Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Brigitte Poirson writes


SONGS



Songs? 
Songs, obdurately slithering sounds 
Creeping between silent voids, 
Sleekly sickening, sleazy sounds? 
Songs mouthing true lies 
Which appeal to your too complacent, yammering pasts,
And bellow words that will hold untrue for the rest of time 
After their penetrating meaning 
Has pierced you 
And opened a space roomy enough 
To host another soul? 
Songs that leave you solidly empty, 
Just brave enough 
To drown into your own weakness 
Throughout the dirge of life, 
Subliminal messages that sublimate 
Your solitude 
Into phantoms of an empty future? 
Songs you hearken to 
Not with your heart, but with your bowels? 
Songs that defile you 
Below word level? 
Or songs shared, 
Elaborate illuminations from voices hailing 
From the other side, 
The other ride, 
Songs that heave into hope sight, 
And take you to a friendly heat, 
Flank to flank, 
To leave you gasping for love, 
Panting from love? 



































Calabar Dancer -- Jimoh Buraimoh

2 comments:

  1. The word “bead” comes from the Old English “bede” (prayer). Beads have long been an important part of Yoruba culture, heavily adorning religious objects such as masks, figures, staffs, and charms to ward off evil forces that could bring sickness, war, misfortune, and so forth. Beaded crowns, robes, sandals, flywhisks, staffs of office, hand fans, walking sticks, and and wrist and ankle bangles were the constituent elements of Yoruba royal araphernalia, as indicated in the proverb, “Ade ori l’a fi n mo oba, ileke orun ni t'awon ijoy” (the beaded crown is the king’s, the string of beads is the chief’s.) Likewise, music (especially dance) has been one of the oldest and most important expressions of recreation, art, and ritual, especially rites of passage such as birth, initiation, graduation, courtship, marriage, succession to political office, and death. These traditions influenced Jimoh Buraimoh to develop an art form called “bead painting,” which appear to create a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface by overlapping shapes and using light-to-dark shading to create the overall shape. Though descended from Tìmehin, the founder of Òsogbo (one of Nigeria’s main dyeing centers), he learned about molding figures from his silversmith father and choosing and combining colors from his mat weaver mother. “Calabar Dancer” depicts a figure in the foreground and a female dancer in the background. The dance of the Efik people of Calabar is "abang" (pot, symbolizing fertility) and originated from the worship of the water goddess Ndem and is also associated with the earth goddess Abasi Isong, who is credited with clay for pottery and for fertility; during the course of the performance, the dancer undergoes a transformation and takes on the spiritual and physical identity of ancestors or spirits.

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  2. Indeed, art, ritual, poetry, prayer All intermingle in the mental realm to express or celebrate the essence of life.

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