Miss Io Jade

I can say with great certainty that what she does not lack is personality.

"My Father's Love Letters" by Yusef Komunyakaa

My dad and Io.

My dad and me. 1981.

While searching for the perfect song, picture, or greeting card appropriate for father's day I happened upon this beautiful poem by Yusef Komunyakaa. Violence in all its forms continues to seep into our families. It is up to us to break the cycle and heal together. This poem speaks to my feelings for my father who has faulted and is flawed, but for whom I still have great compassion for.

"My Father's Love Letters" by Yusef Komunyakaa

On Fridays he'd open a can of Jax

After coming home from the mill,

and ask me to write a letter to my mother

Who sent postcards of desert flowers

Taller than men. He would beg,

Promising to never beat her

Again. Somehow I was happy

She had gone, and sometimes wanted

To slip in a reminder, how Mary Lou

Williams' "Polka Dots and Moonbeams"

Never made the swelling go down.

His carpenter's apron always bulged

With old nails, a claw hammer

Looped at his side and extension cords

Coiled around his feet.

Words rolled from under the pressure

Of my ballpoint: Love,

Baby, Honey, Please.

We sat in the quiet brutality

Of voltage meters and pipe threaders,

Lost between sentences . . .

The gleam of a five-pound wedge

On the concrete floor

Pulled a sunset

Through the doorway of his toolshed.

I wondered if she laughed

and held them over a gas burner.

My father could only sign

His name, but he'd look at blueprints

and say how many bricks

Formed each wall. This man,

Who stole roses and hyacinth

For his yard, would stand there

With eyes closed and fists balled,

Laboring over a simple word, almost

Redeemed by what he tried to say.

Listen to Yusef Komunyakaa recite his poem at my tumblr, The River Underground.

Io's Alphabet Sounds

Meditating on Prosperity!

The one year anniversary of Orbiting Io also coincides with the beginning of summer and that means I have my baby girl with me 24 hours a day. Which also means I have even less time to devote to this blog, but I'm not going to let that stop me! During these summer months, I have to keep Orbiting Io short and sweet. I will be sharing with you the little things that inspire me and keep me moving towards progress. 

For starters, I am currently part of an amazing meditation circle called Rhythm and Breath. Led by Luz Cañas, who is was certified in  Los Angeles at Golden Bridge by the Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) in Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, Rhythm and Breath offers a cyber-meditation experience. Luz leads the group via the internet and guides her participants through 40 day meditation cycles. We are currently doing a prosperity meditation. This is my second meditation cycle and it has helped me tremendously to act on my vision, listen to my intuition, and rise up to my higher self.

Please check out Luz Cañes and her Rhythm and Breath blog. If you decide to join in her meditation, please contact her directly. Doing the meditation is an intense process which requires guidance and  it should not be done on your own. Link to the blog here.

Luz demonstates the prosperity pose.

In accordance with the meditation, I'm focusing much of my creative energy on building a website for our family business, which is our construction contracting company, and also developing a  word-of -mouth marketing campaign. Prosperity comes in many forms, but MONEY is needed to sustain this operation and put food on the table! This our is our blog for the construction company, JOCC.(Click link.) By summer's end,  I hope to have a full website together. If you or someone you know needs some work done in Los Angeles, please do contact us!

Banner image for our construction company blog.

Also, for your daily fix, you can find me at my tumblr,  the river underground.

My tumblr site, the river underground.