Nothing Stays the Same

January 29, 2010 by catvibe

Dancing Buddhas by Cat Vibert

From Headless Buddha Series available in Art Store

Oh they do come and go

Dancing in

Swirling out

In

Out

Come

Go

Like my heart beating blood

It comes in blue

It goes out red

 

You rush in red

I come out blue

Because I can’t hold blood

 

You walked in silently

Through layers of fog

Touched the triangle

Reaching clarity

Touched the triangle

Instant opening

Touched the triangle

With quiet revelations

The dam is broken

 

I bleed

 

The doctor exposes the wound

And is gone

 

I stumble, I feel, I ache

I don’t feel, I am numb

 

The fog is thick

The triangle bleeds

 

It bleeds

 

I don’t know how much

 

It doesn’t matter

 

Blood comes and goes

 

It comes

and

goes

 

Nothing stays the same

(PS, I’d love to know your thoughts on this image. I had fun ‘doctoring’ it recently as I’m entering the Headless Buddha Photography series into a juried exhibition. To see the original unedited version click here. Thanks! ~ Cat)

read comments (22)

22 Comments »

January 29, 2010 by bonnie

Cat: Your multiple talents amaze and inspire me! I love how you have worked with the photograph – it gives off a feel of joyous movement for me. Like the original version too.
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January 29, 2010 by catvibe

Thanks Bonnie! This is a really fun image to work with. Also fun is the memory of being there and watching them dance. I actually recorded the music they were playing as well, and used it in the Tapestry of Spring slideshow.
January 29, 2010 by Poetikat

They ARE dancing! It reminds me of the 80s dance clubs with their strobe lights. I never saw any Buddhas on the dancefloor, but perhaps they were in disguise!
January 29, 2010 by catvibe

Hee hee, I'll bet this monastery never saw a strobe light either, but the feeling is the same. Although the monks move much slower in reality, which in itself is beautiful. Mindful.
January 29, 2010 by Nevine

Cat, I love the vibrancy of those colors, especially when compared with the original! Woman, you are so talented! You're going to make heads turn at that exhibition. If I didn't know you, and I was there, my head would turn! And that poem… it reads just jumbled and flustered and all over the place. And I love it! Because it sounds pure!!! Just thoughts, uninterrupted, unaltered, unchanged. When we play with words too much, they sound stale. And no, "nothing stays the same"! Have a lovely weekend, Cat!

Nevine
January 29, 2010 by catvibe

I <3 you Nevine. You too my dear friend.
January 30, 2010 by TWM

I found a completely different iconography because I read before I look at the picture. I never would have pegged them as monks if it weren't for the comments but I see the tense change in the first verse from they to the You and I. From the more impersonal they to the personal.

The words are very image driven but not necessarily by what I perceived until I connected my interpretation of the picture with my interpretation of the words.

The strongest of them being a young woman looking for answers. losing her virginity, possibly to rape (the doctor closes the wound), and following that experience with a string of men trying to capture that first time special moment we all idealize but few rarely have.

I see this as a very open and brutally truthful piece of writing for many young women in this day and time.
January 30, 2010 by catvibe

Mark, first I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for this extremely insightful reading of my poem. Although your interpretations are your own, they are in many ways closer to truths I've spent a lot of years numbing myself to in cynical and likely unhealthy ways. So your seeing in many ways is quite a gift, which is probably why it's bringing tears here.

To me, even before doctoring it, this image has always made me think of the impermanence of all things, and finding the still place within feelings moving in and out. The poem is about some intense feelings I've been having lately that I know will pass, but I just gotta go through it. One of those things. And a deeper looking such as what you gave shows it's about the deep disappointment and wounding of those high ideals that yep, I've got them, highly wrapped in cynicism but very much there.
January 30, 2010 by TWM

Catherine, there are no magic wands 'cept in myth and no potions bubbled in cauldrons that we sip and in a blink we are different than what we were before the taste. The only way to a different place is to pass through the one you are in at this moment. The heart must be allowed to feel what it feels and in feeling, the mind looks for understanding, and it is the understanding that sets the pace away from here to there.

Be Well Be Courage Be Whole
January 30, 2010 by catvibe

That indeed, is truth. Hugs, and thank you. <3
January 30, 2010 by 'Abby'

Cat, i love the uniquely exciting creative effort behind your photographic images and your heart so beautifully reflected in your verse ~ thanks for sharing who you are ~
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January 31, 2010 by catvibe

Abby, thanks and welcome to my blog. It's been fun playing micro in Twitterland!
February 1, 2010 by Sarah Hina

Pain is a bitch, but it's also a goldmine for inspiring great things in us. You are really on a roll, Cat. (And since I know you're doing better emotionally, I don't feel so bad saying the first thing. )

I, too, was struck by the flowing rhythm of the poem, like blood (or emotion) from the wound. Not to carry the metaphor too far, but the quiet acceptance of "I bleed" almost struck me as the beginning of the clot. The triangle has been bled before. It heals a little stronger every time…or maybe the duration of its flow is shortened, at the least. Anyway, I somehow found a fragment of your headless buddhas, even in the words' sharp pang.

The photo is perfect…fluid, ghostly, saturated. Beautiful work, all around, my very talented friend.
February 1, 2010 by Rick

This was seriously fun to see and read, Cat! I really, really liked the photo work and the poem somehow, strangely, was making them dance. Hard to figure out exactly why, but the overall effect was so cool that I'm not going to think about it, just enjoy it. What a sparkling talent you are.
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February 1, 2010 by catvibe

Thanks Rick! I'm so glad you like it!
February 1, 2010 by catvibe

Hi Sarah! Yes, feelings to come and go, but the stillness is just on the other side, always there, always accessible. Thanks for being such a good friend Sarah. <3
February 1, 2010 by jason evans

The poem feels like a tempest. Waves crashing.

That image is really awesome!
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February 2, 2010 by karen

I don't know how I missed this before. I've got to do something about the way you appear on my dashboard!

This is fabulous, Cat. I feel the rush of the blood, flowing through the veins, the heart, and the wound. The triangle makes me think of the source of a woman's bleeding, accepted and regular. Now I must go back and read others' comments and look at the picture. I'm probably way off base here, but even so, I like this!!
February 2, 2010 by catvibe

cool! That was the intent for sure. I'm glad you like the image.
February 2, 2010 by catvibe

LOL! Funny how when we are writing and have in our minds a code, we may miss the obvious connection. I can completely see how you would make that connection. Here's help to decode, triangle = heart, blood = human emotion, doctor = is the person or thing (or spirit) that reveals the wound so that we heal.
February 3, 2010 by Vesper

Cat, I love this poem and I fear it… It has the raw quality of blood gushing from a wound and also of blood as a giver of life… It's beautiful…
I'm so sorry I haven't been around lately…
February 3, 2010 by catvibe

Oh my dear, I truly understand, blogging can take up all of my time if I let it, and I can't let it, and neither can anyone else. Still it is so very good to see you again. I'm so glad to hear how you saw this poem, that is very much as I intended it. Thank you for your sweet words my dear friend.

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