…but then a flower begins to bloom inside your pocket…
A Flower Pocket Garden
In the dark and quiet moment of a rainy morning, There is some sunlight to be found inside my heart, And although I’ve encountered much that’s disappointing There are still some miracles that set a day apart.
The planned things, have their value and their order So solid and secure with each week mirroring the last, But then a flower begins to bloom inside your pocket, Where you never thought to find it, as you sowed your seed on grass.
If you carefully reach in and touch the petals and the stem, You will see it’s as real as those well-known gardens pruned before you, Where rose bushes do not change and marigolds are playing with light, This flower is impossible, yet it lives to let you know you’ll make it through.
Love shows itself sometimes in brash and boasting elegant bouquets. It comes with chocolate candies and cards and midnight dates. But on those rainy mornings, it might come in such an unexpected way, by flowering in your pocket, bringing hope of an unseen better fate.
Not sure how to begin this post without sounding like I am blowing a very blaringly immodest horn, but really I just want to share the miracle..that somehow fate made me a “builder” on the virtual alternative and growing world of Kitely- Virtual Worlds on Demand.
Kitely Worlds Showcase
I have told this story and several variations of it before, over the past two years. I “blame” my sudden impulse to create virtual worlds on my friend and mentor DB Bailey.
DB (David Denton Architect in RL) who is always ahead of just about everyone,and invited me to come see a world he was building on a place called Kitely, that at that moment was in beta testing, and was inviting people to come create anything they wanted at absolutely no cost.
Dogwood by David Denton
I will include here a small machinima I made for DB and this world (in my very primitive and novice style) below:
Now, two years later, I have many worlds that I created on Kitely, and Kitely has grown up and out of beta testing stage, and has begun its metamorphosis into a thriving virtual community (Complete with its own Marketplace.) Yesterday I got an email from one of my oldest friends on Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand, Lawrence Pierce who is owner and creator of “Serenity Island,” one of the most beautiful worlds to be found there, telling me about the creation of a Welcome Center and a place that housed and Showcased some of the more interesting worlds.
Lawrence Pierce’s “Serenity Island”
Below I will do a bit of my own Showcasing and show you some more of my favorites too:
“Transgenia” by Daniel Hoffman.
Daniel also paid my world “Float” a visit and we struck up a friendship.
Mat Mahogany, another Kitely friend, who is a real builder has some great worlds to explore.
“Butterfly Cove” by Mat Mahogany
The most loved creator perhaps (surely in my book)has to be Linda Kellie because her hundreds- closer- to -thousands of very useful and beautiful merchandise was given away freely to everyone in her Mall and other locations. Before Linda, I had to invent my clothes, my furniture, and my everything, and she was the first to say, “Here, use any of this if you like” to the whole virtual community at large. I love that kind of pure generosity.
Thank you Linda Kellie!
“Evergreen” by Devokan Trust is a nice steampunk serene atmosphere to explore:
“Evergreen” by Devokan Trust
Now… to the immodest boasting part… Lawrence Pierce said he was very happy to find along one side of the showcase area, an entire wall of my worlds.
A wall of frenzied inspiration...
There they were, sure enough, when I came in today to see the installation. Five worlds, five obsessive passions of a poet who never thought she could build, and yet on Kitely she went almost crazy building one themed installation after another. I give them to you below:
“Between The Profound and The Profane”
“Beyond Sebgram X-99”
“Deeper”
“Deeper” has its own crudely but lovingly made machinina too, which you can see below”
“Float” my personal dark favorite
My last world along the wall is this one below. It was my 2nd build, and also one of my more “normal… less dark and more romantic ones”
“Water and Glass”
“Water and Glass”
I want to thank Ilan Tochner, CEO of Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand and my very first friend more than two years ago too, for the honor of including 5 of my worlds (I have created 8 in all) in this tasteful exhibition of a selection of public Kitely worlds at the Welcome Center. The whole installation is serene and well done, and I invite you all to come see it and wander over to the Kitely Worlds Showcase and visit and click on one of them to teleport to it and explore. I promise you, if you can make a prim, it would be worth your while to get your own world, and let your imagination out to romp and play. I did…and look what happened:)
Just Click here to go to Kitely Welcome Center Openyour eyes inside the virtual...You’ll never close them again:)
Well, of course I was titillated by the idea of a “Sharknado”… combining a couple of humanity’s worst fears into a near-perfect storm and a very silly, exaggerated, but entertaining movie. After getting hold of a copy and watching it (Don’t ask!) I was inspired to try to do something, but wasn’t sure how to approach it when Nat came through with her own version of a group of sharks spinning counter-clockwise in a quick rotation.
Dancing with sharks..keep your legs in!
So being a non-builder, but a clever work-arounder, I faked the rest, and now there is an amazing Sharknado spinning ominously out in my Bay. It actually looks not bad, and my point of this post, is to invite you to see it. You will land at the lighthouse, which is also the gateway to a pretty nice and romantic underwater area, I have carved out below.
Hop off the dock and explore underwater..but do heed the sign!
I am also proud to announce we have a shark cannon, that shoots sharks of course, but not at them, just using them as cannon balls (no sharks are harmed) and that is thanks to Dale Innis.
Plus we have the very trending-now..”Indonesian Walking Sharks” that might walk up a hill under your watchful observation. Just keep an eye out they don’t walk under your chair.
evolving right before your eyes….
Last but certainly not least, as it is a whole sim of sharks, I invite you to come to my world on Kitely, “Float” and float with the sharks at night in the middle of the ocean. If you never have been to Kitely – Virtual Worlds on Demand, this could be a very memorable introduction..a heart palpitating experience, to be sure.
Jump in a boat and float.
You land in the middle of a shark-infested ocean…
Let the nightmare begin… on Float…
So, as you see Shark Week goes on and on in my virtual worlds. If you happened to not have gotten enough of it, please come anytime and partake in my contributions to the theme. Here are two landmarks you can use for visiting.
The river moves downstream, silver liquid, self replenishing, bleached white foam, surfs the baby waves. It is the way. Pulling anything that frees itself from shore,
It is the only way.
Downstream…. over moss rocks, crystalline transport, birds call, wind rises, every leaf and branch slightly sway. It’s on its way. It knows things that I once knew but having stayed on shore too long they’ve been forgotten. . Benign hypnotic burbling, no flash floods of surprise and mud, this moment is only about filling the air with gentle roaring, lullaby of movement, like Life itsel,f liquid fluxing carrier, all onwards downwards, downstream. It is the way, making its way down. “Don’t resist the ride” it shouts at me above its roar, “You’re no gray slate boulder or sun’s hot plate, clinging to shore, not rock foundation digging in and holding on, nor a wet sleek bullet of underwater resistance. “Let go and float, without filling your pockets with self defeating stones that shorten your journey and plant yourself in pebble- bottomed tombs. Your destiny is waiting in the stream; it’s not the way, no river grave your doom” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I hear the constant burble burble and now I’m letting go, floating, orbiting, a non -bursting bubble. It is my way, taking me downstream. If I am well- constructed from the elements, If I am made for buoyancy, then easy be my watery passage left. It is the way, this way on river’s ceaseless quest, to float in free repose, downstream, infused by spirit’s breath. To know that I’m expected at the river’s open mouth where I will be, in waiting seas spit out, welcomed then to fathom’s cold mysterious blue, swallowed up so gently now by death’s own brackish truth.
Karima Hoisan published 2008 Costa Rica
*Footnote: This is an older one, but today I thought again about the ceaselessness of rivers
“I clawed you out of clay, ingrata…” (Painting “Renacimiento” by Isabel Hermano)
Clay Baby
I clawed you out of clay ingrata; you were the first lost grail on the bottom of the well, nebulous, unborn, a golden nugget, caked in mud, only living in my mind. I passed you my secrets of heaven, warned about the fast track to hell, and shared the arcane, even some knowledge of the angels. I gave you eyes..to see creation, which was my point, in all of this.. creating recreating creation. I hope you did not misunderstand. Why create if no one’s there to see it? Is not the reward of creation,
justone true appreciation? Now you can do that too, build worlds from dreams and half formed visions. Don’t be ungrateful, I gave you all the tools, Clay baby.
So stop trying to know what I know. There are just some things not meant for children who play in dirt to understand. You have done so well, yet failed in your compassion. Maybe there’s still time to get it right. Don’t take for granted one more sunset, one more birth, or one more death, or tide. I know you wish to know some more, but secrets keep you going. Stop playing my role, and when you see the world around you bright and pungent, strange and ever-changing, just take a minute out and let me know. From your birth you were endowed to be the spoiled prodigal of it all. Find, your medium, find your love and try to find your place. I watch you sleep, I am always The Always Awake… Clay baby.
Slowly rotating up and out, where fears are lobster traps And nightmares haunt with sharpened teeth, On sun-lit waters of crystal blue, the surprising shark attack. The phone call,”Oh I’m sorry to inform…” The realization it was all a lie, the deeper that you delved, The understanding you were writing different books, And his was being published, while yours was being shelved.
Up above the bloody surf where bodies float inert, Feeling the lightness of leaving it all behind. Now traps flung open, and sharks are turning into swans And red tinged foam, is mirroring a glorious sunset. I begin to rise away from what anything used to mean. In the air of fresher winds, old wars are now forgotten and forgiven. Trusting, a pirouette of graceful promise, higher than I thought I’d ever go…
Evolving…
Last night I had the pleasure of welcoming a small group of friends who were available to a not very-planned but heartfelt reading in my Arabic Salon.
It was intimate and cozy (about 15) and I hope to do it again in a few more months.
I will include the entire recording here below (just click on it) if you were planning on attending, and could not make it, or if you would enjoy hearing my poetry. I want to thank all of you that did, and a special thanks to Dale for being such a lovely and gracious hostess. THE RECORDING Including another picture of Gamma & Shesa who always light up a room when they enter it 🙂
Gamma & Shesa Magic! (photo by Gamma)
Btw here is a little outfit Gamma made and sent to me after the reading. Gamma’s perfect sense of style and flair translates so well into his/her clothing line..and it suits me I think:)
Stars and Galaxies in the skirt
Hereare a few more photos from Dale, who was a very good multi-tasker:)
I guess I could start with the flood…. Saturday August 3rd, an unexpected hurricane, flooded the entire town of New Toulouse and left it reeling and wet under a bizarre winlit sky and ominous dark and brackish swampy water . I found myself, the night before the UWA Awards ceremony, staying up too late, floating on a piece of driftwood, hoping against hope I would be rescued.
Wet!
I almost fell asleep, which would have been a disaster….
Help came in the form of our brave Mayor Henri Godenot, driving his buggy through almost impassable streets. He had just rescued Miss Rhiananna, a neighbor, and came for me just in time, before I was swept down a drainage ditch.
Just in time…
We drove in the sometimes almost impassable water, the wheels bumping at times on the heads of totally submerged zombies, who were still (miraculously) in 100% Health. Oh those Zombies!!
Surreal
When the water became too deep, our clever mayor switched to his intricate and beautiful hot-air balloon, which took us up out of danger, but at times, dropped us into it.
“Mayor! Up! Up!”
We picked up a blue-haired straggler along the way (Doug Donovan)
In the end, we flew safely above it all, looking down upon pigs huddling on porch- top
roofs, and at one moment, the Mayor went to check on his horses who were also gathered roof-top. Thank you Mayor for saving my life, and….it was fun too:)
Up and Away!!
Then we sailed off to dryer lands, until the flood receded.
So…… the next day was the UWA Awards Ceremony. I will give you the link here so you can see all the winners. Our movie, “Window on a Train” placed 7th out of 64 entries, which was a respectable showing, and I somehow won the audience participation prize (picking the top 10 closest to the judge’s list…although I was wrong about 1st Place *smiles) The sim crashed and I was so immobilized with lag that I did not get a single picture of the event which was very well attended with 100 avatars present at one moment. I wish to thank all the judges and the organizers who worked so hard to make this event a big success. Here is the official blog on the winners:UWA blog
We were honored…
Then….. but going back a day..Natascha, as the Director, was invited to represent us at a Japanese Summer Film Fest. It was a great honor as our film was the only non-Japanese video to be awarded a prize there. They were very impressed with our collaboration and at one point asked her about it. This is what Nat said after they asked her if she would collaborate with others in the future,
“Natascha Randt: “I am not sure to collaborate with others. Because most filmmakers are loners:) The collab with Karima is very special, and from the first moment, we knew we could trust each other. She is the Vocalizer and I am the Visualizer. One day she wrote that, when I “painted” a scene, I give her the brush to see what she will paint on my picture. And that’s the secret of our collab. We both are open for the thoughts of the other and we discuss all the things and mostly we say “ok let’s see if it works” We don’t say “Here that is the best, and we do it so!”, we always say “look at this, what do you think?” I think our collab is a very special unique treasure, maybe it’s fate:) “
On Nat’s blog you can see a bit more about this event, and a short movie she took of it there. Her blog is in German, but that is why we love Google Translate:)Nat’s blog post
Now we are getting down to the last thing I want to add. Well both Nat and I believe in our little film, and want to get it out to a wider audience, so we decided to make a version of it in Spanish. I did the voice over again in my own translation of my poem. It came out quite lyrical, and we are hoping that the Spanish-speaking audience will enjoy it too. Here it is below:Enjoy and thank you for all your encouragement and support on our machinimas. It means a lot to both of us, and is the reason we will continue to make them.
I thank you for the pasturing of my beast, for the plants you never fail to water, for your mind that flies beyond Time.
Do I do something to earn this grace, or is it given freely in random generosity? Every hair upon my head is a steel strand now pulled to the dance by your fingers… Ah, magnets on the sliding strings of a cello.
I thank you for the tears that salt my joy for flying kites that rotate in slow motion at night, for your heart that gives while it learns the art of giving.
All I did was open my eyes; could it really be that easy? When I stop the world going around me, I feel it can. For the poet, words and tears can come so quickly. Only themuse knows the depth of my rambling and sobbing.
I thank you for being the wise, the perfect shade of quiet. The screamers of the world, stop banging on my doors, each time that you come in.
The illusion of you was a red- dawn sky after an all- night storm, rose-tipped, filled with hope, looking for stability. What you might have been, lapped at my feet and there was a calm, you can’t deny it. Oh, I felt it too…rising every day, my good fortune. I went down on knees, on morning- tide to send a thank you.
The illusion of you, sometimes felt real, in the changing light,
after those nets were put away, and you were quiet. When I looked upon your shoulders, I saw soft beauty in my midnight. Yes, I loved your contradictions, because I thought them mostly mine, but it hurts like fire and ice today, a cold burn, that leaves a fever. Too much truth, blew in too fast; how quickly clouds can scatter.
Digital Rabbit Hole 