Tongue of flame,
Lover lips to mine,
Brigit breathes secret mists to my mind
And I write.
So it has been, is.
May it always be so,
this dance, this intimate congress,
this Love.
My passion, her precious,
We share fire and
spill white-hot words.
©Angela Magara
Monday, February 1, 2010
Cyberspace Poetry Slam for Brigid
5th annual Cyberspace Poetry Slam for Brigid
Feel free to copy the following to your blog/facebook/website and spread
the word. Let poetry bless the blogosphere once again!
WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading
WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2010
WHERE: Your blog
WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day
HOW: Select a poem you like – by a favorite poet or one of your own – to
post February 2nd.
RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on
this post. Last year when the call went out there was more poetry in
cyberspace than we could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear
about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun.
Please pass this invitation on
for you know we are all poets
once in a while.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The Choice made in Massachusetts
I have lived in Massachusetts. I have worked in Massachusetts. The result of the election for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat is not a surprise to me. Massachusetts is a working class state with a separate, and articulate, intelligentsia. I think the ratio of those folks has been clearly demonstrated by the results of the recent Senate race.
That is not to say there are not intelligent, educated republicans. Though I might like to think otherwise, it isn’t just about stupid. It is about something else which I can’t understand. At some place in the lives of people who are personally compassionate and inquiring a decision is made to not use those traits in making political choices. I blame Christianity, the Catholic Church specifically, since that religion dominates in Massachusetts.
Dogma requires unquestioning acceptance of rules which, in the case of the Abrahamic religions, go counter to a person’s natural instincts. The link between religious zealots and right wing politics is undeniable. My assumption is this; once a person has been conditioned to accept something blindly - original sin for example - it is only another step to shift that capacity to supporting baseless political positions. Christianity is the perfect training ground for accepting rhetoric without facts.
I realize I am speaking counter to 76% of the people in this country. That is the percentage of people who admit to being Christians in this country. But something is making us do things as a country that most of us don’t like. I think investigating and mitigating any causes of our war-mongering, violent, fearful, sexually repressed culture might be helpful.
©angela magara 2010
That is not to say there are not intelligent, educated republicans. Though I might like to think otherwise, it isn’t just about stupid. It is about something else which I can’t understand. At some place in the lives of people who are personally compassionate and inquiring a decision is made to not use those traits in making political choices. I blame Christianity, the Catholic Church specifically, since that religion dominates in Massachusetts.
Dogma requires unquestioning acceptance of rules which, in the case of the Abrahamic religions, go counter to a person’s natural instincts. The link between religious zealots and right wing politics is undeniable. My assumption is this; once a person has been conditioned to accept something blindly - original sin for example - it is only another step to shift that capacity to supporting baseless political positions. Christianity is the perfect training ground for accepting rhetoric without facts.
I realize I am speaking counter to 76% of the people in this country. That is the percentage of people who admit to being Christians in this country. But something is making us do things as a country that most of us don’t like. I think investigating and mitigating any causes of our war-mongering, violent, fearful, sexually repressed culture might be helpful.
©angela magara 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
The Way of Fire
The Way of Fire
5 phases 5 times
A 5 month exploration of inspiration and the work of creating.
In this workshop we will investigate the 5 Phases of Fire 5 times noticing what it can teach of creativity. Celebrate the spark and burn of imagination, tend flames and embers and ashes. Open to, and into, our individual voices. We will learn practices, tools, and patience to bring forth the fullest expression possible of our visions and our fire.
The relationship each of us has with creativity and expression is valuable outside of any medium. It is ultimately our relationship with life force. Using magical tools of imagination, intention, loyalty, ecstasy, and release; we will spend time and energy with our creative selves.
The Way of Fire is a virtual class, taking place online and on the phone. We will also create and collectively maintain an astral space for our work together. I am offering this workshop as a free-will offering. I ask that those who take the class make an donation by April 28th, freely, as each wills. I invite you to add your fuel to our collective fire and share the discoveries we will make together.
If interested in more details, please contact me at angela@angelamagara.com.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Conflict
Today’s tarot card, drawn again from the beautiful Daughters of the Moon deck, is the 4 of Flames; A.K.A. (drum roll) Conflict. The card shows two naked warrior women with fire for hair. They stand with bows drawn and arrows point to point. Their feet are amidst the serpent coils of a dragon breathing flames to fill the sky.
Can I just say, “uh-huh.”
It, somehow isn’t personal - this conflict. My experience is more that it is atmospheric. This has been going on for a month or so. Right now seems particularly irritating. I know there are astrological reasons but there are others much more able to discuss that cause (or is it explanation?) than I.
I have been giving this situation some thought since I know myself to be a bitch. Not occasionally but continually; sometimes grounded and insightful, sometimes thorny and asp-tongued, I am a bitch. Let me be clear, I am completely comfortable with that. I believe it is one of the phases of being a maturing female. Perhaps you’ve heard of Maiden, Mother Crone? I’d amend that to Maiden, Mother, Bitch(aka Queen), Crone, Hag. We live much longer now. But I digress, I was discussing the atmosphere of conflict I perceive.
Let me propose that conflict is just mis-directed energy. If I can sense the energy and use it creatively the outcomes are sometimes exciting, beautiful, interesting, and/or self-informing. It is always satisfying. The energy abates and the wake left is a calm shore. My experience of the alternative is frustration.
Like the picture I described before, my arrow is poised to fly – it just needs a target. This could be a driver in my way, customer service for my cell phone, my friend, my ally, my kin. I can let fly at anyone. But I’m really not a thorny bitch all that often so I hold that bow drawn and don’t release. It takes a lot of energy to be civil, supportive, accepting, and non-judgmental when the bow is already drawn and the arrow nocked. Since I find my energy at a premium nowadays, I use whatever the universe is supplying, in the best way I can. I find getting alone is essential.
When I am alone and standing around with bow drawn it usually doesn’t take me too long to feel silly. I am learning to direct this wild flaming energy creatively. Sometimes that means writing. A few weeks ago it meant planting bulbs. Sometimes it is organizing and cleaning the silverware drawer. Finding ways to express it usefully, maybe joyfully rather than destructively, is the goal.
I share this because you may find yourself in a similar place.
Yes, during this season of peace and goodwill, in this day of announcing troop increases in Afghanistan, in this time when 1 out of 4 children in the US of A is on food stamps; I endorse letting that energy sweep in and clean your cellar, write a piece of music or code, finger paint, or dance; whatever wants doing. I’m finding it works out better than the alternative.
©Angela Magara 2009
Can I just say, “uh-huh.”
It, somehow isn’t personal - this conflict. My experience is more that it is atmospheric. This has been going on for a month or so. Right now seems particularly irritating. I know there are astrological reasons but there are others much more able to discuss that cause (or is it explanation?) than I.
I have been giving this situation some thought since I know myself to be a bitch. Not occasionally but continually; sometimes grounded and insightful, sometimes thorny and asp-tongued, I am a bitch. Let me be clear, I am completely comfortable with that. I believe it is one of the phases of being a maturing female. Perhaps you’ve heard of Maiden, Mother Crone? I’d amend that to Maiden, Mother, Bitch(aka Queen), Crone, Hag. We live much longer now. But I digress, I was discussing the atmosphere of conflict I perceive.
Let me propose that conflict is just mis-directed energy. If I can sense the energy and use it creatively the outcomes are sometimes exciting, beautiful, interesting, and/or self-informing. It is always satisfying. The energy abates and the wake left is a calm shore. My experience of the alternative is frustration.
Like the picture I described before, my arrow is poised to fly – it just needs a target. This could be a driver in my way, customer service for my cell phone, my friend, my ally, my kin. I can let fly at anyone. But I’m really not a thorny bitch all that often so I hold that bow drawn and don’t release. It takes a lot of energy to be civil, supportive, accepting, and non-judgmental when the bow is already drawn and the arrow nocked. Since I find my energy at a premium nowadays, I use whatever the universe is supplying, in the best way I can. I find getting alone is essential.
When I am alone and standing around with bow drawn it usually doesn’t take me too long to feel silly. I am learning to direct this wild flaming energy creatively. Sometimes that means writing. A few weeks ago it meant planting bulbs. Sometimes it is organizing and cleaning the silverware drawer. Finding ways to express it usefully, maybe joyfully rather than destructively, is the goal.
I share this because you may find yourself in a similar place.
Yes, during this season of peace and goodwill, in this day of announcing troop increases in Afghanistan, in this time when 1 out of 4 children in the US of A is on food stamps; I endorse letting that energy sweep in and clean your cellar, write a piece of music or code, finger paint, or dance; whatever wants doing. I’m finding it works out better than the alternative.
©Angela Magara 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
An Hypothesis
Since I was a child there have been those groups who insisted that the real threat is the Communist intention to take over our country. The shape of that threat took many forms through the years. First it was that the USSR had nuclear missiles directed at our major cities and defense centers. We hid under our desks and those with the means built bomb shelters. Our country build an arsenal of nuclear weapons that terrified anyone of intelligence. That passed.
The next Red Threat came complete with domino theory. This was the justification both for Korea and Vietnam. It was the reason for the tragic loss of combatant’s lives* and shocking levels of civilian losses* in Laos and Cambodia, as well as Vietnam. If those remote countries fell to the Communists then eventually they would take over the "free" world and, alone with no allies, we would be overwhelmed. Citizens protested and, for a time, we ended our overt wars. Nixon visited China. That passed.
The Berlin Wall fell. The USSR broke into many countries. Communism clearly had self-destructed. America was the only superpower remaining, we were assured. We flexed, stretched, and reached our control wherever we could, to gain whatever was there for the taking. We gave China most favored nation status. Our fear of Communist takeover passed.
Today Obama is traveling to China. The press release says he is going to discuss religious freedom, internet access, and censorship; oh, and trade. He was quoted as saying “few global challenges can be solved unless the world's only superpower(that’s us – the only first world country still in recession) and its rising competitor (does anyone else see China as a competitor) work together. He and his advisers have insisted in virtually all public utterances since he arrived in Japan on Friday: ‘We do not seek to contain China's rise.’”
The GOP and rightists have been worrying since the end of WWII that we would be taken over and controlled by Communists. Apparently all of our wars, all our immense defense spending, all the covert and overt interference in other places far away(Asia) and nearby (Cuba, Central America) was to prevent that horrible possibility.
I have a hypothesis. China is now deciding whether we will enlarge our war in Afghanistan. Obama’s trip is actually to ask China for more loans to fund this war which we cannot execute without them. Our country doesn’t have the cash to send more troops to the Middle East. That is why the trip was preceded by an announcement by the administration that it is not choosing a strategy right now but is continuing to consider options for Afghanistan. China’s response will shape that strategy. If this hypothesis is true then China has taken over our country.
If this hypothesis is valid then the GOP and the Democrats, which have supported unchecked trade with China, have handed the country over to the Communists. Ironically, that which was our greatest (manufactured) fear has come upon us at their hands. Let me add, Communism hasn’t been a fear I’ve held for 40 years. This is not a statement of fear of communists but consideration of the political manipulation wielded under that “takeover” banner.
The Chinese didn’t need to bomb us, nor invade us. They just had to take the long view and let us consume ourselves into submission. “We do not seek to contain China’s rise.”
We couldn’t if we tried. We have funded it with our greed. We have assured it with our export of jobs, manufacturing, and capital. It has been good for the GNP and multi-nationals. I propose that the reason the fear of communist takeover has passed is because it is accomplished. It is now a matter of seeing what China is going to choose to do with the country they have bought.
The irony is that we have caused the loss of 5,262,745 human lives in our pursuit of this stated policy. Such waste. Maybe the Chinese will run things better. But I doubt it.
©Angela Magara 2009
Loss of life in wars
*Korea total lives loss 2,800,000 US losses 34,568
*Vietnam total lives loss 1,700,000 US losses 58,177
*Cambodia total lives loss 600,000 US included in Vietnam figures
*Laos total lives loss 70,000 US included in Vietnam figures
The next Red Threat came complete with domino theory. This was the justification both for Korea and Vietnam. It was the reason for the tragic loss of combatant’s lives* and shocking levels of civilian losses* in Laos and Cambodia, as well as Vietnam. If those remote countries fell to the Communists then eventually they would take over the "free" world and, alone with no allies, we would be overwhelmed. Citizens protested and, for a time, we ended our overt wars. Nixon visited China. That passed.
The Berlin Wall fell. The USSR broke into many countries. Communism clearly had self-destructed. America was the only superpower remaining, we were assured. We flexed, stretched, and reached our control wherever we could, to gain whatever was there for the taking. We gave China most favored nation status. Our fear of Communist takeover passed.
Today Obama is traveling to China. The press release says he is going to discuss religious freedom, internet access, and censorship; oh, and trade. He was quoted as saying “few global challenges can be solved unless the world's only superpower(that’s us – the only first world country still in recession) and its rising competitor (does anyone else see China as a competitor) work together. He and his advisers have insisted in virtually all public utterances since he arrived in Japan on Friday: ‘We do not seek to contain China's rise.’”
The GOP and rightists have been worrying since the end of WWII that we would be taken over and controlled by Communists. Apparently all of our wars, all our immense defense spending, all the covert and overt interference in other places far away(Asia) and nearby (Cuba, Central America) was to prevent that horrible possibility.
I have a hypothesis. China is now deciding whether we will enlarge our war in Afghanistan. Obama’s trip is actually to ask China for more loans to fund this war which we cannot execute without them. Our country doesn’t have the cash to send more troops to the Middle East. That is why the trip was preceded by an announcement by the administration that it is not choosing a strategy right now but is continuing to consider options for Afghanistan. China’s response will shape that strategy. If this hypothesis is true then China has taken over our country.
If this hypothesis is valid then the GOP and the Democrats, which have supported unchecked trade with China, have handed the country over to the Communists. Ironically, that which was our greatest (manufactured) fear has come upon us at their hands. Let me add, Communism hasn’t been a fear I’ve held for 40 years. This is not a statement of fear of communists but consideration of the political manipulation wielded under that “takeover” banner.
The Chinese didn’t need to bomb us, nor invade us. They just had to take the long view and let us consume ourselves into submission. “We do not seek to contain China’s rise.”
We couldn’t if we tried. We have funded it with our greed. We have assured it with our export of jobs, manufacturing, and capital. It has been good for the GNP and multi-nationals. I propose that the reason the fear of communist takeover has passed is because it is accomplished. It is now a matter of seeing what China is going to choose to do with the country they have bought.
The irony is that we have caused the loss of 5,262,745 human lives in our pursuit of this stated policy. Such waste. Maybe the Chinese will run things better. But I doubt it.
©Angela Magara 2009
Loss of life in wars
*Korea total lives loss 2,800,000 US losses 34,568
*Vietnam total lives loss 1,700,000 US losses 58,177
*Cambodia total lives loss 600,000 US included in Vietnam figures
*Laos total lives loss 70,000 US included in Vietnam figures
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Ah, youth
There is a power young girls have. I remember realizing that I could direct the thoughts of a group of boys just by walking by. The year before I would have been invisible, of no importance. Now that had all changed.
No, that’s not it.
There is a fear that young girls have. I recall walking across the street with my girlfriends and laughing at the old man eyeing us from his car.
“He should go home to his wife and kids,” Tamera said.
We all laughed but I felt afraid at the invasion of this man’s eyes. He didn’t know me. Who was he? Why was he looking at me?
No, that’s not it.
There is a pride young girls have. They lift their faces and let their hair blow and revel in the delight of their new bodies. I remember standing by the side of the community pool and feeling the satisfaction of no longer being a “chubby girl.” I recall the smell of the iodine and baby oil we mixed for tanning and the amber beads water made on my legs as I came out of the pool. I just felt good. I felt the blood rushing, carrying me to an unknown place.
No, that’s not it.
There is a sadness young girls have. I remember having to give up wearing comfortable clothes. Suddenly I had to wear a garter belt and nylons – “make sure your seams are straight” – and a bra. I can still feel myself hanging from the monkey bars on my swing set, hanging upside down by my knees and my shirt falling over my eyes. I reached up and pulled down, or rather up, so my bra wouldn’t show. I fell, losing my grip.
No that’s not it. It’s all not it. I know that once I didn’t have the responsibility of being a woman, of always having to be aware of the effect of my sex, my body, my behavior, my safety, my choices. I recall a time when if something happened to me, or someone threatened me, I could expect to be protected. I didn’t have to consider if I had somehow caused it.
Mostly I want, for just this moment, to acknowledge the power of female coming of age. I want to give voice to the conflicts and the losses that accompany the power of being a woman. I want to acknowledge that as far as feminism has taken us, the distance we have to go stretches to the horizon.
©Angela Magara 2009
No, that’s not it.
There is a fear that young girls have. I recall walking across the street with my girlfriends and laughing at the old man eyeing us from his car.
“He should go home to his wife and kids,” Tamera said.
We all laughed but I felt afraid at the invasion of this man’s eyes. He didn’t know me. Who was he? Why was he looking at me?
No, that’s not it.
There is a pride young girls have. They lift their faces and let their hair blow and revel in the delight of their new bodies. I remember standing by the side of the community pool and feeling the satisfaction of no longer being a “chubby girl.” I recall the smell of the iodine and baby oil we mixed for tanning and the amber beads water made on my legs as I came out of the pool. I just felt good. I felt the blood rushing, carrying me to an unknown place.
No, that’s not it.
There is a sadness young girls have. I remember having to give up wearing comfortable clothes. Suddenly I had to wear a garter belt and nylons – “make sure your seams are straight” – and a bra. I can still feel myself hanging from the monkey bars on my swing set, hanging upside down by my knees and my shirt falling over my eyes. I reached up and pulled down, or rather up, so my bra wouldn’t show. I fell, losing my grip.
No that’s not it. It’s all not it. I know that once I didn’t have the responsibility of being a woman, of always having to be aware of the effect of my sex, my body, my behavior, my safety, my choices. I recall a time when if something happened to me, or someone threatened me, I could expect to be protected. I didn’t have to consider if I had somehow caused it.
Mostly I want, for just this moment, to acknowledge the power of female coming of age. I want to give voice to the conflicts and the losses that accompany the power of being a woman. I want to acknowledge that as far as feminism has taken us, the distance we have to go stretches to the horizon.
©Angela Magara 2009
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