Ramadan Gift (Triple Cinquain)
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As one
our family
breaking fast with prayers
all kneeling in our living room
sublime
“Allah!”
my brother’s voice
now an angel chanting
tears blur my eyes in ecstasy
divine
Silence
our bodies speak
perfection in movement
heads press the floor in unity
Amen
Karima Hoisan
Jordan 2007
“Zwischen Nacht und Nirgendwo”
“Between Night and Nowhere”
Photo by Natascha
This phrase came from a fever dream Natascha had, while being quite ill and when she told me about it, all the lights of inspiration went blinking off in my head. I found the phrase intriguing, compelling and more than that, I found it challenging as well as inspiring.
After she described the whole dream, seeing her father again, asking him questions, in a garden of her childhood, I was inspired to write this poem for her…but not until, I too had an image to join with hers, one of my country, Costa Rica, in the time of burning off the cane. I saw in my mind, that we were riding through a smokey, hazy rural landscape, that is very representative of my Costa Rica, in the month of March; the heat of the burning fields was in harmony with her burning fever. You can read the poem here, from my original blog post about just the poem I posted in March. From Nat’s dream, it became this poem, and like magic, my 15th world on Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand was born!
The Beginning: That magic stage when all is possible
I invite you to listen to the poem recited to some slow roadster traveling Blues:)
Between The Night and Nowhere by Karima
If you follow the instructions on the notecard, inworld, you should hear this playing on your media stream, when you set off to tour.
I had to stop myself from taking too many pictures:) On the one hand I don’t want to spoil anything for those Hyper-gridders, who actually make it to this world, but on the other hand, I know many of you might not come, because you have yet to experience the wonders of Opensim and the Hypergrid that connects us all. Let this world then, be your introduction!
The NPC chauffeur is mild-mannerd, mostly competent and keeps his eyes on the road!
The main hacienda house and courtyard passes by…
Up and up we go…..
Photo by Natascha of a part of her build
When the chauffeur drops you off, you are encouraged to see the rest of the build on horseback. You can copy and ride one and take it with you. Once again, I applaud the act of sharing that we find in Opensim. What was shared with me, I will share with you…
If you keep following the road and signs you will discover both Nat’s dream build and mine right after. Both are very different and yet, they combine and harmonize at the summit of between the night and nowhere.
Photo by Natascha
I want to thank Dale Innis, once again, for being such an excellent virtual building partner and scripter, and to get our roadster to actually climb up and down instead of horizontally or vertically plowing through the mountain pass or taking us upside down and underground like it wanted to do at first…see photo:
I want to thank all the world builders on the Hypergrid, who make such amazing stuff and allow us scavengers to pick and choose and take home with us in our suitcases, so many wonderful treasures to be recycled again and again in creative ways.
Last and most importantly, I want to thank my film partner and creative twin, Natascha Randt, for having such a cool and amazing dream. This is a real first for me…that someone else’s dream, could inspire me to go crazy and create a world where it could be showcased. Nat did a really incredible job, building and bringing this dream and installation alive. I just swirled a world around it and made a way to get to it…:) In the end…the two of us built our fantasies, Zwischen Nacht und Nirgendwo.
Come experience it for yourselves. Here is the world page from Kitely, which will tell you how to get there and what to do, when you arrive:)
https://www.kitely.com/virtual-world/Karima-Hoisan/Between-The-Night-and-Nowhere
I hope those who have seen it, will make a few short comments here, on my blog, of your impressions.
If you would enjoy a guided tour (with me or with Nat) just contact us and let us know:)
ENJOY!!!!
From Left to Right: Joey, Nat(JeJo) Silas the Tree, Karima, Dale (Missing: Maria Vought) Excellent Photo by Nat
I should have done this yesterday, but I was still a little worn out by all the excitement and partaying and emotions that flowed on Sunday, beginning with the Awards at the UWA where the sim had to be “stretched” to accommodate everyone. I was not able to cam there, and so, could not take pictures, but it was a very exciting event, and very emotional. It was Jay Jay’s last public event for the UWA and so it was a highly-charged mixed moment of nerves for the awards, sadness for Jay Jay leaving, and emotions hearing La Piscean speak about Second Life and his love for it.
You can read the whole transcript on the UWA blog here
The title, “The Long Kiss Goodbye” should give you a feeling of how poignant the ceremony was. We were very thrilled and excited and blown away to have received the Third Place Award. This means a lot for Nat and I, that the judges this year, found our efforts worthy to be in the Top 5! It stimulates us even more, to keep creating. I also want to point out what a great stimulus it was to see all the Likes and comments and views on YouTube along with the views in SLArtist. It drives us on to keep making better films, each time, and that we really do have an audience to entertain and who truly enjoys our films.
Soo, we took this Team picture after the event on LINC Island and just was sorry that Maria, who looked adorable too in her Team uniform, could not stay to be with us. Thank you to my sister Diz (DzinWiz Babii) for getting up as early as we did and giving us moral support at the Awards event.
What I do have, are some great photos of the dance I held at my bar, Kari’s Bar and Dance, after the ceremony. It had recently moved back to my home sim, after 9 years in New Toulouse.
Thanks to Dale Innis and Natascha, I will put up some images of the Celebration, with DJ Outlaw, and at times 30 friendly, dancing avatars:) Here they come…..
Dancing to some Great Blues and Zydeco-Photo Dale Innis
Having a good ‘ol time Photo by Nat
WOOTS! Photo by Nat
Nat directing (after all she Is a Director:)) a lovely avatar to the Dance Ball (Nat photo)
The Otter, “Oing” aka Scottius Polke!
Great to have Glasz DeCuir with us 1st place Winner at the Awards!! Photo by Nat
Tube in the Top Hat..Rob Barber and friend Photo by Nat
Tubeguy..one of my favorite people and new neighbor on LINC Island Photo by Dale
Beeflin (another cast member and dear friend) and yours truly:) Photo by Dale
“Unity” Love this shot with Dale Innis (scripter extraordinaire) Photo by Dale
Cutie Pie Close-up. Is that Jessica Jones back there in red?? Photo by Nat
The Always Gorgeous Duo: Gamma & Shesa! Photo by Nat
Another good shot of them:) Photo by Dale
The Adorable RoseDrop and the Otter front n center:) Photo by Dale
Gorgeous Luna (left) and handsome RoseDrop (right) Photo by Nat
Fabulous Harley my neighbor and very dear friend Photo by Nat
As the party wound down..some cool customers stayed ’til the end:) Photo by Nat
Thank you everyone for all your support, and thank you Jay Jay, LaPiscean, Pookymedia,Chantel Harvey, Singh Albatross, for this beautiful challenge, “Art of the Artists”
Hope to invite you all back to Kari’s Bar and Dance on LINC City…real soon:)
So….lots going on this coming Sunday, March 25th starting at the early hour of 6am!!
That is the hour we, the machinima makers of Second Life who have an entry in the Slartist@UWA Machinima Challenge will be up and chewing our fingernails at, and sad to say, perhaps the very last awards of this kind. If you follow this blog to some degree, you know that we have not done very well with judges in the past. This is a new year, so anything is possible, but no matter what, all of us involved know we have a good film, and we are proud of it. Whatever happens at the Awards, happens, but hopefully we will all be there, including Silas whose art was the inspiration for our film. See Post:The River of Forgetting. If you enjoy getting up early on Sundays, we would love to have you sitting with us:)
After the awards are announced, we will take a few hours out to cry or joyously jump up and down;) and then we have a PARTY at Kari’s Bar and Dance in its new location: LINC Island..no matter how we do… we will CELEBRATE!!
Poster by Natascha Randt
For this party, we have the really fabulous (I mean really!) DJ Outlaw spinning,Blues, Country and Zydeco for your listening and dancing pleasure. It is the same Kari’s Bar and Dance that has been in existence in New Toulouse for 9 years now!!
We brought it home to our city in the sky, LINC City, to grace our streets and Entertainment District. The same great ambiance, same great people, and a super duper dance ball to enjoy it all. For those of you that remember the New Toulouse days, the iconic Harley’s Hotel that used to be across from Kari’s has once again moved and is across the street.. again!! Just like old times. Welcome back Harley on LINC Island!!
I invite you all to join us for some great music and high spirits..Please put it on your calendars (avatars are sooo forgetful) and party with us for 2 hours 12noon slt-2pm.
The LM will take you to our sim below, where you will find another teleport, so just choose Kari’s Bar and Dance and Voilá you will be at the door!
Please plan on exploring the city that was just about single-handedly created by Natascha! It has so many cool places, a park, and great places for pictures…
Hope to see you on Sunday, March 25th at Kari’s Bar and Dance…and if you are up early…send us a good luck wish for the Ceremony:) and…if somehow I didn’t nudge you hard enough to see our entry…here it is to watch before Sunday:)
Between The Night and Nowhere
For Natascha
Tour me in a roadster convertible…I’m all and only yours today.
We can watch the cane fields burning down to the ground,
while we’re living the dream , and it’s your dream that you planted,
right here inside my mind, just waiting to be found.
Drive me around with the top down, we can wave back at the wheat.
I smell the wildflowers mixed with horses breath and blackened earth.
Not a soul to be seen, just you and me and the scenery…
the car humming along, knowing that, here comes the rebirth.
So take me for a drive , I don’t care where,
just climb us up to the mountain top, to hear the whispering bells,
and drop me off where the crows look down
and the smokey clouds and haze paint those rural pastels.
I hear there’s a garden there that I really should see.
It has a little girl, sitting at her daddy’s feet, always asking “why?”
Between the night and nowhere is where it seems they want to be,
and the answers that she seeks are written in the sky.
Machinery hums, the cattle call, gears shift down to first.
If you hear a cicada singing, you know you’re still alive.
The whistling wind turns chill and blows and parts my hair,
while the narrow winding mountain pass thrills and terrifies.
I know and so do you, that from this scorched earth, a little seedling grows.
In a fever dream or a burnt down meadow, we can see the new seeds being sown.
Those roaming grey clouds are going to let it rain any time now, any day…
I could ride with you forever, and let it rain, ‘cuz I’m just not ready yet.. to head for home.
So, tour me in a roadster convertible…I’m all and only yours today.
We can watch the cane fields burning down to the ground,
while we’re living the dream , and it’s your dream that you planted,
right here inside my mind… this fertile ground.
Karima Hoisan
March 6, 2018
Between The Night and Nowhere
Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand
Crow Companions by Robert Bateman
Click on the title-link below to hear it recited to the music that inspired it: “Dodd’s Shakedown” by Jeff Russo and the Prague Philharmonic Fargo Season 2
Crows Look Down
Driving down a familiar highway day in day out
One day…the scenery changes;
the weather turns to winter
and the wheel chills your hands
In the middle of the summer.
No warning signs…no yellow roadblocks
High white clouds exit…
Stormy Wedgwood – blue ones
roll in, taking their place.
Flocks of crows in the treetops,
look down suddenly on your rooftop.
Are you dreaming? Are you crazy?
Should you have known today was the day?
You feel that flutter of colorless butterflies
The question you ask…
“Should I stay in my car and keep driving?”
Maybe it will all make sense around this next bend…
and really, you have no choice now
Winter has snowed you to a crawl, but you can’t survive,
if you get out.
Karima Hoisan
Jan. 30th, 2018
Costa Rica
Frustrated saliva, like bitter leaves…
Lawn Candy
+++++++++++++++++++++
My Ridgeback stalks the front lawn.
Stands on point,
I sit back to empathize
Squirrels are Hershey bars
that temptingly zoom out of reach.
We have not eaten sweets in a month
Their tails dangling tauntingly,
furry Eskimo Pies,
chocolate side down,
the sticks in the air.
Why talk about cruelty
or the bloody shame?
They are just a pair of creamy whims
that fly and tease a meter overhead.
So marshmellowy,
our stomachs rumble.
We run behind,
leaping up into low branches..
Now we’re falling,
open paws, empty-handed.
Frustrated saliva, like bitter leaves
nothing left to do but woof
woof…woof
Karima Hoisan
2005 Costa Rica
“The End of Hope ” by Silas Merlin
Hope is Found
inspired by the painting by Silas Merlin
“The End of Hope”
Born and raised on a distant shore…
The world was not as kind as I had thought it would be.
Still, I was the child who found hope in almost anything,
and saved butterflies, and ants drowning in puddles.
I nurtured hurt birds, because I understood at too early an age
the fleeting chances I’d be given to make a difference
and how quickly my youth could just disappear into the fog of the past.
Sometimes I transplanted a little shoot that struggled to grow,
in the sand between the bricks of the path.
I carefully uprooted and replanted it in fertile rich soil.
I had hopes it would thrive and I rewarded it for being brave,
for staying alive, long enough for me to find it.
I tried to faithfully visit this flower from time to time,
just to see how it was doing, if it was still surviving.
I noticed when I observed it, how we were much the same;
inside we had our vitality which was an essence, akin to magic.
Inside we would grow up exactly as our patterns ordained
a paint-by-numbers, that was filling in all on its own.
I was the child growing taller and more compassionate and aware.
It was the flower, shooting up and coming into its bloom.
How we both needed each other, to get to this moment.
That’s where I found hope, sitting between us.
Karima Hoisan
January 13, 2018
Costa Rican Fogón
The Past Came For Lunch Today
The past came for lunch today
one after another they sat in chairs
at the dining room table that was set
for less
and so some stools and some
odd chairs were added until we
were all sitting down.
There was much expectation..
I saw everyone smiling
because the past had come for lunch today
and met up with now at the dining room table…right now
making new memories…that sometime in the future
would be great ones to remember
from the past.
Each carried a bridge
that they laid down straight to my heart
and the memories flowed over it
and laughter skipped over it
and heaping plates of rice with chicken,
were shuffled back and forth
on the magical conveyor belt below the girders.
Then our mouths opened for talking
and our mouths opened for laughter
and our mouths opened for eating.
We marveled that we were still
coherent and alive
still in the same country
still connected after years of silence
and it felt like …
just like Time had stopped
then jerked us into the present,
which was now…
which was at this dining room table
of laughter and good food…
and it was like no time had gone by
and it was also like we had missed so many lifetimes
forgot to make more memories
too busy in our daily lives
to try to even do a few.
By the time coffee was served
We had agreed this must happen
once again…
make memories
not only recall them…
There was still time
and we all wanted to.
So we agreed on a date,
and even a menu
and our eyes sparkled
in mirth and irony…
because we realized
we had just invited the past
to come back again
into the future.
Karima Hoisan
Jan 4, 2018
Costa Rica
Photo by Natascha
Digital Rabbit Hole 