My poem, written for my mother, “Winter Coat” is now up on MasticadoresUSA.
I hope you will read it there and visit their beautiful website showcasing so many wonderful, talented poets. I am sorry I am so late in announcing this..I am dealing with grief.
Thank you to MaticadoresUSA and especially to Gabriela Marie Milton for choosing this poem and for being so supportive of me. It means a lot to me personally.
You can read it here at MasticadoresUSA
Likes and comments much appreciated there:
For those of you who read my blog regularly, you know who Natascha Randt is and was for me.
I have some very sad news…Natascha Randt, my beautiful creative partner and best friend in Second Life..passed away this morning in Germany. She was trying to hold out until Sept 7th, where they would give her an artificial heart, to buy time until she could have a transplant. She was 40 years old. There will never be another like her for me.
I don’t feel I can write much more at the moment…..
Rest in Peace Nat..
This is the very first collaboration we did in 2012 for The UWA Machina Contest.
It was the beginning of a partnership in video making that lasted until today..with 28 completed videos to show for it.
Winner of the 2nd prize of the MACHINIMUWA V and winner of the OPEN THIS END CINEMAPOP AWARD OF EXCELLENCE IN FILM
In Nat’s words:
This is our Costa Rica-Germany-Connection video for the MachinimUWA V challenge: “seek wisdom”. Karima Hoisan and I, we are on a journey to discover where we can find wisdom…
Settling in to reality..
when everything we used to do
when everything we used to see
when we had hopes and dreams
when we worked together in a room
and laughed together on the weekend…
that when, when, when is gone.
People we loved are gone,
Our easy breezy days of living
Gone…
As we settle in to reality.
I only hope there comes a time
when children will watch the LCD
and wonder if this is a horror movie
they are seeing, instead of a scene
from 2020…
where people hide their faces
and there’s emptiness in the streets
and so much anger, violence, fighting
road rage, domestic abuse and killing sprees…
Settling in to reality.
Then there are:
the apocalyptic forest fires
the heat waves,
the flash floods
the hurricanes…
one after another,
coming so fast,
we are running out of names.
The days are shorter,
weeks disappear
we wonder if our planet
can hold itself together
another 100 years?
Jobs are scarce,
love is scarcer…
If you find either,
get down on your knees.
Nothing is promised,
because promises are hard to keep.
In the shifting shades of grey of every day…
Settling in to reality.
Karima Hoisan
April 31, 2021
Costa Rica
*Footnote..My muse went on a bummer..Sometimes I just
have to let her…
Someone wished me a beautiful night…
It is a beautiful night,
the temperature
just right,
the feeling of the air,
that wraps around me
is a caress,
it’s like a kiss,
that lasts forever.
A subtle whisper in my ear:
“Go out and walk my night”
don’t trap yourself,
behind your curtains and glass;
“Walk out… into
this beautiful night
Because you can
and I want you to see
What I have prepared
for you.”
“Sometimes,
I just feel like sharing..
You have been a past
admirer of my work.
I have left you in awe
I have left you in tears,
but never
were you unmoved.
I do like to show you
my mind,
my love is here too,
just all in tiny little doses
You can drink very slowly.”
I have walked for an hour,
on an empty beach
there is a glow on the water,
there is a glow on the sand.
I feel almost like crying
I hear without hearing
a sound, it tells me
someone loves me,.
It stays so close
and I know it loves me.
I look up,
almost dizzy,
from so much feeling.
I do invoke a twirl
a perfect twirl
and if I’m being
watched
I am not being
judged,
not at all…
I’m just being loved.
“You might walk a night
like this,
again and again…
but tonight,
it’s not your choice,
but my gift..
just because I want to,
just because I can
You don’t have to thank me
I do it, because I love to
because I want to give it
to you…
Now,
please sit down..
and don’t anticipate..
Close your eyes…
Let me show you,
what I have for you…
I think you call it grace. “
Karima Hoisan
August 28, 2021
Costa Rica
You taught me to read
between your lines
right from the start.
“It’s not what I do
it’s what I say,
It’s not what I say,
It’s what lies beneath.”
I translated you
for your family
who barely understood
your quixotic mind,
your mood swings,
your unreal expectations.
They loved me
and still do
even though this calling
I left years ago.
They keep my picture
in a frame
in the dining room
and I hold them
in my heart,
until the end of days.
If it’s true,
we did not last
forever,
happily ever after,
we both were open doors
that we walked through
into each other’s worlds.
How can I thank you
for the fact that
You gifted me a family,
and I provided
a new country,
and it seems
switching places
was good for us both.
Karima Hoisan
August 24, 2021
Costa Rica
The Eagle
The frozen ground the bitter sky
hunger gnaws a hole
The icy winds slice the wings
of the powerful eagle
on his perch surveying.
His sharp claws
his telescoping eyes,
his noble beak
waiting, waiting,
freezing,
on his perch,
that scrapes the sky.
Then,
in a catapult
off the angled peak.
wingspan opening,
covering the sun
He soars,
inflowing smooth,
powerful,
so full of grace.
Riding the air currents
like a slippery
bareback stallion,
circling, looking waiting
until….
he slides off an updraft
and folds
his majestic wings,
in a death-dive
not his own(of course)
but for his target far below.
* * * * * * *
The Rabbit
Hungry,
out and about,
against best instincts
leaving a warm,
safe burrow,
because he must be.
Little snow bunny
nose wiggling
digging,
in the drifts.
Hoping to find
anything to eat.
He investigates,
foraging in a
winter landscape.
His eyes see,
a tree
100 meters away.
the bark,
would be tasty,
maybe some twigs,
if he digs down.
It is folly,
to be so exposed.
Only starvation
could convince him,
he must try..
The nimble hop,
the fleet zig zag
of evasion,
brings him closer.
Memory puts the taste
of savory tree bark
inside his mouth,
and he forgets
for a second
to look up.
The sky turns dark,
a wind blows;
he feels fear
The sun
is blotted out;
his life
is on a string
that snaps in two
when giant talons
stand on him,
dead stop
in his rush.
Only one
will eat today.
* * * * *
My eyes fill with tears,
sitting in a dentist chair,
watching this scene
above my head,
unfold on a flat-screen TV.
I think to myself
so childishly,
“I want you all to eat
but I want everyone to live”
Karima Hoisan
August 20, 2021
Costa Rica
Following
I like your castles
and your coffee;
sometimes your poems
make me cry.
I’m always glad to see,
another memory
Your children’s art work
lives inside my eyes
your amazing poetry
lives inside of me!
You’re good with words,
great lists & categories.
Your photos, paintings,
videos come alive
I read your quotes,
your recipes
and scary stories;
thanks to you, I’ve made lures
and organic dirt to fertilize
I have felt so close to you
your grief your fear
your honesty…
I nod my head and say yes yes yes,
I’ve been there too.
I know we’ll never meet
because you live so far away,
but you showed me another life,
and better things to do.
I so admire your travelogues,
your funny blogs,
your way of making rice,
your photographs of mountaintops
new home-remedies for lice.
I never thought I’d make a friend
in Jerusalem!
Who knew I’d be exchanging thoughts on
Death & Life..,
with people in India, South Africa,
Seattle Washington,
or hearing a song I’d forgotten long ago,
that truly made my night .
I love your Likes and Comments
on my poems
They inspire, make me smile,
and Go “Weeeeeee”
Here on WordPress is
my own little family nest
I love Following you..
thank you for Following me!
Karima Hoisan
August 19, 2021
Costa Rica
Artist: Wendy Mould
She had that vibration…
that made cats want to sit in her lap.
When she floated through her house,
the walls shimmered and the floors shined.
No one could put their finger on what it was,
but at her dinner parties, no one ever added salt;
they never added pepper; the flavors were
just what they were supposed to be…
just like the conversation that sailed over the table
making the water glasses tinkle with their laughter.
Some said it was a kind of spell she learned,
the magic of warmth and listening,
caring, sharing and reaching out.
There was always some envy,
or a small scandal that surrounded her,
but she never seemed to take that in,
just let it dissipate inside
the sunrise, over the mountains
and the sunsets over the seas.
Birds ate at her table and bugs were saved
when she found them floating unsuccessfully.
She still believed that almost anything was possible
and so…. it was.
I met her when she was older,
but she preserved a handsome beauty
and her eyes told you, she had seen love
in her younger days…and not just once.
You just knew, her heart had expanded
over the months and years,
until she could love..
the unlovable, the unwanted,
the unapproachable…
all the uns of the world, could show up
on her doorstep and she would show them in.
In some ways, she hardly seemed real….
but those who crossed her path,
would assure you she was.
Ageless as the stars,
generous as an innocent child…
She saved my life once upon a time…
but that poem is another story…
that has yet to be written.
Karima Hoisan
August 17, 2021
Costa Rica
Big-Holed-Sieve
For O
Each day passes right through without touching me,
Big-holed sieve … nothing of any value stays;
An entire starry evening,
goes straight down the drain.
What is the purpose of pouring,
Into the porous leftover of my life,
One more day?
Yet I know not how to leave you,
Certainly not how to make it right.
Repeated cliffs so high with your disdain
Block out all the sunlight.
Afternoon sulfuric rains
Maintain your kingdom dry and cruel;
It all continues to flow into me.
When I grab the air for anything,
I realize something was there…
Before it washed through me,
And was gone.
Karima Hoisan
August 17, 2007
Karak, Jordan.
Our Next Movie
For Natascha my film partner
If I were a soaring bird.
with a true-blue heart,
I would fly across the Atlantic Ocean,
to Germany…all the way,
just to peck on your window
and make sure you were OK.
I would sit on your shoulder
if you let me in…
I would sing and warble
and brighten up your day
and I would whisper a secret
that if you just wait a bit more,
after way too much waiting,
everything will turn around
and you will be back;
you will be you, Natascha.
Once again you will walk
all around your block
Once again you will sleep
8 hours straight
You will stay up too late
just because you want to
Because…
we’re making movies again
and the muse is our mistress.
You will get on your bike
on a fall morning
and ride into those woods
you dream about…
Then after all the instructions,
and the treatments and therapy,
your heart beating easier,
with more confidence,
while recuperating,
getting stronger,
this little bird will invite you
to come back with her
and see her rainforest
and her rainy season
and more birds than you
could ever imagine.
We will cross over the boundary,
between….
Virtual and Atomic Reality
and I will be just me,
giving you, right there,
in the airport,
for the very first time…
a real hug,
with your arms and my arms
around each other.
I’m ready to make this movie;
You ready to shoot it?
Let’s do it!
InshAllah.
Karima Hoisan
August 12, 2021
Costa Rica
*Footnote: My beloved film partner
and virtual soulmate, Natascha Randt
is waiting for heart surgery.
If all goes well, soon she will have an
artificial heart pump:
Ventricular assist device (VAD)
She is only 40 yrs old and we have many more
movies to make….
InshAllah!
Digital Rabbit Hole 