Krayna Castelbaum

November 2008 Poem of the Month: Remember

2008-11-03T00:03:00Z

Read this poem; now reflect: what guides your Spirit and connects you to all things in this life? What do you need to remember? Write, sing, dance, or paint your own poem. Go for the essence, the juicy depths, the bones and the laughter, too. Remember to remember. And please, don’t forget - pass it on! Blessings of love and equanimity, with a deep bow, krayna flickr photo: Night Sky floridapfe Remember Remember the sky that you were born under, know each of the star’s stories. Remember the moon,...(read more)

Central Oregon: Playshops and Poetry

2008-11-01T18:31:00Z

PLAYSHOPS and POETRY FOR LIFE! Facilitator: Karen Castelbaum, MHS For over 30 years, Karen has worked in mental health, domestic violence, hospital, and integrative health care settings. Training in action methods since1996, she integrates action modalities with art, poetry, dreamwork, and contemplative arts. Karen has a counseling practice in Bend, where she lives with her (semi-famous) dog, Lucky, a fabulous spontaneity teacher and the source of many of her inspirations. Restoring Spontaneity and...(read more)

October 2008 Poem of the Month: Try to Praise the Mutilated World

2008-10-02T06:04:00Z

Poem of the Month ~ October 2008 The will to praise this mutilated world is not about non-action or resignation. Rather, it reflects a compassion choice to encounter the rawness of What Is. Such crazy wisdom moves the heart, stoking the fires of love, justice, and right action. Try praise, try loving yourself and our world, mutilated and whole. Love mightily! --Krayna Try to Praise the Mutilated World Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June’s long days, and wild strawberries, drops of wine,...(read more)

September 2008 Poem of the Month: Kindness

2008-09-01T22:47:00Z

Poem of the Month ~ September 2008 May you allow kindness to take residence in all the places where Life has hollowed you out. Become an offering: share the scented blossoms growing in the ruins of your opened heart. "Kindness" never fails to disrupt and move me to sweet and bitter tears of recognition. For me, this poem speaks to the alchemical art of soul-making in the “vale of sorrows”, where gold and honeycombs and kindness are discovered. I hope you will take the time to reflect on the meaning...(read more)

August 2008 Poem of the Month: A Wonderful Game

2008-08-02T10:49:00Z

Hey! Remember this one? Go ahead! Try it! How deep can you go? Oy! So much beauty we can give to this wondrous, hurting world through the Game called, “gazing with soft eyes.” And don’t forget to let your gaze include Yourself! Blessings of hilarity, delight and peace, Krayna There Is a Wonderful Game There is a game we should play, And it goes like this: We hold hands and look into each other’s eyes And scan each other’s face. Then I say, “Now tell me a difference you see between us.” And you might...(read more)

July 2008 Poem of the Month: "The Little Duck"

2008-07-05T15:48:00Z

Poem of the Month - July 2008 This poem just gets better and better with each read! It is deceptively simple, owing to the extraordinary talent of poet Donald Babcock. Babcock was 100 years old when he died in 1996. I am guessing he lived a long rich life because he had such great Duck Power ! Read this poem for 31 days in a row, and…..well, there’s no tellin’ what will happen, but you might find your Inner Duck. And in this heaving, wondrous life, that’s something pretty special! May we all be blessed...(read more)

Poetic Journey for June: That Deeper Kind of Truth

2008-06-15T01:50:00Z

Poetic Journey Series for Central Oregon ~ Nourishing Your Community, Body, Mind, and Spirit: Collaborators for this journey: between the covers bookstore, PIP Printing Karen Castelbaum, facilitator Tuesday June 24 th , 2008 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. between the covers bookstore NW Delaware Ave. downtown Bend, OR “The Deeper Kind of Truth: A Place for Everything in This Holy Broken World” “…poetry reveals what the Heart is ready to recognize.” ~Joseph Campbell Journey into the world of all possibilities....(read more)

June 2008 Poem of the Month: Abd El-Hadi Fights a Superpower

2008-06-02T22:54:00Z

Editorial note: This is one of Krayna's submissions to the Virtual Tea House contest " Where's Home?" In his book, “Poet’s Choice”, Edward Hirsch writes that this poem “should be required reading in Washington.” He imagines Abd El-Hadi as a “holy fool, an innocent dreamer who wouldn’t hurt anyone or anything.” How do you imagine him? His struggle? What qualities does he exude that you might seek to emulate this month? Photo taken at Beit Jala, West Bank flickr: Whirlingdervish From the very first...(read more)

May 2008 Poem of the Month: "Lunch with the Dalai Lama"

2008-05-05T10:26:00Z

I just love this poem! I love that it starts with a dream and the way the dream-story unfolds. The poet artfully paints images, with just the right amount of detail, that leap off the page. All of my senses are engaged, and so the poem feels alive for me. I feel that sweet hush of shared energy amidst the hustle-bustle of the crowded cafeteria at lunch-time. Sighing lightly, I remember my own song of hope and wake-fullness of the basic goodness we each embody. I want to make a collage of one “brilliant hand” reaching out to touch a “trembling hand.” So, I think I’ll just go ahead and do that, and leave you to your own experience of this delightful poem! With a deep bow of gratitude to poet, Therese Becker, and all of you reading this!

Peace and Joy,

Krayna

Here, without further to-do is "Lunch with the Dalai Lama"

In a dream he is standing in line

in a busy high school cafeteria

blending in, (even with his shaved head,

prayer beads, red robe and sandals)
waiting as if he were just another student.

When he asks me to have lunch with him,
I excitedly invite everyone else to join us,
but we are invisible inside the hungry crowd
rushing to their place in the food line,
and so we sit alone at a long wooden table
where he proposes no mantra, no meditation or prayer;

instead, he reaches inside his robe and brings out
an old radio which he places on the table
as if it were the cafeteria's main selection of the day.

As he shows me how to work the dials,
I feel like a child just beginning to walk
or a bird about to sing its first song.

As he works the dials, he looks toward me
to be sure I'm paying attention.

His hands appear brilliant as the sun,
his eyes like water in a still pond
that holds an endless wave of being
transmitted and received.

He reaches out, holds
my trembling hand, places it
so gently on the radio's dials
where I begin to feel the song inside
of everyone awakening, a song of hope
I've always known, but yet forgotten,
that is now
right here as I awake
inside the middle of the night singing.

- Therese Becker
published in Oberon, 2007

April 2008 Poem of the Month: "In Crepe Paper"

2008-04-01T12:04:00Z

April 2008

Poem of the Month

photo by anwin

Editorial note: this is the second Poem of the Month, but the first on Krayna's own blog! Here's a link to the first Poem of the Revolution....

I first spoke "In Crepe Paper" aloud to myself.
Then I read it silently, I whispered it, I sang it.
I played with it and prayed it and
let it seep into my skin, lavishing me.
Each time I read, spoke or sang this poem,
I fell deeper into the sound vibration of
Yes and it lifted my spirit
and made me laugh out loud.

The vision of the child carrying the yellow flower
of Yes home filled me with delight.
I loved the feeling of this poem in my body
and heart, so I chose it for the Poem of the Month for April 2008.

My deep thanks to Imelda Maguire, a lovely creative spirit from County Donegal, Ireland. Her website is Soul Fragments. She is known, among many names, as Greenish Lady.

Peace, Yes, Joy, Yes, Delight, Yes!

Roll Yes around on your tongue for a whole day and night. Invite Yes into your dreams! Let the shape of Yes luxuriate in your mouth for the entire month of April! Watch what happens!

Happy April!

Krayna

Poem of the Month
April 2008

    In Crepe Paper

Because there was a rush of Yes

into the mind of the teacher and

because the Yes became a sound,

Yes, she said, Yes, to the child at last,

because he finally heard the Yes,

he carried it home like a bright yellow flower,

a big one with petals made of sunlight

to a mother who was waiting for a Yes,

because the word was carried in

in the mouth of her heartchild, that Yes

became the answer, the chant, the only

word in her day-long litany.

Yes, Yes, Yes

From "Shout If You Want Me To Sing", by Imelda Maguire