Sunday Poem: Kali, Queen of the Night Sky…
SUNDAY POEM: KALI
Kali, queen of the night-sky, your skull
necklace rattles on dancing breasts.
Blood stains the cavern and corners
of your mouth. Your obsidian face gleams;
your ruby tongue defies all who claim dominion.
Your many hands grip many lethal weapons-
swift swords and whirling discus; lightning
cracks open this labyrinthine brain, its convoluted
folds sizzle into mist. Silence returns
to the sky, to the heart.
Around a demon’s hair, your hennaed hands
are curled; his severed head swings above
the earth; ragged droplets drip scarlet from his
neck’s stump. Broad, black feet-your feet-stamp
on his headless body; your eyes are fierce
coal-stars, every eyelash a cluster of
constellations. Such power, milady, I
am breathless at this naked red display-
my own long shrouded in seemly white.
I’ll strip off these penitent robes, unpin
my hair, let it float above my roaring
chest. And shout, a bawdy barker bellowing:
come, take–enter if you dare!
……………………………………………………
In Hindu Tantra, Kali is the consort of Shiva–the power that makes consciousness manifest.
Along the continuum of Being, which stretches from formlessness and unity into form and particularity, Shiva is pure consciousness, without form. Kali’s domain is the world of form, reality as we know it.
She is the power of incarnation, the creative and destructive force that manifests our universe of time, space, and duality.
Her wisdom is that there is no life without death, no light without dark–all things and their opposites co-exist on this plane of duality. And underneath them lies the unmanifest world of unity and wholeness.
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I love your poetry! So few people understand that pivoting point of the creative process where creation and destruction become one…
.-= painter of blue’s last post … Dorothy Walters, Poet =-.
Thanks so much for visiting, reading and leaving your heart-print here. Also for your wonderful post introducing the poetry of Dorothy Walters. Lovely to discover a new (to me) voice of such subtle power.
.-= Hiro Boga’s last post … Sunday Poem: Kali, Queen of the Night Sky… =-.
Thanks for sharing this poem. I was introduced to Kali through a book by Sera Berk. I appreciate that the words speak to the duality of our existence. I suppose it’s where old sayings like, “It’s darkest before the dawn,” originate.
Kali Ma goes home
In the paintings we see her
wild-eyed, panting, her fury whipped
up like the winds around her.
we see the severed heads, the blood, the dance.
And then the party is over
and Kali Ma goes home and puts the new heads on her shelf.
She has quite a collection there.
These heads, they stare at her
as she sighs and wonders how she’s going to get the blood out of her skirts.
She’s got entrails in her hair
and she’s not sure what to make for dinner.
For this moment, she forgets she is a goddess.
The blood sticks in the cracks of her hands. It wants to hold her fingers together, like a cup.
She remembers the homecoming queen’s wave, how she held her hand just this way, in a golden dress on the back of a convertible.
How subtle and pernicious this world is.
Ah, this stain will never come out.
.-= Bridget’s last post … Feelings are Not Pizza Toppings- Safely Handling Emotions Pt. 2 =-.
Hiro, I absolutely love “its convoluted folds sizzle into mist.” I’m going to be hearing, feeling, seeing that image for a long time! Tell me more about Kali and Shiva. I always think “Shakti/Shiva” and then see Kali as a power unto herself, encompassing perhaps all the “dark matter” of the universe, what holds us all. The idea that she would need/want a consort is new to me.
Thank you for creating such a beautiful piece.
Thanks, Miriam! It’s good to see you here! :-)
Kali is another form of Shakti. The dark mother, the creative womb of the universe, she represents the matrix of out of which all manifestation emerges, and to which it returns on its journey back into formlessness. She also embodies the power of time and transformation.
While Kali doesn’t need a consort–she is often shown dancing triumphantly on Shiva’s supine body–Tantric deities are always coupled because they represent dual aspects of the same qualities.
These are active and contemplative or peaceful and wrathful forms of particular vibrational fields. They function together, like the right and left hand of a single body.
As with all Tantric teachings and practices, there are many levels of meaning attached to Kali, from the purely devotional and conciliatory to the “hidden”. The powers and qualities attributed to Kali have evolved over the centuries. She encompasses a multitude of forms.
.-= Hiro Boga’s last post … Sunday Poem: Kali, Queen of the Night Sky… =-.
I’m sorry. I thought you wanted us to leave our own poems here too. I might have stepped in, in a way that was not useful.
I’m thinking a lot these days about the Kali in all of us, how we don’t let her out, because we have to clean up whatever chaos we participate in.
But…I didn’t mean to get in the way of your poem, thoughts, or day.
.-= Bridget’s last post … Feelings are Not Pizza Toppings- Safely Handling Emotions Pt. 2 =-.
Bridget, this is absolutely the place to leave your own poems! I’m so grateful your shared your Kali poem with us–it enriches this conversation. All aspects of the goddess, especially poems, are honored guests here.
I don’t respond to all comments. Some contributions shine a lovely light, illuminating whatever we’re discussing, and require no other response. And today, I have a cold and a very foggy head.
.-= Hiro Boga’s last post … Sunday Poem: Kali, Queen of the Night Sky… =-.
I hope you feel better soon. Amazing that you wrote such a cool poem with your foggy head. I really like it.
.-= Bridget’s last post … Feelings are Not Pizza Toppings- Safely Handling Emotions Pt. 2 =-.
Damn, Kali! I am in awe of your sleighin’ ways. Destruction has never looked more beautiful.
Hiro, this one leaves me a stunned, stuttering f-f-f-fool.
Love and thanks, as always.
.-= Erika Harris’s last post … I’m coming out! The purple lips edition. =-.