Imaginal Journal
Imagination is Medicine
I Know the Way You Can Get By Hafiz
I know the way you can get
When you have not had a drink of Love:
Your face hardens,
Your sweet muscles cramp.
Children become concerned
About a strange look that appears in your eyes
Which even begins to worry your own mirror
And nose.
Squirrels and birds sense your sadness
And call an important conference in a tall tree.
They decide which secret code to chant
To help your mind and soul.
Even angels fear that brand of madness
That arrays itself against the world
And throws sharp stones and spears into
The innocent
And into one's self.
O I know the way you can get
If you have not been drinking Love:
You might rip apart
Every sentence your friends and teachers say,
Looking for hidden clauses.
You might weigh every word on a scale
Like a dead fish.
You might pull out a ruler to measure
From every angle in your darkness
The beautiful dimensions of a heart you once
Trusted.
I know the way you can get
If you have not had a drink from Love's
Hands.
That is why all the Great Ones speak of
The vital need
To keep remembering God,
So you will come to know and see Him
As being so Playful
And Wanting,
Just Wanting to help.
That is why Hafiz says:
Bring your cup near me.
For all I care about
Is quenching your thirst for freedom!
All a Sane man can ever care about
Is giving Love!
I Heard God Laughing: Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky. Mobius Press, Oakland, CA, pp. 81
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold
I first fell for Joan's writing in college, reading Slouching Towards Bethlehem. I dreamed of having her as an imaginary mentor. Seeing this documentary made me think about the value of writing as an act of self-reflection and self-authority. Though it is tragic to see the painful losses she endured over the arc of her life story, I am reminded of her bold authoring of selfhood.
Sugar for the Pill by Slowdive
There's a buzzard of gulls
They're drumming in the wind
Only lovers alive
Running in the dark
And I rolled away
Said we never wanted much
Just a rollercoast
Our love has never known the way
Sugar for the pill
You know it's just the way things are
Cannot buy the sun
This jealousy will break the whole
Cut across the sky
And move a little closer now
Lying in a bed of greed
You know I had the strangest dream
And I rolled away
Said we never wanted much
Just a rollercoast
Our love has never known the way
Sugar for the pill
You know it's just the way things are
Cannot buy the sun
This jealousy will break the whole
And I rolled away
Said we never wanted much
Just a rollercoast
Our love has never known the way
Sugar for the pill
You know it's just the way things are
Cannot buy the sun
This jealousy will break the whole
Desert Repose
Enjoying the wandering, thrifting, wild cats, boulders, fireside talks, nourishment, sound baths, sky, and landscapes of the desert.
Beautiful Stranger by Kevin Morby
If you ever hear that thunder, put your eye to the sky, boy, and wonder
Maybe there's a kingdom above the weather
Oh, and whether you're gonna get our name is up to him
If you ever hear that crying in the distance like some siren
Maybe there's a singer with no ring around their little finger, no love
And If I lose my voice
If I have no choice but to go quiet
Won't you sing for me a melody into the night there
Well, if I die too young, if the wolf he comes
Fee-fi-fo-fum
If I die too young, oh, if the locust come
Well then, run, run, run
Free
If you ever hear that gunshot, you may think 'bout what you do but you don't got
Say a prayer, think of mother, I am a rock
If you ever hear that sound now
If the door gets kicked in here, they come now
Think of others, be their cover
I am what they're not
Pray for Paris
They cannot scare us
Or stop the music
You got a sweet voice, child
Why don't you use it?
If I die too young, if the gunmen come, I'm full of love
So release me, every piece of me, up above
(Up above)
Love my mama and my papa
Love my sister, can't stand the coppers up in their choppers
Oh, flying overhead, forty-nine dead
Singing, oh, my Lord, come carry me home
Oh, my Lord, come carry me home
I'm singing oh, my God, oh, my Lord
Oh, my God, oh, my Lord
Oh, my God, oh, my Lord
Oh, my Lord
And if I die too young for something I ain't done
Carry my name every day
Oh, I'm sorry
Oh, I'm sorry
Freddie Gray
But sleep easy like baby Jesus in a manger
Oh, sleep easy like little Jesus, beautiful stranger
Oh, beautiful stranger
If I die too young, let all that I've done be remembered
And I'll sleep easy like baby Jesus in his manger
And I'll sleep easy like little Jesus, safe from danger
Carry onward like some songbird, beautiful stranger
Carry onward like some songbird, beautiful stranger
Oh, beautiful stranger
Radical Women at the Hammer
Found my soul so profoundly moved by this exhibition of Radical Women, Latin American artists.
I attended a gallery walk-through with professor Jennifer Gonzalez who offered this quote I really loved, "There are women who think with the body, there are women who think with images, there are women who think, there are women."