Monday 12 November 2012

lightness & laughter






floating, she used to whisper ~

no weeds would dance more freely than her hair,
when the floods come to wipe away
every sin. no breath caressed the skin
 ~ or so she had convinced even the most indifferent lover ~
more ecstatically than her own
(more tenderly, when the moon was right).

when she was finally ready to see
that the sweet virtues of lightness were still
a lie, it was already too late:
they had all been fooled.
the lovers, even in the most ardent arms,
would still remember her breath and even the flood,
she feared, would carry her away with more grace
than a tree.

it was too late to protest, too late to explain:

quietly, she sat down in a corner
and burst into laughter.













20 comments:

  1. today, somebody made me remember how all terms in which we tend to think about ourselves are nothing but inventions (and the most solemn ones, the most dangerous: "divine", "virtue" etc.)
    (not that i ever really forget that :-)
    - and so i thought of Nietzsche's dance, lightness and laughter, laughter turned against itself too :-)

    “I would only believe in a god who could dance. And when I saw my devil I found him serious, thorough, profound, and solemn: it was the spirit of gravity—through him all things fall. Not by wrath does one kill but by laughter. Come, let us kill the spirit of gravity!”

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  2. I read your words
    I hear them as music
    Meaning slips into melody
    Melody into magic
    Leaves me floating
    Ten feet above the ground
    Or a thousand
    Eyes closed
    Transcending words
    Pure emotion
    May gravity cease
    And all things float freely

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  3. Tu as capturé l'essence de toute chose.
    Superbe !

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  4. hello my beautiful friend Roxana,thankyou for another masterpeice,powerful depiction of the drowning of life and the second image to me is so much like the drowning of an illusion
    and the last verse-"it was too late to protest too late to explain: quietly she sat down in a corner and burst into laughter." for my dream to day well for my interpretation I see the words reaching a world of ultimate desperation where the only consoling thought would be that she would be carried away with more grace than a tree. and it is at this point that reality snaps she no longer takes refuge in the lightness of living.and she drowns in laughter.
    and yes there are many kinds of laughter and laughter can be killing-there is light laughter-do I dare to use that word?? haha there is highly aggressive destructive laughter but yes I guess all laughter has a victim of some sort.
    we play weird games with our minds - we build worlds and tear them down with laughter it echoes off the primitive caverns of our minds and beckons for us to return but we fully realize that there is no going back and we don't really want to turn back and perhaps laughter is the release of this tension to destroy what has been created but a refusal to go back yes like the post holocaust of our minds.
    continue in next comment

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  5. although laughter is good life is a paradox, .I have seen people on the threshold of death find releif in laughter.

    One of my favourite dance performers well I guess they are spectacular acrobats and dancers and storytellers. they are soooooooo good I cant help but think of them as only partly human and bird.they are CIRQUE DU SOLEIL well it must be that canadian fresh air haha.
    anyway they will give the most exquisite perfectionistic ariel contortions of the body and then at the end of the scene the clowns come onand make a mokery by slipping up on basic motor skills.we laugh but then we are ready to go on for another spirit flight that was a culmination of years of hard work creativity and yes one of those light words "sublime"energy.yes ok the circus of life.
    anyway laughter is the effervesence of the spirits drink for survival.without laughter there is no breath.

    beautiful my friend!

    Im noding off to sleep here I hope my readers of this comment arent doing the same haha.

    sending you joyful kisses.

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  6. i love this poem! yes, there is this constant alignment between soul and mind, illusion and reality, dreams and life as-is, i suppose. and when the latter (or gravity) catches up, it is a virtue to kill but by laughter. i wish i could . . .

    thank you, i feel enriched. and i smile.

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  7. eine reine zarte erscheinung, dieses bild... sehr empfindsam (oder empfindlich...? :-/) heute abend, freue ich mich hier zu sein und verliere mich in diesen traum - auf dass er wahr wird...!:-)
    alles liebste dir, roxana!
    renée

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  8. i am lost in the delicacy of this second photograph and i hope to never be found

    i love the poem ... it is a maze, of course, always, the intricate deceptions and revelations of the self to the self ... but this laughter, yes, at the center of the maze :-) and i am reminded, as well as of Nietzsche, of Milan Kundera's distinction between the laughter of demons, that things fall apart, and the laughter of angels, that things come together ... the trouble is that it is so often difficult to know the difference :-)

    i think you know!!

    .

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  9. There is something of the cephalopod about your hair today. (-;

    Love the poem, by the way.

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  10. This hits to the core of my life at the moment, dear Roxana. I can say nothing more than thank you for helping me to sort through inventions while hoping to find some ecstatic clarity (if that is possible).

    Such a perfect post.

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  11. anonymous the first, i loved the painting, it seems to take place at the meeting point of demonic and angelic laughter, James talked about this in his comment... thank you...




    anonymous the second, the link to the bridge (now i am very curious) seems unfortunately to be broken :-(

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  12. merc,oh! my most powerful-hazy-floating best! :-)





    Owen, what a lovely image:
    May gravity cease
    And all things float freely

    indeed... until some point the desire for weight, for a fix point, for an achor, emerges again :-)





    Plum', tu es trop genereuse!!! :-)
    merci, tendrement





    Madeleine, perfect! all the dancing-associations, this is what i had in mind too... i am happy you took that idea and developped it further, so beautifully!
    and this:
    anyway laughter is the effervesence of the spirits drink for survival.without laughter there is no breath.

    oh, i so love this!
    sending you enthusiastic thoughts of dance and laughter :-)

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  13. tanya, i wish i could, too - well sometimes i can, and if not, i conjure this state by doing such a post :-)
    smiling~




    ja, renée, ich dachte mir, dass dieser sanfte Traum der Sanften gefallen wird! :-)
    ich wuerde sagen, "empfindsam", aber auch empfindlich, wenn es um Kaelte geht :-)
    liebste Umarmungen!





    James!!!
    yes, i know :-) the fact that it is so difficult to tell the difference makes it so alluring, as well - though this can be so dangerous, one can hardly resist approaching such a laughter (or perhaps: exactly because it is so dangerous :-)




    mts,
    i am happy you love the poem, thank you...





    Lydia, ecstatic clarity, that is so beautifully put (and i think it fits much on the Bridge, as well - especially when one sees that it changes constantly into "ecstatic darkness", like a dance of opposites :-)
    i am happy that my post spoke to you in this important way, dear friend...




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  14. anonymous the second, the link to the bridge (now i am very curious) seems unfortunately to be broken :-(

    ah, that is a problem then.

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  15. anon, it is :-)

    but maybe that was the entire message, a link to a bridge which is not to be found any longer, an error, a mistake...

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  16. it was pj harvey's 'down by the water' (the solo acoustic version, not the main one).

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  17. vreau sa iti scriu ceva din cartea Margaretei Atwood, Penelopiada.din cand in cand,ea introduce corul slujnicelor care au fost spanzurate atunci cand se intoarce Odiseu,un cor trist care isi descrie o soarta presimtita (Atwood,iti spuneam eu,demitizeaza,si o preocupa aceasta soarta si inconsecventa din epopee a slujnicelor ucise).So:
    "Atunci pluteste,mandra domnita,pe talazu-nspumat
    Dedesubt apa e negru mormant ferecat,
    In barcuta ta azurie te vei scufunda,poate,
    Speranta,doar ea,ne tine pe val,departe de moarte".

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  18. Laughter on the bridge? It must be ironic laughter (yes, it is, by her own admission--yet the final irony is that intended ironic laughter is sometimes just sweet laughter).
    (why does he write about ironic irony? Must be some Nietzschean affectation!)

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