12 of 12 | Monday is for Religion: "Seize the Moment," by Alice E. Van Pelt

Hi lovely Earthlings!

One more poem from Alice Van Pelt.  This one is a bit sad.  She seems to have a hard time staying well.  Her sleep, her days are a bit tormented.  She holds on to her source and feels its presence at every step.  When she has a "moment" free of torment, she dedicates it to that source.  This reminds me of a beloved friend, Eros.  I often tease him that "atheism" is just another religion as I used to do with my dad.  And yet what I like about him, what makes him unique among beloveds, is the "religious" way he'll do what's on the plate, including love.  Love to Eros is like a prayer.  It's like a religious ritual and a trance.  I am sure this mother would be in awe of that.  It is a joy to be part of the narratives of the amazing human family!


Seize the Moment

I thank you Lord because you're there

Alice E. Van Pelt

When I'm disturbed I know you care

You wake me up to start my day

Carry me through all the way

Hold my hand when the going gets rough

Brighten my spirit when things are tough

When evening fails and night returns

You lay me down with soft concerns

You watch me as I start to pray

And keep me calm in every way

I must seize the moment

To honor you always

Give you the glory and give you the praise.

No date

From the poetry collection of Alice E. Van Pelt, published here with permission from her descendants, gratefully acknowledged.

Dear Earthlings: 

Did you notice the beauty of this poem?  Again that soft touch of rhymes kissing each other, of rhythms and tones in a dance.  We say goodbye to Alice for the moment.  Perhaps more poems will be released from her collections and we will open another series for her.  We thank her for her gifts of poetry to this blog.  And for the gift of jarring yours truly with a belief system she had rejected.  The gift of thinking of monotheism in the context of amorous and religious inclusiveness again.

More series coming.  Stay tuned for next.  We will announce in the social media.

Did you enjoy the series?  Let us know!  Yours truly appreciates your attention.  The comments box is open.

Come back!  And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love and many other books
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

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1 of 5 - The Amrita Tales - Ode alla Fonte Pura - by Greeneyes & Penelope

Dear Earthlings,

yours truly is blessed with some tales from Italy.  She wants to share them.  With antiquity in the background, the legacy of initiation into the arts of loving is still present.  The arts are a way to know, and the art of love is very effective.  The most important thing is knowing oneself.  And what's a better way to accomplish that than to love someone who is like oneself?

Ode alla fonte pura, or Ode to the Pure Source is precisely that, an ode to the source of self-knowledge.  This source is met when one encounters another like onself for love.  The two women in this tale choose to experience one another as lovers as they seek that deeper enounter with the self that comes from the resemblance.

Some might call this tale bisexual.  That would be ok.  In the wider horizon of love as the art of knowledge of the world, bisexuality is the healthiest possible sexual orientation as long as the arts of love are not revered yet.  When that reverence happens, the need for bisexuality disappears, and love becomes the path to knowledge and its method.

Here's the tale.

Ode alla fonte pura

Mi lascio cullare dal dondolio del treno, lancio avanti nel tempo i miei occhi chiusi, ad immaginare il tuo sguardo; la fantasia è libera di spaziare, ho pochi elementi di te, una piccolissima foto icona di Messenger, parole sullo schermo, tracce allusive per mille possibili esiti, unica certezza il desiderio profondo di conoscerci e di legare le nostre esistenze, anche solo per un fugace incontro.

Sono serena, un po' trepidante, è la prima volta, è la prima volta, ripeto dentro di me, che finalmente il fascino misterioso dell'essere femminile potrà svelarsi alla mia inesauribile voglia di vita e di conoscenza.
So già che ciò che desidero non è solo un corpo speculare al mio, ma è altro, è la scoperta reciproca della pelle, del respiro interiore, del movimento lento e sinuoso, dolce ed accattivante, un'altra me che parla con me.

Continua . . . . 

Greeneyes and Penelope

Dear Earthlings:

There is no liquiity yet.  But the fluidity of the story fits the theme we are embracing.   The ecology of life is always love.  But love comes in many many different ways.  Things in nature evolve out of joy and pleasure.  And if we only acknowledged the sacredness of that, we'd have nothing to interpret as scarcity or pain.  Let's stay tuned for that day! 

Education is the heart of democracy.  And that includes education to love.  More posts on this topic.  Next is an Italian novella, Ode alla Fonte Pura, Ode to the Pure Source.  Stay tuned.  We will post every Thursday at noon.

Did you enjoy the post?  Let us know!  Yours truly appreciates your attention.  The comments box is open.

Come back!  And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love and many other books
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

11 of 12 | Monday is for Religion: "Troubled Waters," by Alice E. Van Pelt

Hi lovely Earthlings!

This is one of the most beautiful of Alice's poems I've read.  It is so simple and chiseled to perfection.  How do we overcome a rough patch?  Where does it register within that one has arrived?  And what source do we tap into to get past the storm?  Her religion helps.  Another way Alice shares her experience with posterity.



TROUBLED WATERS

Alice E. Van Pelt

Heavy clouds above my head

Storms approaching, fears I dread

Times are changing, so it's said

Tears of sadness in my head.

Like the Phoenix from the ashes

As the waves of torment passes

God declares a new beginning

New life in Jesus I am winning.

April 26, 1998

From the poetry collection of Alice E. Van Pelt, published here with permission from her descendants, gratefully acknowledged.

Dear Earthlings: 

Did you notice the beauty of this poem?  The words dance in the short verses and the rhymes kiss each other at the end.  The tone and theme are in lockstep. When you feel you want to react to the monotheism, remember it's an instance of polytheism, only with just one deity.  People invent the belief systems they need.  And this one seems to work for Alice E. Van Pelt. 

More poems from Alice coming.  Stay tuned for next.  We will post every Monday at noon.

Did you enjoy the post?  Let us know!  Yours truly appreciates your attention.  The comments box is open.

Come back!  And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love and many other books
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

The Amrita Tales - 1. Waterfall Explodes in a Storm

Dear Earthlings:

yours truly has been interested in Amrita, the pure pleasure liquid that inundates the Earth with joy.  It gushes out of the yoni and was known as the "nectar of the gods."  With the divorce of the erotic and the sacred brought about by monotheists, knowledge of this liquid had been lost.  There is now a movement to recuperate it.  Amrita squirts out of the urethra when it becomes engorged.  Every woman has the potential to activate the flow, and a few can.  It is very pleasurable.  Yours truly makes a pledge: When the world is as preoccupied about Amrita as it is about male ejaculate, we will have peace on Earth. 

This quick tale comes from an exercise in "power words," from the course How to Write a Book in 90 Days, by Kamala Devi.  The power words used are "waterfall," "explode," and "storm."  Thanks Kamala!

Click for a taste of Kamala's initation into Amrita

Here goes the tale:

Waterfall Explodes in a Storm

He was looking at the waterfall out of her yoni.  It was copious, abundant, translucent, wet.

He felt something in the relationship was about to explode.  He became afraid of it yet could not free himself of the hypnotic spell.  He kept staring at the waterfall until the cascade became even more abundant and hypnotic.

There was a storm between them waiting to happen.  He knew it.  She knew it.  They had not had an open heart conversation in months.  He eluding her.  She eluding him.  Each in his/her own way was aware that too much was on the plate, too much had gone unsaid.  The explosion was inevitable.  So he put his hand under her crotch, felt the translucent liquid warm his palm in a waterfall of wetness.  

He looked at her face, strove to meet her gaze, otherworldly, hypnotized by her own pleasure. 

"Shall we resume our open-heart conversations?"

Amrita, November 2, 2011

Dear Earthlings:

The ecology of life is always love.  But love comes in many many different ways.  Things in nature evolve out of joy and pleasure.  And if we only acknowledged the sacredness of that, we'd have nothing to interpret as scarcity or pain.  Let's stay tuned for that day! 

Education is the heart of democracy.  And that includes education to love.  More posts on this topic.  Next is an Italian novella, Ode alla Fonte Pura, Ode to the Pure Source.  Stay tuned.  We will post every Thursday at noon.

Did you enjoy the post?  Let us know!  Yours truly appreciates your attention.  The comments box is open.

Come back!  And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love and many other books
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini
 

10 of 12 | Monday is for Religion: "Exploring Our Afro American Heritage," by Alice E. Van Pelt

Hi lovely Earthlings!

This week we get into another aspect of Alice's life.  She was a leader and a public speaker in educational events about the Afro American cultural heritage.  Her scrapbook reports some of the talks she prepared.  Here's one where an introduction is followed by poetry and music.  Who should be ashamed of slavery?  Alice's presentation begs the question.  Again, we are present to an inclusive voice that embraces all of the Afro American heritage, that looks at history as a flow.  Not a tale of winners and losers, but rather a sense of creativity, of music, dance, ritual, song, of feeling life pulsating together as we overcome odds.  Perhaps this is the art of living after all.

Two voices are present: Alice and her husband Harold.  He is the musician who accompanies the song.  The pictures refer to the African American music scene in New Jersey in the early 20th Century of which he was part.


Theme

Exploring Our Afro American Heritage

From the mountains of West Virginia to the farmlands of Pennsylvania

From the West Coast to the East Coast

From the South to the North 

They came and they kept coming

And they kept signing, playing music.

Beating the drums to freedom.

African Americans--survivors of a spiritual people--people who made it out of the trials and tribulations of Slavery.

We are here today to explore that history through music.

It is a rich heritage that will not be denied 

That must be fortified, restored, built up in our young people for future generations.

Black folks have a strength that has survived racism, depression, recession, and genocide--all designed to steal, kill, and destroy them.  The term of "we shall overcome" aptly describes their perseverance.

Our Program today depicts thought "music" pictures from whence we have come and will point out a direction for others to follow.

To show where we are going.

I would like to take you back to the period when slavery existed--a regression for black people--a time when the only thing that kept them going was faith in God. Music became an integral part of their day to day existence--the Negro Spirituals became a coded message used to signal that the master was coming--notify them of a meeting tonight--to "steal away"--meet secretly in old barns, people's home, anywhere they could pray and ask God to deliver them from the bondage of slavery--strong faith sustained them.

Recent study of Newark's black music scene

During the 19h Century Gospel songs were sung in the Black churches--Gospel meaning "Good News."  Webster's Dictionary defines Gospel music as African American music--combining spirituals, Blues and Jazz--isn't it strange that each type of music is distinct in its own right?  Spirituals are sacred songs also called jubilees, folk songs, shout songs, sorrow songs, slave songs, slave melodies.  Gospel music added another facet, they became religious songs used in church to lift the spirit.  Even though Blues and Jazz were performed in the clubs and honky top bars--this music also came out of the souls of black folks and contributes to the Black Heritage.

Alice: "I want to first show you a picture of role models who motivated me--my mother was the one who pointed me in the right direction--even though she died when I was nine years old.  Those formative years have stayed with me throughout my life.  I have always felt her presence guided me, teaching me--at the time I didn't know it but God was with me and through his guidance my mother was there--I wasn't a 'motherless child'"--play the song.

Harold: "What and who motivated Him."  Talks about beginnings of boycott in Montgomery.

After he finishes, Alice to continue with poem "Troubled Water"--do spiritual "Wade in the Water."

Today we all face a new type of slavery, a modern type of bondage--destruction of the family--no matter what the color or race of people.  Drug addiction has taken its toll.  Again, we must all work together in unity to break the bonds of slavery and be free.  

Friday, February 26, 1999

Notes from the scrapbook of Alice E. Van Pelt, published here with permission from her descendants, gratefully acknowledged. 

Dear Earthlings: 

Did you notice the wisdom of these words?  Yours truly remembers when she first moved to the United States.  She lived with emigres in California. African Americans were definitely her first American friends.  So warm, so welcoming, so magical in their ways of being together.  She felt privileged to be accepted by them.  Never treated like a "foreigner."  What moves me in these notes is Alice's mention of her late mother, the model she offered, the spirit who lingered on to protect the little girl.  And her final note: whose "family" is she talking about?  Is it the normative, nuclear family, the family of all African Americans, or perhaps the human family?  And drugs?  What drugs is she talking about?  The drugs that medicalize the lives of seniors and other people with chronic illnesses to the point of making conscious death a more sustainable choice?  The drugs that infest the streets of the poor and replace the hope for an education that only money and privilege can access?  The drugs that kill one's creativity rather than enhance it?  When I read Alice's poems without the prejuduce against monotheism, all kinds of meanings and interpretations are open.

More poems from Alice coming.  Stay tuned for next.  We will post every Monday at noon.

Did you enjoy the post?  Let us know!  Yours truly appreciates your attention.  The comments box is open.

Come back!  And stay tuned for more wonders.

Namaste,

Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, PhD

Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire

Author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love and many other books
Professor of Humanities

University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez

   

Follow us in the social media

Poly Planet GAIA Blog: http://polyplanet.blogspot.com/ 

Website: www.serenagaia.com 

Become a Fan: www.facebook.com/GaiaBlessings 

Author's Page/Lists all books: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001JS1VKA 

YouTube Uploaded Videos: http://www.youtube.com/SerenaAnderlini