DANCE

Dance, in its earnest and naturally channeled expression, is a way of being completely present in the world, without allowing rational, human complexes to take over consciousness. It is a kind of expansion of consciousness in the sense that, when the rational and practical voices in the mind have been quieted, the consciousness is liberated from its situational blinders, and is able to unfold into a fundamental experience of physical and mental existence. It is a way of communicating the simplest truth of existence, a ritual to participate in, and reflect on, the endless motion that is presence in the ensouled body, i.e. human existence. We are wondrous contraptions, built subtly of the crude materials of the universe, and infused with a vast spirit. In dance, we drift effortlessly and artlessly through the universe, projecting out only what we fundamentally are.

SHOFAR

I walked into a room outfitted in ornate hammered silver. A glow that seemed almost sentient and breathing moved in the room. I looked over and saw, before a slightly tarnished silver mirror, a great curved shofar. It looked like ivory with tooled metal ornamentation. I picked it up and blew into it, and a woman walked through a doorway nearby. I don't remember what she said, but intelligence seemed to be crackling in the air around her. I was unnerved by her.

I dug a mineshaft into myself, the underworld, and strung a tattered line of incandescence to light the way. It flickers and sways, and lets off a feeble heat against the dark and cold; I know that it will be extinguished soon. I first came to the entrance of the mine in the lean hours of darkness, among worn down ancient mountains. A strange little family stood around me there, drawn to me for survival, repulsed by fear. I stood terrified at the mouth, unable to go down, but certain that I was bound to descend very soon. See the stars blaze overhead... will they burn for me down there?

A huge 3 masted ship has moored on the eastern end of the island. The wind always seems to pick up as the sun goes down, and today as I walked back from Elephant Seal Cove, I saw the night fog blowing in rose tendrils around it.

The crystalline iceplant bled vermilion as I descended toward the sea lions. Waves of pelicans leapt off the cliff and coasted in the updraft at my approach. I got to the bare ground of the promontory and found the audacious pinnipeds; their heads were regally lifted as they galumphed about. Disturbingly human coughs arose from the group, many of whom were lying down in rows looking like slick, hulking sardines.

I scaled back up the steep face and watched the bulbous and disfigured sun disappear behind the vapor wall. A sharp sliver of moon rose up through the coreopsis stand.