art and poem by Carmen H Gray
Tenderly she rivers the night sky
With petals in place of feathers
She moves in body and soul
All strings and stars expanding
Impermeable and eternal
Creation cradled to heart
Beating softly in the enveloped song of Humanity
They are vast as the sky together
Wider than infinite time
Encompassing the yet to be
in tonān in cihuācōātl in quilāztli (our mother, Cihuacoatl, Quilaztli)
“You promise us emerald and jade, but do those precious stones
truly endure? Only the divine song, drifting down from Omeyocan,
outlasts human life and earthly age. All else is but a dream, dear brother.”-Malinalxochitl to Huitziltzin in Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico, by David Bowles
Quilaztli
by Carmen H Gray
Eagle Woman
Beckoned me in the desert
She called, “walk with me”
In day and night
We traveled
Beneath the sun and the moon
I heard the songs of people
Illuminated in the caverns
Of an earthen womb
I am Solar Strength,
Woman Spirit
Curandera of Great Magic
Snake Woman
The Left Behind Tragic
She whispered to me
As she opened her Great Wings
And took to the sky
Leaving me brighter
My hands feeling lighter
Upon waking from that dream
White Light
by Carmen H Gray
Uninhabited
Quiet space
It is that empty side of the home
I keep finding in my dreams
The part I am afraid to explore
Where room after room
Nothing feels right
Things are distorted, broken
I rush to find the back door
Unlocked, unguarded
Leaving me terrified
That I have left a part of myself
Exposed
But this time
I pause to find
It is my sanctuary
Unexplored space
Potential energy
White light that contains
A spectrum of colors
You can only see
From the right angle
Vision
by Carmen H Gray
I was there
Under the brilliant stars
Velvet Night
Silent Night
Expansive Earth
Desert air
Beckoning me
Summoning me
I could feel a presence
Coiled, then undulating
Shedding its skin
Ethereally alive
Spiraling path inward
Inward, I heard
It was my own voice
Calling to me
It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun—
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky—
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!
Ava’s sketch book page from yesterday. Last night I dreamed that wings sprouted from my back and I was flying. The wind was crisp and cool on my face. The skies were dark, but my heart was light.
