Public Animas Ceremony Part 6: Offerings. (Poetry Appendix)

Continued lessons from the Public Animas Ceremony: An Invitation to Passion.


As promised, this entry includes the 'poetry offerings' chosen & presented by the Animas Ceremony Officiants. This last entry should cover the last of the details & subsequent entries will bring the bigger picture into perspective. Finally. 

I could go on about the people behind these choices & why I love this poem or that, but I am choosing to let them alone here as I have plans to discuss people in more detail & I find that poetry is,  more often than not, best left to speak for itself...

In order of recitation:

The Invitation

by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, (selected verses) read by Kimber

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for 

and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool 

for love, 

for your dreams, 

for the adventure of being alive.

I want to know if you can be with joy, 

mine or your own;

if you can dance with wildness 

and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes

without cautioning us to be careful, 

to be realistic

remembering the limitations of being human.

I want to know if you can live with failure, 

yours and mine, ours

and still stand at the edge of the lake 

and shout to the silver of the full moon, 'Yes.'

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire 

with me and not shrink back.

I want to know if you can be alone

with yourself 

and if you truly like the company you keep 

in these empty moments.

Untitled 

by E. E. Cummings, read by Nat

sometimes i am alive because with

me her alert treelike body sleeps

which i will feel slowly sharpening

becoming distinct with love slowly,

who in my shoulder sinks sweetly teeth

until we shall attain the Springsmelling

intense large togethercoloured instant

the moment pleasantly frightful

when, her mouth suddenly rising, wholly

begins with mine fiercely to fool

(and from my thighs which shrug and pant

a murdering rain leapingly reaches the 

upward singular deepest flower which she

carries in a gesture of her hips)

Reason and Passion XV

by Khalil Gibran, read by Corwen

      Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and judgment wage war against passion and your appetite. 

      Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn the discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody. 

      But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers -- nay, the lovers -- of all your elements? 

      Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. 

      If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, on the sea.

      Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion; that it may sing!

      And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and, like the Phoenix rise above its own ashes. 

      Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white poplars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows, then let your heart say in Silence, "The gods rest in reason." 

      And when the storm comes, and the mighty wind shakes the forest, and thunder and lightning proclaim the majesty of the sky, then let heart - say in awe, "The gods move in passion." 

      And since you are a breath in the gods’ sphere, and a leaf in the gods’ forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion! 

The Emerald Tablet

by Hermes Trismegistus

Isaac Newton Trans., adaptation by Xinther, read by Xinther

Of all things said tis' true without lying or falsehood:

That which is below is like that above, 

And that which is above is like that below,

Doing all the miracles of one thing only.

So do all things have their birth from this One by adaptation;

The Sun its Father, the Moon its Mother,

The Wind its breath, and the Earth its Nurse;

for the father of Perfection is here!

If only converted to Earth will the force be entire.

The force to separate the Subtle from the Gross, 

The Power to blend the Superior and Inferior from above as well as below;

By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world

and thereby all obscurity shall fly!

Penetration into all solid matter and overcoming every subtle force;

So the world was created.

And come admirable adaptations and marvelous conjunctions;

For I am Hermes Trismegistus!

Having three parts of  Wisdom and Philosophy of the Whole

and that which I have said is now accomplished.

The Laughing Heart 

by Charles Bukowski, read by Alli

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.