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| Mana Youngbear performing White Tara at "Restoring the Balance", the Muse Community Arts Center, Tucson, AZ (2004) |
every leaf, every river,
every animal,
your body
I first heard this poem spoken on Jennifer Berezon's 2005 DVD PRAISES F"OR THE WORLD, which I bought after seeing her perform it in 2008 at the Kripalu Institute in Massachusetts, where I was privileged to teach a workshop. Dellinger read as part of an amazing ritual performance in Oakland, California that featured Jennifer Berezon, Drew Delinger, Alice Walker, Gloria Steinem, Joanna Macy, and many others, all within the container of Jennifer's exquisite devotional song. At the end, all voices rose to join her in its praise.
Mr. Dellinger's poem, recited at the performance, has haunted me ever since, especially after I wore the DVD out by playing it, and Ms. Berezon's music, over and over again. So here is a link to a UTube video in which he recites it live, and I invite anyone reading this to as well to the music of Jennifer Berezon as well. For my own pleasure, I copy the poem below, and I also have copied the only video I could find on UTube of that extraordinary gathering in Oakland.
hymn to the sacred body of the universelet’s meet
at the confluence
where you flow into me
and one breath
swirls between our lungs
let’s meet
at the confluence
where you flow into me
and one breath
swirls between our lungs
for one instant
to dwell in the presence of the galaxies
for one instant
to live in the truth of the heart
the poet says this entire traveling cosmos is
“the secret One slowly growing a body”
two eagles are mating—
clasping each other’s claws
and turning cartwheels in the sky
grasses are blooming
grandfathers dying
consciousness blinking on and off
all of this is happening at once
all of this, vibrating into existence
out of nothingness
every particle
foaming into existence
transcribing the ineffable
arising and passing away
arising and passing away
23 trillion times per second—
when Buddha saw that,
he smiled
16 million tons of rain are falling every second
on the planet
an ocean
perpetually falling
and every drop
is your body
every motion, every feather, every thought
is your body
time
is your body,
and the infinite
curled inside like
invisible rainbows folded into light
every word of every tongue is love
telling a story to her own ears
let our lives be incense
burning
like a hymn to the sacred
body of the universe
my religion is rain
my religion is stone
my religion reveals itself to me in
sweaty epiphanies
every leaf, every river,
every animal,
your body
every creature trapped in the gears
of corporate nightmares
every species made extinct
was once
your body
10 million people are dreaming
that they’re flying
junipers and violets are blossoming
stars exploding and being born
god
is having
déjà vu
I am one
elaborate
crush
we cry petals
as the void
is singing
you are the dark
that holds the stars
in intimate
distance
that spun the whirling,
whirling,
world
into existence
let’s meet
at the confluence
where you flow into me
and one breath
swirls between our lungs
All artwork and text unless otherwise specified is COPYRIGHT Lauren Raine 2024
I was there...............wonderful Conference. This montage shows some of the participants, Lydia Ruhle's wonderful Banners, Kathy Jones who spoke about Mother World, and of course Jennifer Berezon's Praises for the World. Beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzJ0ZdY8Fuc&ab_channel=GoddessSpirirtRising
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| Mana Youngbear as "White Tara" in Restoring the Balance (2004) |
SOUND POEM BY LAUREN RAINE (2019)
to listen:
https://soundcloud.com/user-972033003/white-tara-by-lauren-raine
White Tara is the manifestation of complete Compassion, She is the Bodlhissatva who will assist the suffering of the world, assist us to move through the suffering to love, and the reealization that we are not alone, that we all belong to the great Circle. Quon Yin, Tara, Mother Mary.............. all manifestations or archetypes of the Divine Mother, and the expansion of unconditional compassion and love. I wrote this spoken word poem in 1997, when I was going through loss of a home/dream/community that eventually led me to create a new life on the other side of the continent.
I reflect, as I try to recall the experience from which this poem arose, that the opening of the heart that grief and loss can bring can also be a path into profound evolutionary change, but in my experience, to grow one must first go through it, one must experience the pain and the loss.
Which is something very fearful to do, and can take a long time to do. Because the heart does not know or reason in sequential time like the intellect does! Having just lost a beloved cat, I am experiencing this right now. The emotional body, it seems to me, suffers all the losses at once as each loss arises. And the heart also partakes in a greater Mystery that somehow knows all beings are One, remembering all experiences of love and belonging within the Circle dance of life. Grief can be a great teacher.
"I went to meet that savage creature I have run from, lifetime after lifetime,
the shape within the shadows, huge, a creature of smoke and bared fangs. "
This line arose from a dream I had many times, in which I was being pursued by a vampire. Always it almost got me, or was a shadowy presence just behind me, and I would wake up. I suppose Jungians would call this the "denial of the shadow" or some such. I was always too afraid to confront the creature that pursued me in those dreams, because I was sure it would kill me. Finally I had a dream in which I became tired of running, and a I stopped to face the pursuing monster. And when, at last, the horror embraced me it turned into a young boy, vulnerable, with tears in his eyes.
every leaf, every river,
every animal,
your body
Eureka! I Found it.............that poem by Drew Dellinger that I first saw on Jennifer Berezon's DVD PRAISES FOR THE WORLD. This wonderful DVD, which I bought after seeing her perform last year at Kripalu, is of a ritual performance in Oakland that featured the poet Drew Delinger, Alice Walker, Gloria Steinem, Joanna Macy, and many others, all within the container of Jennifer's exquisite devotional song.
Mr. Dellinger's poem has haunted me, especially after I wore the DVD out by playing it over and over again. So here, with the miracle of blogging, is a link to a UTube video in which he recites it live, and I invite anyone reading this to listen, and to listen to the music of Jennifer Berezon as well. For my own pleasure, I copy the poem below.
hymn to the sacred body of the universelet’s meet
at the confluence
where you flow into me
and one breath
swirls between our lungs
let’s meet
at the confluence
where you flow into me
and one breath
swirls between our lungs
for one instant
to dwell in the presence of the galaxies
for one instant
to live in the truth of the heart
the poet says this entire traveling cosmos is
“the secret One slowly growing a body”
two eagles are mating—
clasping each other’s claws
and turning cartwheels in the sky
grasses are blooming
grandfathers dying
consciousness blinking on and off
all of this is happening at once
all of this, vibrating into existence
out of nothingness
every particle
foaming into existence
transcribing the ineffable
arising and passing away
arising and passing away
23 trillion times per second—
when Buddha saw that,
he smiled
16 million tons of rain are falling every second
on the planet
an ocean
perpetually falling
and every drop
is your body
every motion, every feather, every thought
is your body
time
is your body,
and the infinite
curled inside like
invisible rainbows folded into light
every word of every tongue is love
telling a story to her own ears
let our lives be incense
burning
like a hymn to the sacred
body of the universe
my religion is rain
my religion is stone
my religion reveals itself to me in
sweaty epiphanies
every leaf, every river,
every animal,
your body
every creature trapped in the gears
of corporate nightmares
every species made extinct
was once
your body
10 million people are dreaming
that they’re flying
junipers and violets are blossoming
stars exploding and being born
god
is having
déjà vu
I am one
elaborate
crush
we cry petals
as the void
is singing
you are the dark
that holds the stars
in intimate
distance
that spun the whirling,
whirling,
world
into existence
let’s meet
at the confluence
where you flow into me
and one breath
swirls between our lungs
