The Goddess Within
My album Queen Be has the subtitle, The Goddess Within. At the time of composing and producing it, I had no idea what the fruit of that particular collection of songs would be. And it's been greater than anything I could have imagined: a marriage arranged by the guru, a husband who is more than the sum of all the ideas I ever held about what a man should be, and a life of daily magic, it seems. And all of these put together would be more than enough, right? But what is happening now, feels even greater. The subtitle that I somewhat lightheartedly added is becoming real. The goddess is awakening within me and it is at times mystifying, at times terrifying and mostly an experience of constant wonder.I'm working on a collection of poems that give witness to this awakening. I share one here and ask only that you be kind. She is awakening, but she is also very new. . . .
The Goddess at Table
I arrive home, tired
Don’t want to think about food
But somewhere inside me
A voice calls out—awake—
Remember joy
And I open the refrigerator door
I know the goddess is at table
When I select the artichoke
Or the globe squash and
The burgundy beans.
These require time, imagination,
And labor—lots of labor.
They require dreams.
The goddess won’t eat anything
Not made from love.
So I clean the artichokes,
Steam them, then char them on the
Six-top burner, then braise them in
lemon
And garlic.
Or I clean the globe squash
Making small round cavities in the
center
Of their flesh
I chop the onion and the fennel
And sauté them with nuts and raisins
and place this in the center of the
cavity
carefully,
these small round gifts of nature’s
bounty.
Or I stand and snip the beans,
One at a time,
Because beans don’t like a blade.
They want the hands that will eat
them
To caress them, one at a time,
Acknowledging the marvel that is
their color,
Their delicacy, their uniqueness.
This is the work of the goddess
These everyday things
the expression of the excellence
the taste of delight
the relish of life
The goddess is at table tonight.
posted by Sat Purkh Kaur Khalsa @ 11:17 AM
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