Elena Dudina did both of these. She is elusive. I can find lots of her work all over the internet. There is very little about her. I know she is Spanish and it appears she lives in France. I am highly responsive to her work. Doesn't it feel haunted to you? Elena's work feels haunted to me.
As far as I am concerned, loving a woman is not always clearly distinguishable from loving God. I discovered that years ago when listening to popular music on acid, that it was often possible to hear the music as spiritual and aimed at God. Ever since that time I have been able to have this kind of double vision. The best times of my life have been when I am in love with someone and equally able to know that I am loving God. That is why I know that for me God is equally Goddess.
Haunted
I wake in empty
Space, in your scent left behind.
It's been years, but still
This happens to me.
December 29, 2008 9:22 AM
Sometimes it just takes faith. I am pretty good at faith when the chips are down, but I have been deeply trained to respect doubt too. It is inherent in the posture of those who enter science that they set faith aside as a disciplined practice. They intend that the world speak without interference by bias and hope. To that end they devise a series of tests and procedures. Then they submit to a process called peer review in which they demand and perhaps at best welcome critical remarks concerning the conditions and events that have led to certain findings. This can become vicious if people become too fixed and certain. Thus they reveal again and again that there is great usefulness in doubt and less usefulness in assumptions of certainty which may or may not also be true statements.
And yet sometimes, it just takes faith.
To Start This Trek
Terrible journey
From this place just to arrive
At your cottage door.
I need newer shoes
To start this trek through the wild
And a full pack strapped
Snug on my body
And I'll carry shelter too,
Which I will need twice.
I'll sing to spirits
I encounter on the way
That they let me pass.
All this in my heart,
Fear and hope and grit,
I don't know if you'll be home.
December 29, 2008 9:04 AM
This post has been reordered and revised. In its original form it appeared on Thursday, April 23, 2009
Hi Christopher,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your interest on my work and kind words.
I´m not elusive ! I´m a Russian living in Spain (Madrid) for 9 year. Married with a Spanish. Mother of a daughter. Photomanipulator/ Ilustrator. Like Books, Travel, quiet family life...
http://elenadudina.deviantart.com/
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001443970966
Nice to meet you !
Kisses,
Elena Dudina
Wow. Thanks for your comment. I grazed at your DeviantArt site and I presume that is how you noticed me. I am touched that you took the time to write to me.
ReplyDeleteChristopher, I deeply appreciate how you wrote this post. It's got different textures. And for postulating about the divine in loving someone, thank you, I like that.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, I find I am unable to respond to your post as I am very still inside of this cloud of simple magnitude. Elena responded to you here. Just.like.that. That is so very large to me, to my mind, that we can put out a whisper in a way, and I believe this wasn't really your intention, but we can put out a whisper, and it can be answered like a call. Yes, her work is haunting. And her soul seems wonderful. And I am still inside of this, having no more.
ReplyDeletexo
erin
Irene, thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteErin, me too. I am not one to be a fan. I have known too many people who live large. Still, I am taken by some and Elena is one. As you know, I post her pictures from time to time here just because I love them. I am also intrigued at how she seems to be camera shy herself, letting her work be her presence.
ReplyDeleteI love you, dear Erin, and am so grateful that we can have this.
Art begets art begets art. :)
ReplyDeleteI like the first poem better for its simplicity; I like the second poem better for its Hero's Journey. I like them equally because they say the same thing in different ways.
Hi Joseph, when I decided to post these again, first I looked at splitting them up and doing one only. I didn't have a way to separate the poems. Creatively I wrote "To Start This Trek" first but I guess I wasn't done because I wrote "Haunted" in the next about ten minutes.
ReplyDeleteIn my first posting commentary I made mention that the man of "Haunted" was the man who decided he had to take his "terrible journey", terrible because there is no way to know that anyone will be there when he arrives.
It is of course my story. I live alone, and doubt as my health has begun to fail whether there is enough of me available to begin another true partnership. As it is right now I barely have enough to live my own life. But I still have my pride. I am not interested in "being a burden".
There is an ethereal quality about her work and yours. I enjoyed this post...both poems and your comments. Very impressed that the artisit took the time to comment.
ReplyDeletei am captivated by elena's work ... and yours, too.
ReplyDeleteLiv, Thank you. I understand there was an alert of sorts. Elena did not know of me before yesterday. She commented because of this post. You might notice that English is not her main language. I too am completely impressed that she took the time and actually risked something. It is very good to know that she still trusts and I hope I am worthy of that trust. I will also pray that people who join me here will also be gracious to her.
ReplyDeleteI bet what is most important to Elena is her quiet family life in Madrid.
Harlequin, you are kind to me, as ever. I am happy to know you.