Power & Love

È ancora una volta Miki che mi inserisce nel cuore delle parole.... L'amore senza il potere, senza la capacità di agire, è puro sentimentalismo ed anemico. E penso all'amore dei genitori, al loro uso della forza per proteggere, nutrire, esser capaci di influenzare la vita dei figli. All'amore degli amici veri, degli amori, che si prendono la briga di aiutarti per davvero e se necessario cambiarti la vita. 

E ugualmente il potere senza amore, è ingiusto, abusivo, senza tregua...non ha in sé i limiti della cura, del rispetto. Da questa breve affermazione colgo la complessità del bilanciamento delle forze, il riconoscimento di una misura che rende l'amore e il potere efficaci, utili alla vita.

 Me lo racconta Miki Kashtan, usando le parole di Martin Luther King. 

Power without love is reckless and abusive, 

and 

Love without power is sentimental and anemic. 

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice,

 and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.

Martin Luther King Jr.

The sea and the tide

I don't need to know the depth of the sea, in order to love it.

I don't need to speak to the sea, in order to make it come to the shore.

Nevertheless, I choose to dive into its depth,

 and listen to its voice.

I once heard you saying that 

contemplation is good for the soul.

Instead, I'd be as brutal as a tide,

 revealing you to yourself,

and me to you.

Then, I trust, your soul will find a sense

 in the written stories of our own sand.

 Say it, aloud: you, the sea

 - Where are you now? 

Not too far.

A tide, within her silence,

carries an echo of your voice.

We will meet at the shore,

once again,

one 

again.

Chalkwell (Leigh on sea) - Low tide

 

Full Moon

Diventa piena Luna,

diventa bianca.

 Two wolves howled at her door one night;

Both in hunger, both in fright;

She let them in out of the cold, 

And then the story doth unfold.

One wolf, it was with darkened fur, 

And eyes of glare that fear doth stir. 

The other, white as fallen snow

With eyes of radiance and glow. 

With not much broth within her pot;

No meat to offer from her cloth;

She offered them her plated meal. 

They shared the food with  speeded Zeal. 

So calmed was she by wolves contrasted;

The friendship seemed forever lasted;

Felt she to always fill their plate, 

And keep the wolves as trusted mates. 

The days went by and food was sparse;

The wolves could not relieve their starve, 

And howling of them doth ensued;

She struggled with the endless feud. 

Then one day, one chunk  of meat

Did fall arriving at her feet. 

Not thinking of her hungered self, 

She placed the meat upon the shelf. 

Studying the wolves in lack, 

She noticed spines upon their back. 

The dark wolf, pacing, growled with angst;

The white, just weakening, lost in pangs. 

The dark did growl upon the white

And show his teeth in sharpened fright. 

The white, it took no heed of fear;

Just shivered down with droopened ear. 

Both wolves now starving for a feed, 

But just one meat cant feed both need, 

So she chose to feed the white;

So soft, accepting of his plight. 

With this, the black he jumped in need, 

And went to find the nearest feed;

Upon her arm he went to bite, 

But strengthened now was wolf so white! 

Now with energy a flight, 

The white wolf grabbed with all his might, 

And took upon the blackened dark, 

And did not stop till no more bark. 

Her and white now live complete;

Filled with love, no lack through need;

Both sharing food that comes their way;

Both trusted friends for all their days. 

For when she chose to feed the white, 

All the dark did lose the fight. 

Never now, was there a need

To feed the darkened teeth of greed.

Heather Lea

Gioielli

Dall'oscurita'...

 

Nelle parole dell'autrice, Barbara McAfee: 

Gioielli 

Questa canzone è nata da una conversazione che ho avuto con un cliente di voice coaching molti anni fa. La persona stava lottando per guarire dopo una lesione cerebrale traumatica e pensava che cantare avrebbe aiutato il suo cervello a riprendersi. Lo ha fatto. Intanto, mentre stava vivendo una giornata particolarmente dura, mi sono sentita di dirgli queste parole: "Ogni volta che vado nelle tenebre, torno con manciate di gioielli". Non mi sembrava di parlare io, ma che provenisse da un essere più grande e più saggio. Ho archiviato la frase nella mia memoria. Poi in una vasca riscaldata sotto le stelle, sulla sponda meridionale del Lago Superiore, ho trovato una melodia e un secondo verso: "Il velluto di mezzanotte mi avvolge tutta; le stelle luccicano brillanti li' sopra". La terza riga è nata in un cerchio di canzoni della comunità. Questa canzone per bambini ha viaggiato in lungo e in largo ed è una delle preferite per il solstizio d'inverno in molte comunità. 

Ogni volta che vado nell'oscurità, torno con manciate di gioielli 

Il velluto di mezzanotte mi avvolge tutto; le stelle luccicano brillanti li' sopra 

Sognare l'oscurità, sognare la luce...

 Jewels 

This song grew out of a conversation I had with a voice coaching client many years ago. The person was struggling to heal after a traumatic brain injury and thought singing would help her brain recover. It did. Meanwhile, when she was having a particularly hard day, I heard myself saying these words to her: "Every time I go into the darkness, I return with fistfuls of jewels." It didn't feel like me talking, but some larger and wiser being. I filed the line away in my memory. Then in a hot tub under the stars on the south shore of Lake Superior, it found a melody and a second line: "Midnight velvet wraps all around me; stars glitter brilliant above." The third line arose in a community song circle. This song baby has traveled far and wide and is a winter solstice favorite in many communities. 

 Every time I go into the darkness, I return with fistfuls of jewels 

Midnight velvet wraps all around me; stars glitter brilliant above 

Dreaming darkness, dreaming light.