comes into a knot of flame

I am black because I come from the earth's inside

Take my word for jewel in your open light.

- Immanuel Suttner

I have tried on

and slipped out of

many identities

like a woman

in a changing room

trying to find

the clothes that

will make

everything alright

but nothing fits completely

tho bits and pieces stick to me

perhaps I am

a kind of hollow

resonant

identity mannequin

and somewhere beneath

my latest face

lies an infinite

open

unafraid

space

Dropping Keys- Hafiz

The small man
builds cages for everyone
he knows.

While the sage,
who has to duck his head
when the moon is low,
keeps dropping keys all night long
for the beautiful rowdy prisoners.

The night on the island (La noche en la isla) Pablo Neruda

All night I have slept with you

next to the sea, on the island.

Wild and sweet you were between pleasure and sleep,

...between fire and water.

Perhaps very late

our dreams joined

at the top or at the bottom,

Up above like branches moved by a common wind,

down below like red roots that touch.

Perhaps your dream

drifted from mine

and through the dark sea

was seeking me

as before,

when you did not yet exist,

when without sighting you

I sailed by your side,

and your eyes sought

what now--

bread, wine, love, and anger--

I heap upon you

because you are the cup

that was waiting for the gifts of my life.

I have slept with you

all night long while

the dark earth spins

with the living and the dead,

and on waking suddenly

in the midst of the shadow

my arm encircled your waist.

Neither night nor sleep

could separate us.

I have slept with you

and on waking, your mouth,

come from your dream,

gave me the taste of earth,

of sea water, of seaweed,

of the depths of your life,

and I received your kiss

moistened by the dawn

as if it came to me

from the sea that surrounds us.

{Pablo Neruda}