Some Bits from Two Fridays
Happy National Poetry Month from Stance on Dance!
COLLECTED BY RACHEL I. BERMAN; ILLUSTRATION BY CAMILLE TAFT
such a beautiful sunset tonight.
oh yea, it was. i caught a glimpse of it as i agonized over brown rice.
-walking | him
what is your relationship with celery?
i like it. i didn’t before.
i am learning to like it. i was told it is good for bones and that it looks like bones. i find i don’t like it in soups. i feel like it takes over and it’s all i can taste. how do you like to use celery?
in soups.
-standing | her
there was a dance performance there.
oh yea? who was it?
hm. i’ll have to find out.
well, what did you see?
what did i see?
yea, what did you see?
um…it was very modern. there were four performers, three men and one woman. two were on the floor. one man, shirtless, well he had tattoos, he walked in circles around the two on the floor. all i could think was what was he going to have to do to get that repetitive movement out of his body.
how large were the circles?
maybe twelve feet in diameter.
-driving | mom
•••other bits
she seems to have grown in form
her flesh has more
once she was
and then
there was an old tree she used to visit. its shape has vanished some. really gnarly bark and the smells
smell
did you write to her?
no
did you call that other one?
no
did
they couldn’t be far
not after the last time when i tied up the curtains to see the bottle brush with all the butterflies
there used to be a tangerine tree there
and there where we had a rainstorm adventure
what happened?
we stood behind the night blooming jasmine and it was raining
~~
Rachel ‘Ihilani Berman dances and writes and is learning with plants and farmers. She lived in New York City from 2011-2019 where she had the privilege to work in and between the worlds of immersive theater company Third Rail Projects and choreographer Sarah Michelson. Rachel was grown on Maui and is immensely grateful to have returned.