playing the third space

Alta Starr. wow.

usually after encountering her spoken or written work i feel stunned, relieved and gleeful. and this sense really lingers. i listened to this conversation last week and cried out multiple times. the verve of it. what a generous, resplendent being. gathering us, collecting us.

she is a poet “I love poetry because of its compression and its respect for silence. Poetry, to be like jazz, is as much about playing the space as it is the notes. What's left out is as important. But the biggest thing for me about language is reclaiming all the languages that have been muted in the brassy, braying, overassertion of language…” she asks, what other languages could the spoken make room for? what could be translated?

playing the space asks me what is possible…what else could be true….am i open to being surprised….

AS also reads tarot. “I live in a world of symbols. That's where I play. Maybe that's what I should say. I get to play in the world of symbols, and it is--. Playing there offers a real challenge to all the ways that we structure reality that finally constrain and control and keep us in place.” i’m reminded that i am usually the one in my own way, and that this is not inevitable. listening to her talk about her tarot reading practice, the ways that she chooses to make meaning, reminded me of this quote:

A.S. is also an existentialist, which in her words means “We are all making it up all the time, but a lot of us lie about that……we are responsible for the meanings and interpretations that we make up.” which reminded me of the last stanza of one of my all time favorite poems:

O New Day,
there isn’t a part of you I don’t love
to fear. I’m holding hands with
the poet speaking of light, saying I made it up

reverberation and resonance. people/healers/artists i admire reminding me of each other. that’s the clunky good news today. how to keep.

if you want to listen to this episode and talk about it together please reach out skallison.27@gmail.com. i’m over the moon. gushing is fit to be shared.