The Night Bird’s Last Tear

Here is something beautiful to share with others…to celebrate the power of intimacy and connection in our lives.  I hope it inspires you, stirs your soul and passion while drawing you closer to those you love!  Please pass it on… 
 
Zayra’s poem The Night Bird’s Last Tear is posted on YouTube with beautiful music by Nicholas McNair and sexy art by Anthony Christian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E47d9BeuJPk

The artistic images are beautifully sensual and erotic.
 
Enjoy!
 
~ * ~
 

The Night Bird’s Last Tear
 
All year she gathered things that bind,
collected thorn and toad memories
 
field to field in every angle of light
only to find some questions do not answer.
 
She went as far as the horizon -
beyond departures, the plague and sunspots
 
not in hopes of carnations and prisms
not in search of prayers and the sacred
 
just for thin last words and a few flights
in the dark toward a crystal heart.
 
In the morning, silence gave her something
too small for a name.  She accepted
 
a tender exile and let the habit of looking
for herself drop on the shore broken 

into a million pieces of nameless grace
by turns of twilight the mouth of a small earth

and she opened to taste the stars,
that exhausted heaven gone drowsy on her lips
 
now a smooth brightness transparent
between her limbs and ribs as night dissolves

in the color of her eyes like ten thousand
moons of naked silence.
 
copyright by zayra yves

Two New Poems Published in South Africa!

My poems “Time to Give My Heart Away” and “Love’s Sanctuary” 
are published in WINS Verlies.Gained LOSS

WINS Verlies.Gained LOSS
Samesteller  Myra Magdalena Lochner  Editor
Voorwoord  M.Dianne Berry  Foreword

Omslagfoto’s en Kuns Myra Magdalena Lochner Cover Photos and Art
Format: Soft Cover, 220 pages

Published and distributed by/Gepubliseer en versprei deur

KREATIV
PO BOX/POSBUS 4404 GEORGE EAST/GEORGE-OOS
6539
SOUTH AFRICA/SUID-AFRIKA

All rights reserved/Alle regte voorbehou
Copyright © Kopiereg 2008 Myra Lochner KREATIV
Copyright of individual submissions remains with the authors
Kopiereg van individuele bydraes berus by die skrywers

First Edition First Print    2008    Eerste Uitgawe Eerste Druk

ISBN  978-0-620-40296-5

PLEASE ORDER AT: Myra Lochner myrataal@mweb.co.za

PLEASE NOTE: WINS Verlies.Gained LOSS is in English, with some of the poems submitted in Afrikaans; some poems are translated in English or Afrikaans — those are a special bonus for the reader.

Our Lady of Dreams: The Black Madonna

 

Our Lady of Dreams:              
                    The Black Madonna

                                  by Zayra Yves

Love is her point of entry
between a pomegranate seed
and a curve -

where it slices the heart
hammers two halves into one
then flattens it out again
juiced to the bone, in need
of confessions and weeping.

Our Lady of the Broken

But no one dares to complain
since the Black Virgin’s heavy body
is not ascending to heaven
is not wearing the adornments of bliss
but burning with persistence
and reminds the bleeding of uncertainty
and the need for it.

Our Lady of the Un-manifest

She does not utter plentitudes from her blackness, 
and from the pools of her eyes,
marked by mystery, are no visions of color
or streaks of luminescence;
no need for what has already happened
or might not ever be.

Our Mother of Consumption and Remorse

Her darkness is a stranger
someone might meet on a side road
by mere happen chance, by accident,
while looking for little misshapen grains;
searching for spices and skulls,
and those rare precious things

as small gestures between two people
unfamiliar with one another
but craving a mystical day of union
like water and open mouths.

Our Lady of Roots and Seeds

Pleasure is concealed behind her face
so nothing can be seen of her meeting with God,
except the Divine child destined for a crown of thorns.

And, since the Enlightenment failed
everyone is on a journey into the abyss of Self -
chanting silent prayers and burning on altars. 

Our Mother of Beautiful Losers
Our Mother of the Damned and Confused
Our Mother of the Emptiness and Inevitable Change
Our Mother of Compassion

She does not have a single name
that is uttered in daylight or covered sweetly,
because no one understand her origins
and only the naked walk with her in the flames.

We sometimes call her The Void…

Our Lady of a Dark Star
Our Lady of Skeletons
Our Lady of Caves

without a stained glass window
or a litany of Sunday’s unholy afternoons,
neither a rose in the belly of the soul.

Our Mother of All Things 

She gives birth to an untidy universe
peels the robes of an unknown mistress

as Love forcefully enters
with a loud crack that scars and chants
that seduce, ravage, swallow, and devour -

Our Lady of the Mysteries

enshrined in the depths of our hearts
to consume us wholly submerged
in the subconscious dying to ourselves
in Love eternally.
____________________________________________________________________________________

Poetry by Zayra Yves copyright 2006
http://www.zayrayves.com
http://cdbaby.com/cd/zayrayves

More on the Black Madonna from Matthew Fox:
www.matthewfox.org/sys-tmpl/theblackmadonna/

Image Info:
www.deviantart.com/deviation/14833899/ 
The Black Madonna image art copyright 2005-2006 by Contemplicate

Love’s Sanctuary on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/v/Kqqd2ptzkLU&hl=en“

Love’s Sanctuary….

You arrived in a dream
          and left the same way.

Part of me thought it was overblown
how you might just touch me
in one minute to change life as I knew it
and walk like a flower
among the thorns of my discolored heart.

The other part of me knew
it was you

         would always be you

to rise like a sweet fragrance
in the strangely lonesome field
I call “myself”
and populate it with love.

Just when I start to think it is dead
all dried up and gone
with the memories uprooted
and nothing to show for it
except a few seeds…

suddenly the selfless joy of our embrace
opens like a rose in sunlight.

Once again

      I am surrounded by our flowers

                in full bloom.

(copyright 2007 by Zayra Yves)
www.zayrayves.com

Poetry by Zayra Yves
Music by Nicholas McNair
Art by Anthony Christian

Full Cirlce in Love, Life and Celebration

On Friday I was in the graveyard.  On Saturday I was at a Catholic wedding followed by a great reception that went on into the night.  On Sunday I was at the 75th birthday celebration of one great heart!  We had flamenco, orchids, cupcakes, a wish for everyone, lots of singing and a powerfully moving reminder of what it means to live a full life by loving others more than one loves themselves.  I thought of those who I love, of those that I have loved and continue to love.

Mostly I thought of how much gratitude I have for the love I have experienced in my life.  Sure, I wish more than anything I could unravel the tangle of misunderstandings that drove some of us apart, just like I wish I could take back all the times we hurt one another.  Yet, I could see today how even that pain was a form of love, even those misunderstandings were expressions of reaching out, it was all love, even when we could not see it or feel it that way, some part of us knew it was love.  Maybe our wounds just got in the way so we fought too hard for what we believe in; maybe didn’t fight hard enough.  I thought of those who have left this planet and what their message is from the otherside.  What I am hearing is “love more” and “forgive while you can” and “then forgive some more, forgive yourself, forgive until you are empty, forgive until there is no more to forgive” and “love love love.” 

There is a passage from The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje that expresses how I feel tonight after this amazing weekend of events.

” We die containing the richness of lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we have plunged into and swum up as if rivers of wisdom, characters we have climbed into as if trees, fears we have hidden in as if caves. I wish for all of this to be marked on my body when I am dead.  I believe in such cartography to be marked by nature, not just to label ourselves on a map like the names of rich men and women on buildings.  We are communal histories, communal books.  We are not owned or monogamous in our taste or experience.  All I desired was to walk upon such an earth that had no maps.”

It was easy to reflect in the presence of such love and celebration on the beauty of life, I thought maybe the real mistake I have made in my life has been to think that the love was gone because the person might be gone or that the tenderness of the experience may have passed or perhaps ended badly therefore is gone.  Instead, I suddenly realized that all the love is still there inside of me, inside of each person in the room, inside the memories…the laughter, the joy, the things we shared together, do share, will share with those who walk beside us, with those who are yet to arrive, with those who will return…and here we are in this moment like a dream but always here in this moment in love.  Love really cannot die or be erased.  It doesn’t need a body or your permission, love will continue to live.  Once you love someone it is true that some part of you will always love them. 

My life has been a series of letting go in order to feel this love in its total movement now…I realize I live with the love I feel for you, will always feel for you, so rather than trying to change that, I am embracing it.  I am embracing those who are with me, those who are not with me, and those who are yet to be.  I am embracing the moment full of love no matter what it looks like or sounds like, it is all love.

May this love touch you where you are and may you be inspired to love others more!

Responses to Erika & Zayra’s Performances in LA

For more information on Big Mind Big Heart you may refer to Bill’s blog at Centerpoint in the February archives at www.centerpointe.com

21 Responses to “Bill answers your questions…plus an update on last weekend’s Genpo Roshi workshop…”

April Wood-Reeve Says:
February 16th, 2008 at 8:05 am

Hi Bill, I was one of the 220 participants in the two day workshop of Big Mind/Big Heart. I can attest that all you say is true. It is a mind blowing experience, and like the gift that keeps on giving - days after I am still basking in the glow. I came away with the full understanding of how important it is to be a total transcended human being (transcendent and material combined to transcend into a normal, fully integrated human being). How delightful and freeing it is to give yourself permission to be. Genpo Roshi is a testament to living life large and small, a paradox of the cosmos. My meditations since have been expanding and expanding : )

Please be sure to mention that we had two amazing surprise artists to join us, Erika Luckett and Zayra Yves. Zayra has a guiding prose that will waken parts of yourself that are certain to never be suppressed again. Erika sang an invocation to spirit before each performance that was truly the pinnacle of merging oneness. The combination of which sent us heavenward.

Thank you April and Erika! First to April for being so gracious to mention it and second to Erika for gifting me with her musical support. Truly Erika is gifted with Lorca’s Duende.

If you have not heard Erika’s music then here is her website:

www.erikaluckett.com

She is also on myspace….and you already know where to find me!

www.zayrayves.com

Big Hearts Unite

This past weekend I was a guest at the “Big Mind, Big Heart” event with Genpo Roshi (www.bigmind.org), Bill Harris of “Centerpointe Research Institute” (www.centerpointe.com ) and Erika Luckett (www.erikaluckett.com) a gifted signer who performed with fire and beauty in between the Big Mind Big Heart sessions.  I was also fortunate to share the light with these big hearts and give the audience a taste of my poetry.  As a true bonus dear Erika enhanced my poetry with her background guitar and shared her spirit with me.  There were 250 plus people in attendance!  Genpo and Bill were outstanding teachers!  All in all, it was another significant highlight in my life and a rare opportunity to stand among teachers and friends alike as we collected the voices we had long since forgotten…to welcome them in our hearts once again.  I will post photos soon. 

Big Heart Big Mind was not the only event in town!  My art was in an art collective show in a slide show presentation along with my poetry audio track “I am SHE” from Crowned Compassion at The Hive Gallery (www.thehivegallery.com/pop.htm) on Spring Street in L.A.  It was a powerful group of artists that came together to celebrate the integral approach to art and Paul Lonely’s birthday (www.suicidedictionary.com), the soulful music of Michael Garfield (also featured on Integral Naked) and the grace of many others.  Even though I could not make it across town to the gallery in time for the show, I am so grateful to be part of this circle….I encourage you to visit their websites to get familiar with their talents and gifts….you will be glad that you did!!!

Getting Naked on Integral Naked!

http://in.integralinstitute.org/whatsnew.aspx

Integral Naked featured my audio collection Crowned Compassion in December of 2006!  And, they have asked me to come back with my new book Ordinary Substance that has an intro by Bill Harris, as well as with my CD Sleep in the Sea Tonight with Me.  I am really grateful and excited to be featured with such a fantastic circle of visionary minds in the realm of philosophy and the arts! 

If you have not visited Integral Naked before then you don’t know what you are missing!  Check it out!  It will up lift your spirits, enlighten your mind and share a whole new world of cutting edge spiritual philosophy.  It is the most honest trip through the cosmos and love that I have come across on the net!

 

 http://in.integralinstitute.org/whatsnew.aspx]

Heavenly Poetry Published in Astropoetica

http://www.astropoetica.com

Poems by Zayra Yves featured in Astropoetica:

~ The Sun is Just a Star
~ No Such Thing as “I” in the Universe
~ Why I am Not Afraid of the Dark

It is a beautiful on line publication and you will thoroughly enjoy it!  The vastness of our gorgeous universe paired with the depths of our hearts and imaginations is very inspiring! The editor, Emily, has done an incredible job of creating an over all feeling of beauty and awe.

Also, the above three poems can be found in my first book, Empty as Nirvana, and two of them are featured on my audio collection titled Sleep in the Sea Tonight with Me.

http://www.zayrayves.com

Peace & Stars to you….

By Now the Light Has Faded

My poem By Now the Light Has Faded is published in Feeling is First, a poetry anthology that is available through Amazon.

This wonderful book represents authors from several different countries and backgrounds; it demonstrates a broad spectrum of writing styles, feelings and opinions. The voices from around the world are heard in this collection! Each one was chosen by the editor of All Poetry and considered to be some of the best authors from the website.

The refreshing aspect of it is that there are new voices emerging, as well as poems from seasoned souls and established writers, so the reader experiences the full benefit of the journey. It is thoroughly inspirational, enlightening and enjoyable…definitely something that you want to add to your book collection!

To pick up a copy of this diverse anthology you can find the link under “purchase” on my website www.zayrayves.com and look for the book title Feeling is First in the links. Or go directly to Amazon.

Many Blessings!