Thursday, August 11, 2016

Collaborations

This evening I would like to post some collaborations that Angelee Deodhar has sent me.  "Guru Purnima 2016" is a poem that she and Neena Singh wrote over the internet in two hours!  I never would have guessed....

By the way, click on the images to enlarge them and make them readable!

Guru Purnima 2016

A Collaborative Poem between Neena Singh and Angelee Deodhar

Tonight the full moon
scatters petals of light
golden strains of music float
remembered from the past...

I remember the Guru
who showed me where to look
not what to see, held a brush
as he ground ink for me…

he walked beside me unseen
a lamp held high till
the scent of jasmine
resonated in my soul

stumbling over rocks
through muddy streams I went
tasting the wild waters
and fruit I didn’t know

the ineffable wonder of life
the sacred mystery unveiled
I bow to the Guru,who reflects
the moon in me tonight.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Purnima

 Note: Guru Purnima is an Indian and Nepalese festival dedicated to spiritual and academic teachers. This festival is traditionally celebrated by Hindus, Jains and Buddhists, to pay their respects to their teachers and express their gratitude. The festival is celebrated on the full moon day (Purnima) in the Hindu month July. This year it was on 19th of July.

I am going to do something a little different with the music as Angelee has sent me a number of pieces to accompany the writing.

Let's start with Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata."  The pianist is Arthur Rubinstein.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNVBaKQgfyU

UK soul singer Diane Shaw performs "Blue Moon": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPYpu1uM3zU

Neena Singh, a former banker now runs a non-profit for education and health of underprivileged children. The creator of ‘soul2soul’, a well-loved group on Facebook, committed to spreading peace, goodwill and light through theme-based discussions among members. She has received awards for her contribution in banking, management and social work. Her book "Whispers of the Soul - The Journey Within" is available on Amazon.

Neena lives with her husband, Prithpal and her golden lab, Rumi, in Chandigarh, India.

"Half the Sea, Half the Sky" is a collaboration with Paresh Tiwari.


Half the Sea, Half the Sky

(A Collaborative poem between Paresh Tiwari and Angelee Deodhar)

In that mirror of Erised
I see this world and that
un-granted wishes, vanished loves
Diablo slithering sinuously

and when the night sky
closes its fist around my breath,
squeezing the ebb of life …gently
you turn your face towards me
to look into the depths of my soul

owl bright eyes search through
the subterranean shadows
of your honey sweet lies, while
the wind whips up a Great Wave
off Kanagawa …

From time to time, we have lost
one another in this ocean’s roar
but then our boat changes tack
and we patch the shreds
of its sail with moonlight.

Bio: Paresh Tiwari, is a poet, writer and illustrator currently residing in Mumbai, India. His haiku, haibun, tanka, haiga, poems, and fiction appear frequently in noteworthy journals and anthologies across the world. An Inch of Sky, his collected haiku and haibun, has been published by 20 Notebooks Press and is available online.

Bio: Angelee Deodhar, an eye surgeon by profession as well as a haiku poet, translator, and artist, lives and works in Chandigarh, India.  She has edited both Journeys and Journeys 2015, two anthologies of International Haibun, and is now working on Journeys 2016, the third anthology of haibun from around the world.

Here is Mendelssohn's "Fingal's Cave: The Hebrides Overture":  

You may also enjoy Grace Mary Williams' "Sea Sketches":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRU7zHQMW8A

Angelee has also collaborated with Mary Jo Balistreri, another poet whose works have appeared here frequently.




A Collaborative poem between  Mary Jo Balistreri (USA)
                                                and Angelee Deodhar (India)

Morning Raga

Early this morning
the sun kindled frost
transforms vast fields
into silver-tipped etchings

knee deep in ground fog
 the widow makers’ silhouettes
 change and  shape shift
 in last night’s rain

a jay dips sapphire wings
a fox stands small and silent
fog lifts like breath from the land
in the distance temple bells

egrets follow the bent backs
as rice planter’s songs ripple
in fractals of green and gold
in the distance a koel calls

  the  fox listens . so does she
 to these resonant melodies
a window opens to the breeze
 as she enjoys jasmine tea

jungle babblers awaken now
squirrels scold, chase the crows
and in the escalating din
somewhere a morning raga begins.


Note :A raga is a word derived from Sanskrit word is one of the melodic modes used in Indian classical music and means an act of coloring or dyeing  and therefore metaphorically means 'any feeling or passion especially love, affection, sympathy, desire, interest, motivation, joy, or delight.'
Image credit https://in.pinterest.com/pin/187743878193201887/ Indian Bird Miniature Art Handmade Old Stamp Paper Nature Ornithology Painting

Mughal painting is a particular style of South Asian painting, generally confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums, which emerged from Persian miniature painting, with Indian Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist influences, and developed largely in the court of the Mughal Empire  


Here is Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's raga "Megh Malhar": 

Vladmir Horowitz plays Chopin's "Raindrop" Prelude in D major: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_6APTb3RNQ

Next is Sanjay Deodhar and Angelee Deodhar's collaboration.  Sanjay is her nephew.



Chomolungma

A Collaborative Haibun by Sanjay Deodhar and Angelee Deodhar

“Come, let us have some tea and continue to talk about happy things.” Chaim Potok



We met our porters at the airport and after picking up baggage, our group immediately set off on our trek to the first destination. After lunch at one of the tea houses and a four hour trek we reached Phakding, while enjoying the superb views of Kusum Kangru peak.

The ‘tea houses’ on trekking routes in Nepal,are essentially lodges or hotels along the trek route with rooms for board and lodging. Run by Sherpas and their families, who have shifted from being porters and guides, to running hotels which have Wifi, mobile charging points, hot showers, all available at a reasonable rate . All these ‘tea houses’ have large French windows in their dining rooms for clear views and a fine variety of eating options ,where one can write one’s journal ,check out maps, exchange experiences with other trekkers, while feeling the warmth of the thoughtfully placed wood fired alcoves.

Everest Base Camp-
below snapping prayer flags
graffiti on rocks

Note: Tibetan natives called it Chomolungma, meaning "Goddess Mother of Mountains," but the British named it after Sir George Everest, the crack surveyor who charted much of India.
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Quote from Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/tea_3.html

Image McKay Savage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengboche_Monastery#/media/File:Nepal_-_Sagamartha_Trek_-_240_-_Tengboche_Monastery.jpg

Prose Excerpt from Sanjay Deodhar’s travelogue Trek to Everest Base Camp

Title,Quote and Haiku Angelee Deodhar

Bio :Sanjay Deodhar is a Mechanical Engineer who likes to read, write and take photographs. He  loves to explore new places and is passionate about trekking, nature walks, wild life, water and adventure sports. His wife and children support him wholeheartedly and often join him on his travels.

I'll finish with some Tibetan harp music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unU8SdLtd3E

This is the original temple mantra version of Om Mani Padme Hum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFIQguh2yYI

This haiku sequence is a solo performance by Angelee Deodhar.


This pastiche is called "Rainy Day."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFF_B9os5-E

The next video combines the sound of rain and Native American flutes:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SynzKC4fWp0

Raag Megh
Megh  is a Hindustani classical raga. The name derives from the Sanskrit word Megh, meaning cloud. Legends say that this raga has the power to bring out rains in the area where it is sung.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90xd79TJ55s


Enjoy!  This is a good evening to stay in and read.  I'm off to start Janine Pommy Vega's Tracking the Serpent, a book that my friend Catfish McDaris recommended highly.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unU8SdLtd3E

20 comments:

  1. Angelee, Thank you for including me and many thanks for all the collaborations. They make delightful reading and I like the learning that goes with them. Thank you also Marianne.

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  2. Dear Marianne,Thank you for giving these collaborations space on your wonderful thesongis site.With the music a new dimension gets added to them.I am grateful to Neena,Paresh,Jo and Sanjay for sharing their words with me,love and light,angelee

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  3. Thank you ... Very nice poetry n prose. Very advanced and thoughtful writing indeed. Congrats ...for your creative efforts...

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  4. How beautifully the collaborations have been woven - I am fortunate to have been a part of it with dear Angelee who is my Haiku Guru...Thanks Marianne for the opportunity and I am enjoying reading all the other collaborations with Angelee as well. Congratulations to Paresh, Jo and Sanjay. Gratitude to Angelee for the musical accompaniments.

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  5. The sequence begins with umbrellas image stuck together, so the text has the theme rain because the term found in each stanza expressed directly or suggested. I think the poet loves this natural phenomenon probably likes to walk in the rain, clears his mind is purified spiritually and physically, a chilly rain all evil. It seems that one can isolate from the outside world and can detach by the rain, closing the window and abandon what is natural - rain, and can return to an artificial world that offers him a video. Return to nature that love bringing suggestive text images such as: spruce, heron and rice field under monsoon waters.
    congratulations for this wonderful text.
    Laura Văceanu

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  6. Thanks for sharing this. It's a good experience to collaborate and create verses of unusual significance. Greater still is the idea of setting this to music.

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  7. I could feel the cold droplets of rainwater from the blue spruce, and as a great lover and student of raga, I especially enjoyed the raga poem and link to Megh. We are having "monsoons" here in the US SW this week. And, I would like to share the Guru Purnima piece with my own teachers! Thank you all.

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  8. How beautiful! Accompanying music wow!! This is Triveni Sangamam- three ennobling features of life- poetry, music and collaboration - the first two divine and the last human ..
    Thanks Angelee

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  9. Great collection of collaborative poems.

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  10. Great spiritual poems. I love this stanza:

    I remember the Guru
    who showed me where to look
    not what to see, held a brush
    as he ground ink for me…

    And I love "Morning Raga." Great collaboration between Angelee and Jo.

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  11. I had NO idea I had such a talented friend! I particularly resonated with the Guru piece and cannot believe it was created in two hours. I am guessing it was channeled through grace! What a gift!!!!

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  12. Thank you very much, Marianne, for publishing the Collaborative Haibun with Dr. Angelee Deodhar at your blog space. - Sanjay

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  13. Beautiful series of collaborative poetry!! Enjoyed reading each one of them!

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  15. Its beautifully done ! Wish to read many more of such exiquisite collaborations !

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  16. Dear kind friends, Thank you for your encouraging ,loving words.The collaborations have helped me a lot as has the addition of music ,all this given a platform by Marianne .Let the songs cheer us up.May we understand the music if not the words,love and light,angelee

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  17. Angelee has requested that I add some comments from Facebook. Bill Cushing has remarked "Love their image-phrases (the only term I could come up with for them). Thanks for the share on these. " Will Mayo adds "Thanks. I like the concluding lines of each poem especially the second one. I'm learning more and more about our friends in India and it's quite refreshing! :D"

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  18. To All the Talented Artists and Marianne for Publishing these collaborations--

    I am in awe, a humble writer learning from these artistic experiences. These poems have so much depth to them. Wow! Congratulations to all of you!

    Blessings,
    Karen

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  19. "Morning Raga" is gorgeous; each stanza equally memorable. You should collaborate more often. "Monsoon" is very evocative, but I would expect nothing less.

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