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[EDIT: Normally I friends-lock just about everything and then filter the hell out of it even beyond that. But Tithenai - on-whom this post rather centers - asked me to unlock it so that she could link to it in her own write-up, so I'm doing so. Behold! Me. Laid bare. ;-) /EDIT]
*~*~*~*~*
Perfect.
Oh, perfect and beautiful.
It was one of those nights where everything sings, everything flows just perfectly.
The open mic list filled up in fifteen minutes flat. There was only one spot left by the time I got through the door, and that was gone within seconds of my actually sitting down. We had FIFTEEN PEOPLE signed up to perform.
We had high school students come with their teacher(s) to perform (one of them, at least, for the very first time). We had local celebrities on the stage and in the audience. We had queer gals and het gals, gals who mentioned their faith and gals who didn’t bother with that stuff. We had gals talking about despair and suicide. Gals reading poetry about being young and being bringers of change. We poems about pregnancy and stories about belonging.
The energy was up and high and glorious.
And Tithenai hadn’t even got on stage yet.
Oh, life… Oh, Miz tithenai… <*sigh*> <3 :-)
There’s this thing. A literary crush, if you will. I have one. (Strictly speaking, I have several – I’m looking at you, Incidental Cyclist). It doesn’t help that, in person, she’s gorgeous (and showed up looking like all of Summer’s glory, in warm golds and flowers and an actual vial of honey at her throat) and a generally delightful and intelligent and easy-to-chat-with person. But heavens-to-mergatroid. That’s woman’s words. They fit so beautifully. She’s able to pick just the right ones every time so that the cadence and the rhythm and weight of them lilts and shifts and whispers so perfectly. I feel about her poetry the same way I feel about BPAL perfume: I want to bathe in them.
I want my copy of The Honey Month to arrive. Before Tithenai goes back across the ocean, for preference, because DAMMIT I want an autograph! (No, really. Squeeing fangirl? You betcha!)
Oh! Oh-oh-oh! :-D
And I finished The Necklace! I did it! :-D
I hit up Sassy Bead in the Glebe (and the grocery store) on my way home last night and got little 10mm x 4mm (or so) cylinders of snowflake obsidian and so was able to finish the last row of my necklace.
As such, I describe it:
Backstory:
Back in early January (Five months ago yesterday, as it happens. To the day. Which is kind of awesome on a Nifty Coincidence level, I don’t mind telling you), Tithenai started up a “Summonable Creatures” meme.
I wrote her a summoning charm (that, if I remember correctly, was vaguely poem-like – I think I read it at VoV in February, actually, just because she happened to be there). I also posted the meme in my own journal, and got a couple of responses.
What Tithenai wrote to summon me:
I would wear a mask while weaving a necklace of needles and black stones -- onyx, hematite, obsidian -- and thread the needles with red string and shredded paper on which had been written poems about night skies and stars. I would place this necklace on the ground and stand within its circle while holding a sharp dagger, which I would wave around me in tight, deliberate movements to thicken the air with runes: uruz, perdhro, lagaz, ehwaz, cenaz, sigil, gifu -- before binding them into a talisman for you.
I would then step out of the circle, the talisman still hovering in the air above the necklace, and call your name three times. When you occupy the space I left, you will be wearing the necklace, claiming the talisman, and once a needle draws blood from you, they will both be yours forever.
What it meant to me:
I looked up the runes she mentioned and checked their meanings. Repeated over and over were the themes of freedom, strength, creativity and sexuality.
(Having been dumped a week and a half earlier, this was particularly significant to me).
I felt like she had given me back my sexuality.
Which was pretty incredible.
So it meant a lot to me, even leaving aside the “Oo! Pretty” aspect of the piece.
And so I said I’d make it. And that I’d wear it to her show when she featured in June.
And June has come, and so I made my necklace.
Hematite, black jasper, banded and solid black onyx, and snowflake obsidian. Red seed beads (almost hidden) and a red velvet ribbon to tie it closed. A 3” sail-cloth needle hanging, like a threat, at the centre point. I made diamond-shaped rune beads out of black clay and baked them in my oven two hours before the show opened its doors.
I hung them on re-purposed earring hooks (they will, unfortunately, need to be switched out for something a little less catching – although the spikiness of them is fitting – I’m thinking very fine silver chains and variously sized jump-rings, which should do the trick and still keep the rune beads dangling).
The needle has yet to pierce my skin. (I’ve been trying, but this sadist is, alas, not a masochist, and it’s really not working very well). That said, I’m sure it’ll happen some time. :-D (YAY MAGIC! :-D)
The poems aspect of the necklace hasn’t been added yet. I think the phrase “sharp like shards of obsidian” would be perfect for this, particularly given the writer. :-)
When she saw it, she said it was so, so much like what she’d imagined when she wrote it.
I am thrilled to high heaven by this, and very, very glad that we had a shared image between us. :-)
She performed Song for an Ancient City (of course). And then performed part of it again in Arabic.
This is the thing. I’ve never heard Arabic spoken to me before. I’ve overheard scraps of it (at least I think so. “Habibi” is Arabic, isn’t it?) but I’ve never been in a situation where I could actually listen to it.
If Russian made me think of bubbling rivers, Arabic puts me in mind of whispers (although that might be due to the content), of wind in poplars and quiet voices. A susurrus. :-)
I like it.
(Attar, the one word I know that isn’t a musical instrument, trills on the tongue. And feels a bit like a root, for some reason).
She gave us an excerpt from And Their Lips Rang with the Sun which was, and continues to be, utterly glorious (click the link and read it. I’ll wait).
…
See? See? Glorious. :-)
She read a poem that she wrote all at once in a writing workshop. “The Temptation of Little Red Riding Hood”. It’s snappy. I like it. :-D
(“The wood will do you good”. Hehehe. ;-)
\I think I must be forgetting part of her set because my mind is skipping ahead to the bits she read from The Honey Month. (No one, I’m sure, who has read or heard this poetry is going to be surprised by this. I know. ;-)
I like the ones she chose to read. I hadn’t read all of them when they were still in her LJ. (Part of me wants to order the LE version of it, just so I can get the CD of her reading them). Oh, Voice.
I was watching the audience when she read. She can melt us with her words. Wah. O.O
You need to buy this book. Seriously. It's glorious. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 :-D
REQUEST: Miz Tithenai: I want “Leatherwood Honey” to go viral through the leatherdyke community. When my copy arrives, can I write “Leatherwood Honey” out in its entirety and send it to people?
<*sigh*>
And that was VoV June. :-)
[EDIT: Also, Tithenai has done her own write-up - which is far lovlier than mine and, in point of fact, made me cry. Twice. So you should read it, too. /EDIT]
I (eventually) went home with my girl, where we ate rather chilly lasagne (oven issues, no shock there), and fell into bed where we both slept like logs until the morning.
I’ve been feeling very lovey-dovey the past two days.
This is a good thing, my dears, my dears.
(I think that Ithaca trip was stressing me out more than I knew).
Anyway. That’s my story.
I love poetry and want to write something about land-based deities. Or something. Possibly lantern fruit (I’m feeling kind of whimsical, can you tell? ;-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon.
*~*~*~*~*
Perfect.
Oh, perfect and beautiful.
It was one of those nights where everything sings, everything flows just perfectly.
The open mic list filled up in fifteen minutes flat. There was only one spot left by the time I got through the door, and that was gone within seconds of my actually sitting down. We had FIFTEEN PEOPLE signed up to perform.
We had high school students come with their teacher(s) to perform (one of them, at least, for the very first time). We had local celebrities on the stage and in the audience. We had queer gals and het gals, gals who mentioned their faith and gals who didn’t bother with that stuff. We had gals talking about despair and suicide. Gals reading poetry about being young and being bringers of change. We poems about pregnancy and stories about belonging.
The energy was up and high and glorious.
And Tithenai hadn’t even got on stage yet.
Oh, life… Oh, Miz tithenai… <*sigh*> <3 :-)
There’s this thing. A literary crush, if you will. I have one. (Strictly speaking, I have several – I’m looking at you, Incidental Cyclist). It doesn’t help that, in person, she’s gorgeous (and showed up looking like all of Summer’s glory, in warm golds and flowers and an actual vial of honey at her throat) and a generally delightful and intelligent and easy-to-chat-with person. But heavens-to-mergatroid. That’s woman’s words. They fit so beautifully. She’s able to pick just the right ones every time so that the cadence and the rhythm and weight of them lilts and shifts and whispers so perfectly. I feel about her poetry the same way I feel about BPAL perfume: I want to bathe in them.
I want my copy of The Honey Month to arrive. Before Tithenai goes back across the ocean, for preference, because DAMMIT I want an autograph! (No, really. Squeeing fangirl? You betcha!)
Oh! Oh-oh-oh! :-D
And I finished The Necklace! I did it! :-D
I hit up Sassy Bead in the Glebe (and the grocery store) on my way home last night and got little 10mm x 4mm (or so) cylinders of snowflake obsidian and so was able to finish the last row of my necklace.
As such, I describe it:
Backstory:
Back in early January (Five months ago yesterday, as it happens. To the day. Which is kind of awesome on a Nifty Coincidence level, I don’t mind telling you), Tithenai started up a “Summonable Creatures” meme.
I wrote her a summoning charm (that, if I remember correctly, was vaguely poem-like – I think I read it at VoV in February, actually, just because she happened to be there). I also posted the meme in my own journal, and got a couple of responses.
What Tithenai wrote to summon me:
I would wear a mask while weaving a necklace of needles and black stones -- onyx, hematite, obsidian -- and thread the needles with red string and shredded paper on which had been written poems about night skies and stars. I would place this necklace on the ground and stand within its circle while holding a sharp dagger, which I would wave around me in tight, deliberate movements to thicken the air with runes: uruz, perdhro, lagaz, ehwaz, cenaz, sigil, gifu -- before binding them into a talisman for you.
I would then step out of the circle, the talisman still hovering in the air above the necklace, and call your name three times. When you occupy the space I left, you will be wearing the necklace, claiming the talisman, and once a needle draws blood from you, they will both be yours forever.
What it meant to me:
I looked up the runes she mentioned and checked their meanings. Repeated over and over were the themes of freedom, strength, creativity and sexuality.
(Having been dumped a week and a half earlier, this was particularly significant to me).
I felt like she had given me back my sexuality.
Which was pretty incredible.
So it meant a lot to me, even leaving aside the “Oo! Pretty” aspect of the piece.
And so I said I’d make it. And that I’d wear it to her show when she featured in June.
And June has come, and so I made my necklace.
Hematite, black jasper, banded and solid black onyx, and snowflake obsidian. Red seed beads (almost hidden) and a red velvet ribbon to tie it closed. A 3” sail-cloth needle hanging, like a threat, at the centre point. I made diamond-shaped rune beads out of black clay and baked them in my oven two hours before the show opened its doors.
I hung them on re-purposed earring hooks (they will, unfortunately, need to be switched out for something a little less catching – although the spikiness of them is fitting – I’m thinking very fine silver chains and variously sized jump-rings, which should do the trick and still keep the rune beads dangling).
The needle has yet to pierce my skin. (I’ve been trying, but this sadist is, alas, not a masochist, and it’s really not working very well). That said, I’m sure it’ll happen some time. :-D (YAY MAGIC! :-D)
The poems aspect of the necklace hasn’t been added yet. I think the phrase “sharp like shards of obsidian” would be perfect for this, particularly given the writer. :-)
When she saw it, she said it was so, so much like what she’d imagined when she wrote it.
I am thrilled to high heaven by this, and very, very glad that we had a shared image between us. :-)
She performed Song for an Ancient City (of course). And then performed part of it again in Arabic.
This is the thing. I’ve never heard Arabic spoken to me before. I’ve overheard scraps of it (at least I think so. “Habibi” is Arabic, isn’t it?) but I’ve never been in a situation where I could actually listen to it.
If Russian made me think of bubbling rivers, Arabic puts me in mind of whispers (although that might be due to the content), of wind in poplars and quiet voices. A susurrus. :-)
I like it.
(Attar, the one word I know that isn’t a musical instrument, trills on the tongue. And feels a bit like a root, for some reason).
She gave us an excerpt from And Their Lips Rang with the Sun which was, and continues to be, utterly glorious (click the link and read it. I’ll wait).
…
See? See? Glorious. :-)
She read a poem that she wrote all at once in a writing workshop. “The Temptation of Little Red Riding Hood”. It’s snappy. I like it. :-D
(“The wood will do you good”. Hehehe. ;-)
\I think I must be forgetting part of her set because my mind is skipping ahead to the bits she read from The Honey Month. (No one, I’m sure, who has read or heard this poetry is going to be surprised by this. I know. ;-)
I like the ones she chose to read. I hadn’t read all of them when they were still in her LJ. (Part of me wants to order the LE version of it, just so I can get the CD of her reading them). Oh, Voice.
I was watching the audience when she read. She can melt us with her words. Wah. O.O
You need to buy this book. Seriously. It's glorious. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 :-D
REQUEST: Miz Tithenai: I want “Leatherwood Honey” to go viral through the leatherdyke community. When my copy arrives, can I write “Leatherwood Honey” out in its entirety and send it to people?
<*sigh*>
And that was VoV June. :-)
[EDIT: Also, Tithenai has done her own write-up - which is far lovlier than mine and, in point of fact, made me cry. Twice. So you should read it, too. /EDIT]
I (eventually) went home with my girl, where we ate rather chilly lasagne (oven issues, no shock there), and fell into bed where we both slept like logs until the morning.
I’ve been feeling very lovey-dovey the past two days.
This is a good thing, my dears, my dears.
(I think that Ithaca trip was stressing me out more than I knew).
Anyway. That’s my story.
I love poetry and want to write something about land-based deities. Or something. Possibly lantern fruit (I’m feeling kind of whimsical, can you tell? ;-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon.
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