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I had the opportunity to sing this with a group today...via the aid of the wonderful vocal performance artist Samita - who taught me more about singing than anyone has in my lifetime. She showed how our voices come from our sexual organs - our vaginas or testicals, from our heart, our gut, our eyes, our stomach, our back - not just the vocal cords. And how anyone can sing. It was an eye-opening and spiritually powerful experience.

This song - is amazing. And has had various versions, but this is the version we sang and by far my favorite:

Watch on YouTube

Poetry

I think the problem many people have with poetry is they overthink it. They nitpick at it. Analyze it. Intellectualize.

But poetry needs to be felt. Not interpreted. It's not an exercise for the mind.
But the heart. The gut. The soul. The spirit. The ear. And the voice.

The words have a sound. A rhythm. A tap tap tappity tap tapping.

To get poems, you often have to sing them. Hear them. Say them out loud.
And not think. tink. tinnnnk.

Sometimes its a play on words, an alliteration. Or at other times..a play on syntax.

Words used to replicate a sound on the page. A color. A texture. rough smooth tough

If you don't get it - you've forgotten you have to turn your mind off first.