Note Slipped Under Layne Redmond’s Door, 8:45 a.m. Mz.Layne: Wake up! Wake up! Dionysus is gathering with the students in Syntagma Square, singing “Give Peace a Chance” and shouting ”America out!” Aphrodite’s daughters are handing out leaflets written in the ancient language of Sappho and Euripides, singing, What’s that happening on the street? Gotta revolution…. Continue Reading »
Dear K— This morning I went to a Greek Orthodox shrine across the street from my hotel in downtown Athens. It was a sort of grotto, its four walls covered with golden icons of Jesus and the saints—most of whom I didn’t recognize or understand. It was crowded with young businessmen on their lunch break… Continue Reading »
Tonight I decided to ditch the group and shouted goodbye and by the time anyone realized what was happening, I had jumped onto a boat that had already begun leaving the pier. But I almost immediately got lost on the disorienting backstreets of Ioannina. I had no idea whether I was walking toward or away… Continue Reading »
The cold door, a candle burning in the shrine the way a snowflake spins— * * * It had been a long drive to Delphi and we were still driving late into the night, and I was sitting by myself on the bus, looking down a valley of scrub between the road and the Corinthian… Continue Reading »
Approaching the Sacred Spring at Delphi The years have devoured everything without nostalgia. Below us, a pine forest tumbles into a jumble of boulders, nothing in the heather except a dog and the slanting sun’s long shadows across alpine flowers and stones we choose not to notice as we rush past to where we’re going,… Continue Reading »
Sign Entering a Cypriot Restaurant: Enter to thy good fortune. And may thy coming bless this house. * * * Today while Layne was drumming, I was concentrating on the beat, trying to learn how to hear the beat. At one point I finally got it and I was dancing from inside the beat when… Continue Reading »
Drum Song (for two voices) Him: I want her and when I want her I want her to give me All of her. When she comes to me she will come to me and give me All of her. When she comes to me she will come to me and I will give her All… Continue Reading »
Ritual Objects Collected for Aphrodite’s Altar Milk Honey Wine Olive oil Water Flowers Shells An altar cloth Ribbons Lighters x 2 Candles Plates Cups Round cakes Bells, bowls, and drums. On the Path to Aphrodite’s Rock, Cyprus The improvised brush of lips, the arch of her hip, her fingers pressed into my neck, these simple… Continue Reading »
* * * The purpose of music is to approach divinity on its own terms This morning I was sitting on my front porch, listening to the Sunday morning singing of the liturgy that was broadcast on speakers throughout the town. And as I was listening I heard a couple making love to… Continue Reading »
It was Sunday morning in the taverna and busloads of out-¬of-towners were in Larnaca for the Feast of St. Helen (Eleni, in Greek). Every chair in the taverna was filled and there were only two people working the bar. I stood at the counter patiently waiting to order the double cappuccino medium with sugar that… Continue Reading »