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Rachel Nelson BardLive Music and Productions bardlive@gmail.com 651.353.3370
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Bardlive Poetry I write poetry for the page, and often for the stage. The poems below were written to be shared out loud, delivered directly to the ear. All poems copyright Rachel Nelson. I also enjoy teaching a workshop in performing poetry and story: Spoken Word Explorations. Find that workshop description beneath these 3 poems:
This first poem comes from the theatrical show After Leaving Eden: Living the Questions
The Swampy Cree, north of Lake Winnipeg, say that the bone of a snow goose killed by a lynx is a wishing bone. Hold it, make a wish, and it happens. . The Wishing Bone I hold the fine white bone in my left palm, feel it thrumming with current from somewhere I cannot see. I close my fingers around it.
It pulls me with a strong tug, and we are walking. The bone has taken me by the hand. It is leading me now, down the hill through the tangle of grasses and dense brush, heedless of snags and thistles, dragging me along, down and down, until we reach a small creek where purple wildflowers bend over the water on delicate stems. We stop.
I know that now is the time to wish it: that which I most desire— time to speak my creation into being. I know the white bone gives me this power. The hot sun bores into the back of my neck. A fly buzzes, lands on the knuckle of a finger gripping bone.
This is now: no more excuses no more journeys to the wise one. Now I am she.
copyright Rachel Nelson
For the second poem, here's a shout out to those on Jett Sophia's Tenacity Notes list!
Free Fall I stand at the edge looking down. A pebble, boot-knocked, plummets makes no sound seems to fall forever sweet release.
My place is here on the edge, and my stance has as clear a trajectory as that pebble’s fall. One step back— or forward— would be so much easier than this falling, standing still.
copyright Rachel Nelson
“The purpose of art is to crack the frozen sea within us.” – Franz Kafka Iceberg
Never underestimate the power of sound. I have sung into the iceberg of my heart and felt it crack— in the pale northern sun, melting a bit so that drops lurk in the spaces between ice, the surface tension of each tiny globe resisting the slow slip into the submerged. Each drop slowly licking its way into the heart of the matter, moving, perhaps only a fraction of an inch per day— this slow melting, imperceptible to the eye, I can feel.
My throat, creaky from disuse cracking a bit itself, harbors visions of shattering wineglasses and high C’s (being, after all, dramatic even though long submerged). The dream of the delicate bowl exploding on its arching stem pales before the real drama being played out: this hunk of ice skulking beneath the surface, its mammoth and unknown bulk trembling a little.
copyright Rachel Nelson SPOKEN WORD EXPLORATIONS - A Performance Workshop with Rachel Nelson Storyteller, theater artist,
songwriter, and spoken word poet Rachel Nelson writes for live performance. She
brings over 20 years of experience connecting with live audiences to her
hands-on workshops. She has taught her Spoken Word Explorations workshop at
Great River School, Young Authors events, the North Dakota Reading Association
Conference, and the Northlands Storytelling Midwest Conference. Nelson is on the COMPAS and WAITS artist rosters and the MN State Arts Board teaching roster. She has received grants from the MN State Arts Board and the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council for her teaching work; creation of theater work that incorporates story, spoken word, and song; and for making audio and video recordings of her work. She has published two CDs: Change is a Thousand Hearts, original songs; and “I’m Awesome!” said the Possum, songs & stories for young listeners. Her theater creations include After Leaving Eden: Living the Questions and the upcoming The Urban Hermit.
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11/28/2011 Copyright BardLive Music 2011 |