Ancient Pleasures

Ahhhh...sweet chai!

Huzzah! Or perhaps I should say Hafiz! 

The Muse was definitely with us on Saturday as we caroused and created with abandon. We also took time to treat ourselves to some of the most ancient of pleasures: Sufi poetry, honeyed mean, and a big bright bonfire.

My Most Excellent Friend came up from Portland to paint, make tea sandwiches, and rouse our spirits with his delicious honeyed mead. Allie Cat painted her own charming masterpiece and channeled Hafiz for us over chai and naan. FirF the Brave forged some drawings from a book of Alexander Calder’s animal sketches (we won't tell if you won't). And I began my first painting in years, Goddesses Are Not Ectomorphs.

A Master of Abstraction at work

Painting Goddesses with a fairy goblet of wine.

LOOK! I AM A WHALE

We live on the Sun’s playground.

Here,

Everyone gets what they want.

Sometimes the body of a beautiful woman,

Sometimes the body of a beautiful man,

Sometimes the body of both

In one.

We used to play that kind of tag

In the animal world too.

Now a mouse,

Now a tiger,

Look! I am a whale--I got tired of the land,

Went back to the ocean for a while.

What power is it in our sinew and mind

That will not die,

That keeps us shopping for the perfect dress?

We have all heard the Flute Player

And keep dancing
Toward Him.

Hafiz,

You have seen the Flute Player

And cannot help but

Whirl.

--from The Gift, poems by Hafiz