9. Anklet bells on Protector's day
Dancing in space
Clad in clouds
Eating the sun and holding the moon,
The stars are my retinue.
- Chocyam Trungpa
Come swim in me, come
do your washing in me!
come and clean your dirty dresses
because how much dirt can you carry
on your journey towards life’s end?
Come to meet me at lake Udaipur
come and spill your holiness in me
into my womb
when night falls
A thousand narataki dancers come out
to dance for me
Let us dance, my love!
dance with our breasts touching
dance with our colourful feet
full on the lotus bloom
Hear! anklet bells ring
chann-channn-chanan chann
Your diamond toe ring, white lily
play with my breasts
touch my nipples with your toes
play-run your feet over the valley
of my tummy
I have a thousand lotuses
for your hands and feet,
my feet, see how lush red
I am
blushing now!
Do not worry, my pilgrim!
Do not worry, my poet!
I have discovered all of my feet
again and again
and many, many years ago
I danced like a Raj Nartaki
Will you dance with me now?
I will teach you the journey of how feet
Charevehi! Chareveri!
keep on running
faster and faster
walking into arms of lovers
***
10. Small flowery marks of lotuses
Rain, sleet, snow, ice - as such
they may different, but when melted,
they're the same valley stream water.
- Thomas Cleary
That evening
at godhuli, when the cows were there
and the Temple bells rang
she came out from her hiding
Behind the mango tree, she – There!
A baby girl dangling from her arms
A baby girl pockmarked with small buts
of flowers
lotuses tied to her feet
Where will I take my child?
hush! do not cry!
look at Udaipur, the mother and father, sigh
What shall I do with a baby girl?
Drown it?
Why are a thousands baby girls wasted
on the shores of lake Udaipur?
Why every year thrown away
like poisoned sulphuric sand?
Look at the bird, it’s beak is yellow
that is my baby girl with a ribbon
she’s in the tree
she flies
she sings
and when she dives through the sky
her beak turns blue
blue like the Holy Blue Shrine
at the entrance of Lake Udaipur
It was a yesterday that she picked a berry for me!
today she picked two blue black ones
and offered it to my folder nest
for poetry, a papaya piece
she gave me
and a mango bite - so sweet
***
11. The singing mother on Dakini day
In the sea of my mind the words as wave have risen
In recollection of the Great Queen.
- Chockyam Trungpa
All the palaces and pearls in the world is for you
my son
oh mother, for me your departure
do not send me away!
do not send me far away, oh mother!
She was singing on the banks
of Udaipur
at the wide open lake
send me away not!
do not send me far away, oh mother!
I will be the parrot in your garden
I will live in your golden cage
you can seal it tight with a song of yours
do not send me away oh mother
why did you send me away?
I am your daughter
I am your singing daughter
***
12. Pain like a blanket
Eating the sun and holding the moon,
the stars are my retinue.
- Chogyam Trunpa
The aroma of spices
The crosses over the lake
The crosses over the sea
The boundries across the sky
The day - is it
your gift to me or
mine to you?
A yellow day
but why when I am happy
pain rolls over me like blanket?
***
13. Tale of the rain girl
May the Ocean benefit
Those who sail beyond the great sea.
- Chockyam Trungpa
The farmer girl sings
Give me rain, Black Cloud!
wet me completely, Black Cloud!
my crops are dry
Black Cloud, give me rain!
She begs for happiness
and love for her brothers
and her father
and her cow
and across the forest her voice
reaches the sea
But when she is living in the city of rain
her body is wet
and her heart goes
to where the peacock dances
on her thigh
to where the lilies grow
where she walks
Let my beloved come into my home
oh my beloved come to my house
I am a farmer's girl dressed
in gagara black
come to me my beloved
come to my dream
come with loosened hair and oared eye
come tonight!
but oh, please do not get lost
lost like sleep
lost like a far away lover
that’s never there
lost in the rain
no body knows the story after Pralaya, the doom
not even lake Udaipur
but me