the moment...

there is
always
one moment
in
childhood
when
the door opens
and
lets
the
future
in

i am called woman...

i am called woman

i am all that you see
and so much more
three in one all compiled

i am the wee girl child
choosing you from before
to carry me then set me free

i am the lover banshee
quenching desire from every shore
leaving all who linger more beguiled

i am the earth mother styled
to hold you to love you then have you soar
to be the wee girl child the lover banshee the all of me

i am called woman
2009 gypsywoman

the wanderers...

Where the voice of the wind calls our wandering feet,
Through echoing forest and echoing street,
With lutes in our hands ever-singing we roam,
All men are our kindred, the world is our home.

Our lays are of cities whose lustre is shed,

The laughter and beauty of women long dead;
The sword of old battles, the crown of old kings,
And happy and simple and sorrowful things.

What hope shall we gather, what dreams shall we sow?
Where the wind calls our wandering footsteps we go.
No love bids us tarry, no joy bids us wait:
The voice of the wind
is the voice of our fate.

the enlightened...

"Confused by thoughts,
we experience duality in life.
Unencumbered by ideas,
the enlightened see the one Reality."

- Hui - Neng

the voices...

i hear those voices that will not be drowned

the panther flies...

...the sun goes down...
the fair moon mounts and aye the flame
of gypsy beauty blazes higher

...the wild air bloweth in our lungs
the keen stars twinkle in our eyes
the birds gave us our wily tongues
the panther in dances flies...

http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1964&chapter=123862&layout=html&Itemid=27

wishing you...

sun - ra

a gypsy proverb...

we are all
wanderers on this earth -
our hearts are
full of wonder
and
our souls are
deep with dreams -

the nature of the gypsy...

It is impossible to imagine a more
complete fusion with nature
than that of the
Gypsy.

dancing it...

if
i

could
tell

you
what

it
meant

there
would

be
no

point
in

dancing
it

a man of vision - plenty coups...

Plenty Coups (otherwise known as Aleek-chea-ahoosh) (1848 – 1932) was a Crow chief and visionary leader. He allied Crow with the whites when the war for the West was being fought, because the Sioux and Cheyenne (who were opposing white settlement of the area) were the traditional enemies of the Crow. Plenty Coups had also had a vision when he was very young that non-Native people would ultimately take control of his homeland (Montana), so he always felt that cooperation would benefit his people much more than opposition.

He very much wanted the Crow to continue as a people and their customs and spiritual beliefs to carry on. His efforts on their behalf ensured that this happened. He was the principal chief of the Mountain Crows, or the Apsáalooke, of the Crow Nation.

In accordance to tradition, as a young man his birth name was changed: his grandfather predicted that he would become chief of the Crow Tribe, live a very long life, and accomplish many great deeds, thus christening him Alaxchiiaahush, meaning "many achievements". Plenty Coups is the English translation of his name, coming from the word coup, or act of bravery. Over the course of his life, he would live up to his name and his grandfather's predictions.

Early in his life, Plenty Coups started having prophetic dreams and visions. Many seemed so far-fetched that no one believed them, but when they started coming true his fellow tribe members began to revere him and listened to him carefully:

When he was nine years old, he had a dream where he was told that he had great powers, and that if he used them well he would become a great chief. Later, when he was eleven years old, Plenty Coups went on a vision quest. He had a vision where he saw "many buffalo coming out of a hole. They spread over the plains, then disappeared. Cattle came out of the hole and covered the plains. Winds blew down the trees in the forest. Only one was left standing. In it was the home of the chickadee.”

His vision was interpreted to mean that the white man would take over the Indian lands and their way of life, like the wind that blew down the trees in the forest--all except one, which represented the Crows. The Crow tribe would be spared if they could learn how to work with the white man. His spirit guide then became the chickadee, and he would carry a pair of chickadee legs in a medicine bag he used for protection and spiritual power. This vision would guide his actions for the remainder of his life.

little updates in gadgets...

for those who have not seen my travel journal, i've just added a few little tidbits in the right column here - should you be so inclined, trek on over and check out the new profile text and "the gypsy's belief system" - your faithfully following along means a lot to me! thank you!

let us all go...

"toward a better world"

luis ricordo falero
1894

PETE SEEGER BIRTHDAY CONCERT REVISITED!

baez

springsteen

kristofferson, taj mahal, ramblin jack elliot, richie havens, warren haynes

seeger and his grandson joined onstage by friends

PETE SEEGER BIRTHDAY CONCERT
MADISON SQUARE GARDEN - 2009

for anyone missing the original telecast or live performance of the seeger 90th birthday celebration, last night was marvelous at PBS - it was fantabulously fantastical - not enough words wonderful - all our old friends paid homage and the audience [including me in my boudoir] sang along - OMG - can't get enough!

anyway, it all reminded me of some of my little fun excursions of yesteryear with the big boys and girls backstage - hmmmm...now, i may just have to tell ya'll about them....

CREDIT:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.beachamjournal.com/.a/6a01053653b3c7970b01156f7509f7970c-800wi&imgrefurl=http://www.beachamjournal.com/journal/2009/05/pete-seeger-turns-90-at-madison-square-garden-bash.html&usg=__xe25Dho8tdWciv74ps1BNVlYFyk=&h=533&w=800&sz=112&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=6_AIAFkHUqrpXM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpete%2Bseeger%2B90%2Bmadison%2Bsquare%2Bgarden%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

10 BILLION BEATS - A GLOBAL INTENTION EXPERIMENT

http://www.10billionbeats.com/

let us not forget 9/11 - but let us IMAGINE:

LSU-SHREVEPORT OPENING OF COPENHAGEN - Frayn's play of Bohr and Heisenberg Meeting

COPENHAGEN

The LSUS Department of Communications in partnership with jcgCollaborations will kick off this season's "At Your Own Risk" series of staged readings and workshop productions with "Copenhagen" on Friday.

The Tony Award-winning play, written by Michael Frayn, is directed by Jerelyn Gilstrap.

"It's based on a true story about two world-leading physicists who picked up relativity where Einstein left off," Gilstrap said.

The two physicists are Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg.

"Heisenberg was only 26 years old when he developed the theory of how we look at the universe," Gilstrap said. "During World War II he was put in charge of Germany's nuclear development program."

In 1941, the physicists had not seen each other for several years and Heisenberg asked Bohr for a meeting. And no one could figure out why he wanted to meet with Bohr.

"Even today nobody knows what Heisenberg had on his mind," Gilstrap said. "What the playwright has done is he brings us to these characters after they are dead and presents three scenarios that might have happened."

The play is performed with only three actors: Reece Middleton portrays Bohr; Marshall Middleton portrays Bohr's wife, Margrethe; and John Bundrick plays Heisenberg.

"Even though the play is about science, it's also about three lives and relationships that lasted a lifetime," Gilstrap said.

Gilstrap said directing the production has had its challenges because there aren't any props or scenery and the play is filled with lots of science.

"It's a very wordy, talkative play and I think Heisenberg has somewhere around 10 monologues," she said. "And to be able to turn those monologues into something that will grab and hold the audiences' attention is an easier process for some than others."

Gilstrap wants the audience to walk away with the realization that substantive drama can be as entertaining and intriguing as lighter fare.

"I want to challenge theatergoers with thought-provoking drama," she said.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909090327

the vista of vesta...

Vesta is a huge rock 500 kilometers across that orbits out past Mars. Last week, the above map of Vesta created using the Hubble Space Telescope was released showing a rugged surface highlighted by a single crater spanning nearly the entire length of the asteroid. The large crater dominates the lower part of the false-color conglomerate image: blue indicates low terrain, while red indicates raised terrain. Evidence indicates that Vesta underwent a tremendous splintering collision about a billion years ago. In October 1960, a small chunk of this rock believed to have originated on Vesta fell to Earth and was recovered in Australia.

Credit: B. Zellner (GSU), P. Thomas (Cornell), et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA/ GSFC
&: Michigan Tech. U.

image at http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970908.html

the faces of responsibility...

Today,
more than ever before,
life must be characterized
by a sense of
Universal responsibility,
not only
nation to nation
and
human to human,
but also
human to other forms of life.

In Memory of Office Chad Spicer - Georgetown Delaware Police Department -

In memory of
Officer Chad Spicer -
with thoughts and love for his beautiful baby girl and for his family -

with deepest appreciation and best wishes to
Officer Shawn Brittingham
and with gratitude to all those others who every day
offer the ultimate gift so that we may all be kept safe from harm -

Officer Spicer is the first law enforcement officer of the Georgetown Police Department to have been killed in the line of duty in thirty-seven [37] years. Vice President Joseph Biden attended this week's vigil for him in Georgetown: "It wasn't just his profession, it was who he was," said Vice President Biden. "Chad had courage. He was a valiant man. He did his duty." http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20090905/NEWS01/909050334/-1/newsfront2/VP--Officer-had-courage

the broken machine...

If the
machine of government
is of such a nature
that it requires you
to be the
agent of injustice
to another,
then, I say,
break the law.

to live deliberately...

I went
to the woods

because
I wished
to live deliberately,

to front only
the essential
facts of life,
and see if
I could not learn
what it had to teach,
and not,

when I came to die,
discover that
I
had
not
lived.

the sun
also ariseth -
and
the sun
goeth
down -

the solitary division...

In the field of ideas not involving productive activities
it is easier to distinguish the division between
material and spiritual necessity -
For a long time man has been trying to free himself from alienation
through culture and art -
While he dies every day during the eight or more hours that he sells his labour,
he comes to life afterwards
in his spiritual activities

But this remedy bears the germs of the same sickness -
it is
as
a solitary individual
that he seeks
communion with his environment.

trailblazer lucy burns...

1913

1917 - In Prison

Lucy Burns
July 28, 1879-December 22, 1966
American suffragist and women's rights advocate -

Lucy was a close friend of Alice Paul and together, they formed the National Woman's Party [NWP]. She was born in Brooklyn, New York to an Irish Catholic family. She was a gifted student and attended university at Vassar College and Yale University before becoming an English teacher. In 1906 at age twenty-seven she moved to Germany to resume her studies in language. She returned to New York in 1908 to work as a teacher again. Three years later Burns moved to the United Kingdom, where she graduated from Oxford University.

Lucy Burns met Alice Paul in England after becoming a member of the Women's Social and Political Union, an organization dedicated to fighting for women's rights in the United Kingdom. The feminist struggle for equality and woman's suffrage in the UK inspired Burns and Paul to continue the fight on their return to the United States. They joined the National American Women Suffrage Association as its Congressional lobbyists. However, they eventually split from NAWSA in a dispute over tactics and, in 1913 formed the Congressional Union for Women Suffrage.

Three years later, dissatisfied with the progress of congressional lobbying, they formed the National Woman's Party (NWP). They were feared and despised by many men of the era, and were opposed by conservative women as well as by more conservative suffragettes who advocated less militant tactics. However, Burns and Paul were committed to direct action in fighting for women's rights, particularly the right to vote. The National Woman's Party led dozens of women to picket the White House in Washington DC beginning in 1916. The NWP was not a political party per se and did not run candidates for office. A bi-partisan organization, it directed its attacks at the office of the President, Woodrow Wilson. Burns also opposed World War I, seeing it as a war led by powerful men that resulted in young men being drafted and giving their lives with little free will.

Burns was arrested while picketing the White House and was sent to Occoquan Workhouse. In jail, Burns joined Alice Paul and many other women in hunger strikes, to demonstrate their commitment to their cause, claiming that they were political prisoners. Burns was force-fed and possibly tortured, as was Paul. Clift recounts that the force feeding of Lucy Burns required "five people to hold her down, and when she refused to open her mouth, they shoved the feeding tube up her nostril." Of the well-known suffragists of the era, Burns spent the most time in jail.

After women gained the right to vote in the United States, Burns retired from political life and devoted herself to the Catholic Church and her orphaned niece. She died on December 22, 1966.

In 2004, HBO Films broadcast "Iron Jawed Angels", chronicling the struggle of Lucy Burns, Alice Paul and other suffragists. Burns was portrayed by Australian actress Frances O'Connor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Burns