Saturday, June 9, 2012

Dance of the Woman

What does being a woman mean? What does being a man mean? I've been turning these questions over and over as the Jumping Bean gets older. What do I want him to know about "gender"?*

What happens when you start pondering "gender"?
From http://openclipart.org
Here's what happened when I did:

Dance of the Woman
Stepping between rain drops
The fertile come to bear
Whether under an antiseptic showerhead
Or a cloud-baked sky.
We will dance

When I lie forgotten in cooking steam
Swept away by a four bladed fan
Silenced in the clunk of autowash
Deafened by pull of a vacuum
Smiling as the screen sterilizes the children
We are still dancing

I am dancing to the drum
Of low-hanging breasts slapping and swinging
Dancing with my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother
Leaping, wobbling, jumping, swaying
Let loose in a circle of stone
We are dancing

I dance, my sweet boy,
To pull of your lips
The tingling rush of warmth in my breasts
As I feed you the juicy wilds
You know the dance of a woman and
You will dance

*Thank you to my teachers: Bob, Helen, John, and Dee for requesting I read Ivan Illich, Merlin Stone, and  Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Sparked--Again

Okay. Okay. So I already posted about Get Sparked. I had so much fun the first time, I did it again!

Instead of "working alone" with donated artwork, I worked with a random partner. Speaking back and forth to with partner while you are creating from one another's work is a totally different experience.

I was speechless (in wonder) when I received my partner's* artwork. I didn't write a word for the first six days (we only get 10 days!) because I couldn't put words to something so amazing. When I started writing, I was more careful with my words and more nervous about posting.

The Writer's Vibe decided to write fairy tales, so The Amber Tree is littered with fairy tails How many can you find?

You can the results here.

*Thank you Sharon Deegan for the perfect inspiration. Thank you Amy Sousa for bringing us Sparked. Thank you WV for keeping the pen in my hand.