MythDance
Poem-Gifts 2022

Pele and Ocean

20 November, 2022

The Sacred Fire calls,

Spiraling tongues licking us

All clean,

Worlds within worlds within worlds...

She,

Volcano Woman who first birthed lava,

Cracks open the center of Earth

Cracks open old worlds

As Her own fiery

Heart

Cracks

Open

Purity alights,

Coal-black, fire-orange,

Ocean-foam white

We dance at the edge of transformation

Where unmoving blocks

Become fluid emotion,

Where resistance is released

At the speed of light in motion,

Where

Harmony

Speaks

Immortal history

Where man and woman meet

In the fire

In the depths

In the old crackling voice of the storyteller

The elders stand with roots and branches,

Blessing these stories, saying:

“Keep

Your

Fire

Burning;

We will be the wood

For your Light,

For your Way...

Yes, yes, come to know the

Rainbow who does not fade.”

Come, come, come

To the Circle, Dear Ones:

Dip your soup ladles

Into the oceanic cosmic consciousness

And pass the bowl around

Come, come, come

To the Circle, Dear Ones:

Where we reimagine Paradise,

The fire of choice and change

Flowing like medicine

Through our veins

Come, come, come

To the Circle, Dear Ones:

Where The Inner Child

Meets

The Inner Wild

And our feet kiss the earth

In the screams and songs of birth

Welcome, welcome, welcome

To the Circle, Dear Ones:

Here, take the hands

Of All-That-Is

and

Leap!

Into the sparkling womb

Of the Unknown

Sky Woman, Turtle Island and the Twins

16 October, 2022

There is no birth and no death,

Only pure breath.

Open hearts caressed by aliveness,

Harmony,

Clear seeing.

Yet the Wind inevitably comes,

Ripping us out by the roots

Until we topple over,

Down, Down, down

Surrendered to our weight,

Like Sky Woman falling...

We come to know

Of the below that kisses above,

Of the dark that kisses the light

Of the death that kisses the life.

Pairs of polarity greet us

At the ground of our fall:

Bowls of heavy stones

The twins hold in their hands.

Standing at a wall of mirrors,

They call us to choose...

Feel the stone on your skin.

Care for its black caverns and

White veins,

For these live also inside of you.

See through the mirrors,

Those fragments you used

To see who “other” was,

Who you were.

For how sure can you be, really,

Until your pure seeing reigns,

Raining down like

Tears

As you remember?

The profound joy and pain,

The power of paradox,

Eventually lifts us all

From the waters

Upon the back of the slow and steady

Turtle

Where we hear a soft voice,

From deep in her belly:

“The Two have been blessed,

And healing has come.

Will you end your war

And Create together

What now wants to come?”

We step into the Unknown,

Unfathomable,

Unexpected,

Breathing together

From the bowls of fire in our bellies,

Symbiosis yearning us

Awake

Stones turn to diamonds,

And new stories spiral out

Like spider silk from our fingers

As flowers pour from our mouths

Dance, dance, dance!

And give, give,

Give all that you are!

For in gratitude we are carried

On earth-painted back of Turtle,

Receiving Light of Sun, Moon and Stars

Ra, Apep and Khepri

14 August, 2022

Life contains Death,

and Death contains Life.

The Pyramid of Earth

Rises from the Nothing,

Breast of the Mother.

Fields of sunflowers

Bow their heads, drinking,

Before returning to her dark,

Open arms.

Remember her warm embrace

As you lay down your arms

Dear One -

Buried in her laughter,

Deep down in the soil.

The fighting and foes,

told and retold stories of old...

What if the untold stories

Were worth their weight in gold?

What if the Gods put down their mirrors

And took off their robes,

Exposing themselves as

Nothing more (or less) than butterflies

Landing lightly on your toes?

And again...

Letting go...

The wild bees, once dying,

Once again thrive

And surprise us

By crawling on our feet,

Those feet stained with berry and

Soft

Earth

How can it be,

That the Sun births itself again

From the womb of Night?

How can it be,

That Light swallows Dark

While Dark swallows Light?

Even as the wild bee

Alights on the ever-giving Gold,

The radiant lotus shines on

The part and on the Whole...

Be patient, Dear One.

Circling around and around,

We come finally to ground

Where crystalline and coarse-grain

Sounds

Resound in the Dark places.

Gold will flow forth,

From the wounds.

Fly on the breeze,

Dear One

Take part in the Mystery of Creation,

Collect seeds,

Root in your knowing.

No need to wait

Until the sowing

Of liberation -

You are here now.

Breathe in...

and out...

Dance with wild seeds rolling

On drumskins.

Own nothing, owe nothing,

And know

That the seed already

Contains the whole,

And it will grow,

Yes, in the rhythm of Life,

We will grow...

We give what we have taken,

Breaking all boundaries

By simply

Being

Here.

The Rainbow Bridge

14 May, 2022

At the Great Tree,

We wept

For the loss of the rooted way,

For the fall,

For seeing all there was

To weep for

Yet all was not lost,

Even if we had fallen deep

Into opaque waters

Or high into Mountain's

Sky-piercing laughter

For after the fall,

Our roots began to grow

Even if we did not know

How to feel ourselves

The trees were waiting,

Shaking down their leaves,

Letting go of everything

While whispering “All is not lost”.

In between words,

Drinking the rustling Fire of Sun

And the roaring Waters running

Down our faces

What grace to break open

What we thought we knew,

Holding only white and green pebbles

Beneath the rooted rhythm of rain

The electric gold of our pain

Cracks open the darkness of night

And with new sight,

We can see the other half

Leave your island behind, Dear One...

Become the Rainbow Bridge,

Keep on with

Seeking depth and splashing lightness

Keep on with

Your gratitude of the corona's brightness

Keep on with

Opening your shells

And the swelling waves will carry you

To the Paradise where you

Already dwell

Buddha and the Bodhi Tree

20 March, 2022, Spring Equinox

We stepped beyond the thick walls

Of our protection

To meet other,

To meet ourselves.

Shocked by the suffering,

We stood

At the wrinkled feet of the old ones.

They knew;

They could tell us

Of the thick grooves in the earth

That were carved out by humility

And rain.

Imaginary borders were drawn

In the grains

Of sand at our feet,

The Fire at our backs.

We entered the stillness again and again and again,

Bowing at the dirty feet of our sisters -

They knew the rituals;

They sang us

Past borders,

Into the intimacy of our true names

Yet the pain brought us to walk alone,

To the center of the world

Where that Great Tree stood,

Where man and woman had first met

Here, we sat and asked all of our questions

As stars fell into our lap,

As spears became sweet blossoms,

As our tears blessed the way.

No answer came,

At first.

Until...

Earth speaks,

And man awakes to touch the feet

Of the woman who wildly dreams...

Here, where the meeting of

Fire and Water

Unfolds its pure and radiant wings

Will you fly towards the dark,

Or will you fly towards the light?

Or will you bring all you are

To the middle,

Planting here

The seeds of new life?

The Rainbow Serpent

26 February, 2022

Sleep fell from us like old skins

We had dreamt of war

In many forms,

As the Heart of the Earth Mother

Was pressed...

That crystalline core,

That diamond under pressure

What weight to bear!

From there,

From that dark place

Where She was,

She came – unexpected and unannounced,

Like the first waters flowing

Through dry lands

She sang to us,

Told us that

The Source was in our hands

All along...

Sparkling like rubies,

Like Fire,

Like the lightness of Sun

She told us of the fun of Creation,

Tickling us awake

As we laughed out loud,

Leaving our dreamlike mourning shrouds

Upon the burial mounds,

All that we no longer wanted

Thrown in

And put to good use

By that

Flowering

Ground

It was strange,

How brokenness

Became

Beauty

The absurd dreams

Gave way to the curved shape

Of the Rainbow Serpent,

And She smiled at us,

Even through swamps and

Tangled thorns

The frogs awoke with us,

Croaking,

Stoking the fires of Transformation

With their songs

Into endless skies,

The violet smoke of illusions rose

Until...

The serpent's smiling whispers

We hear, like raindrops on water:

“May you shed your skins,

May you shed your skins,

And shine from within”

Quetzalcoatl

23 January, 2022

We had become lost in the riddle

After traveling down, down, down

With our hound-headed friend

Carrying the heavy stones,

We finally sunk to the throne

Of the Underworld,

That Unknown tomb

Where no Sun shone

We asked for the bones,

Those bones that had been buried

So long ago...

In the breath between Worlds,

We asked to let what had been buried

Be shown.

In the breath between Worlds,

We asked for the Sun to shine

Into the impossibly dark below.

In the breath between Worlds,

In turn, we were asked the riddle

We did not - could not - know.

Yet we did not come alone.

The answer came in pieces,

Like the fragments of bones:

A feathered serpent sang

To both friend and foe,

Honeybees swarmed,

Ocean waves flowed...

In that song,

The Dawn Sun rose.

In that song,

The dark began to glow.

In that loving hum of creation,

Golden honey sweetened

Even the darkest shadow

Here!

The nectar of

The sun-kissed rose

whispers

“Keep on...”