The Song of Eve

I think about an awakening I had three years ago, an awakening that led to the birth of poetry and photography. I had always admired Valerie’s photography, and had hand selected her to help me create a photo series based around various themes I, as a writer, was exploring during that time.

At that time, I was really getting into symbols, specifically archetypes. I was inspired by The Feminine archetype, The Goddess and all her manifestations in our physical world. I told Valerie I wanted to design a photoshoot specifically centered around The Shadow Woman, the archetype which represents the dark side of all females. This could mean many things: repressed emotions, fears, unspoken dreams and identities, silenced voices. At that time, I was starting to “come out” as an artist- and began to speak up and finally share my writing. I started this blog called Stories in Solitude, which was my own way of revealing my shadow side and sharing my words with the world.

Now, three years later, I am amazed at the extent of which The Shadow Woman has shown up not just in my own life, but in this culture as a whole. People have have enough of the silenced female voice! The recent abortion bans and heartbeat bills are a perfect example of the repressed Shadow Woman- women unable to take control of their own bodies and voices left shattered in the dark. But fortunately, this is recognized and millions of women across the globe are fighting for each other and showing up in society to prove their worth and their rights. All the while, men are being challenged to show up differently in this world too, and let go of some ancient, non-serving beliefs that are harmful to both genders.

Going back to Valerie- she is a sister who swims with me in the matrix - a companion in this life, I have no doubt.

I almost feel like us meeting was preordained- because without her, I don’t know if I would have been able to understand or even conceptualize what I am experiencing. She is one of the greatest female muses I’ve ever known. People are my art and creativity is stunted the moment we try to categorize it. It’s fascinating to me that she returned, that she came back to me, that she birthed new perspective and poetry inside of me. If this isn’t an ideal representation of what the feminine can do, I don’t know what is. This is a collaboration between two female artists and a collaboration that shall be celebrated for centuries to come.

Below are a series of film photographs taken by Hector @aystray_ogday which illustrate a moment in time that I shared with Valerie, her sister Emily and our new friend Hector. I attempt to narrate the day in my poem below. Thank you for listening.

The ocean grew hands that early June day,

Silky, feminine hands that swayed and shifted us along,

showing us the secrets to fluidity-

showing us what it means to be cohesive, to be one.

The ocean’s lessons seemed to foreshadow the evenings events,

As I picked up pieces of myself from the bottom of the ocean floor,

the two of us continued to shape-shift in many forms

Waiting to be reborn again.

Our longing, the sea

An unscripted story of rebirth playing out before my very eyes

Both carefully orchestrated,

Yet completely spontaneous.

But this experience was truly a spiritual rebirth, like I was getting a second chance at witnessing the sacred happenings between humans.

A second before awakening. The persistence of memory. Patterns in nature, the rotation of our limbs and sun-kissed bodies- soft from the seas salty bath. Our assemblages floating like jellyfish, sprawled out. The day felt like a chapter from an old adventure novel, or a scene inside one of Dali’s paintings. The moment resembled a melting clock, the past, present and future blending together like watercolors. We disintegrated. I’m not sure where we all went after that night. I’m not quite sure I will ever return.

He believed there were two dimensions to film and cinema: "things themselves” the facts presented in the world of the camera; and "photographic imagination,”

the way the camera shows the picture and the creativity it brings.

Dreamlike images, vacillating, pixelated and glittery sand.

A shamanic journey back to the very beginning of man- kind,

Adam and Eve laying out before me- perhaps I was their creation? OR did I create them?

Shipwrecked family- exploring the lost circus, uncharted territory

Were people really coexisting with us as we discovered that,

Or were they just mere pigments of our imaginations too? Giggles and whispers from God,

reminding us of the interconnectedness of every moment

Humanity is, in essence, a single family

Her eyes would be opened

Recognize their own nakedness

The mother of all living,

The song of eve