Hello Frank,
my name is gabriel, and i attended your event on saturday night. i was inspired and moved by the peice, particularly the effect that it had on sarah, the young woman who partnered with you for gestures. after the show, a group of us went out to the essex, a hot tub in a private backyard in berkeley and continued the loving. much touch was shared and a beautiful time was had by all. at one point, we remarked that it was very true that you “get results”. the eight of us probably would not have had this connection without you, and i am very grateful. here is some poetry that we have shared with each other about the experience.
La Loba, the wolf-woman, is on my mind come morning. Did you know her only job is to collect the bones? She collects the bones of wolves and puts them back together again. She makes them alive again.
Put us back together again.
Better than food, better than sleep and more than either. Forget that you’re hungry and tired. My mind is riddle short-circuited tonight, and we are ageless in this moment.
A boy jumps up and down toward the moon, unashamed to be naked. A couple faces each other in meditation. Two people hold each other. A radiant girl spreads her arms and lets the moonlight fill her. We are glowing the most delicate pale blue in the dark, and my eyes will be singing this for days.
I never want to paint anything but this. I can never paint this.
In the circle we made, I am breathing in your breath as you breathe mine. Did you know the ancient Hawaiians kissed like this? honi, breath is sacred.
Now we’re feeling the power of an arm extended, of yes, come here and be with me. We’re feeling the pain of scalding hot water against skin.
yes and thank you. I don’t know any other words.
Prayer is in every look, touch, and longing. Prayer is in the way the beauty brands your soul. Give up your comfort for this.
yes and thank you and yes.
My feet are grounded in the earth and nothing is wrong. Can you feel all this life running through you? Until I saw that moon, I had forgotten that I could feel so much wonder.
thank you thank you thank you.
The joy makes us run through the streets.
-Hope Zane
we stand naked and steaming, four men and four women, limbs intertwined
touch flows between us like the wind through a stand of trees, our hands know what to do, where to go, what spot is in need of that medicine, that magic, that tender shock of electricity that is a kind hand, delicately placed, a reminder that we are alive, that we are loved.
our bodies and our breath meld with the moonlight, we sink into the ground, our roots run together like the redwood trees above us, we draw sustenance up from the earth, from each other.
oh to be human, naked and human and holding other humans. to open ourselves to desire, and to fulfillment.
we give and we receive, with no expectation of reciprocality or fairness, only with the knowledge that we are all holding each other in tender fingers, that we are all one skin, one breath, one body, one earth.
-Gabriel Vieira (me)
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great to hear that the performance went on, Gabriel!
In Freedom,
Frank Moore