{"id":1314,"date":"2012-07-06T07:36:14","date_gmt":"2012-07-06T07:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/?p=1314"},"modified":"2017-07-11T16:48:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T16:48:29","slug":"dancing-in-trance-drenched-in-the-divine-by-kavita-venkateswar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/dancing-in-trance-drenched-in-the-divine-by-kavita-venkateswar\/","title":{"rendered":"Dancing in Trance: Drenched in the Divine by Kavita Venkateswar"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h1>\n

Dancing in Trance: Drenched in the Divine<\/h1>\n

by Kavita Venkateswar<\/p>\n

Flutes of the bamboo tremble
\nThe thrum of the gamelan
\nResonates under my feet
\nStrike of the mallet
\nMetallophones ring
\nStrings, rebab<\/em>, rise
\nIn symphony
\nCacophony
\nI tremble
\nFlutter
\nQuake
\nCrash!<\/em><\/p>\n

It is she
\nShe comes for us<\/p>\n

Crash of the gong wadoan<\/em>
\npendulous breasts swinging, white scarf round her head
\nhere enters the witch
\ninto the temple of the divine
\ngrotesque and riveting in her magic
\nI cannot bear to look
\nI lay on the dirt
\nI should not
\nI cannot<\/p>\n

But she has come for the king
\nWho has refused her daughter’s hand
\nHis emissary pleads
\nThe Kedang Ageng<\/em> drum rumbles
\nThunder under my palms
\nA breath of fire burns
\nHe is human no longer, but a dragon of ancient lore
\nI cannot look
\nI should not look<\/p>\n

Thick heavy air shrouds the dancers
\nThe witches plague has come
\nI cannot look
\nI should not look<\/p>\n

I fall to the ground
\nI cannot look
\nI should not look<\/p>\n

A hand falls across my neck
\nMy eyes open before I can think
\nI cannot look
\nI should not?
\nBut in the veil of smoke,
\nThe dragon’s eyes pierce my soul
\nI cannot help but look<\/p>\n

It is them
\nThey have come for us<\/p>\n

The drum beats into my consciousness
\nThe throb of the bass sounding in my ear
\nDa-dum da-dum da-dum
\nBut wait, that is the drum no longer
\nIt is my heart, yet not even mine
\nFlooding my body, my blood
\nDrenched in the divine<\/p>\n

The spirit has entered me
\nI am no longer myself<\/p>\n

The blade, its curve an ocean wave
\nGrey, a wave caught in the tumult of a storm
\nThe kris, weapon of the heavenly
\nThe blade turns in my hand, her hand,
\nIn our hand perhaps, I cannot tell
\nI am lost<\/p>\n

Body seizes
\nArms spasm
\nLegs convulse
\nHands jerk
\nAnd the kris stabs the chest
\nOver and over
\nHorrific and beautiful
\nJab and thrust
\nEerie and magnificent
\nthrust and blow<\/p>\n

an arresting sight
\nwith blood never drawn
\nlegs half bent, huddled
\nfeet open, torso to the side
\nsensual arching of the spine
\nwomanly curve of the buttocks
\nand the spirit dances the legong
\nfaster
\nand more intricate
\nstabbing
\nconvulsing
\nfluttering
\njerking<\/p>\n

collapsing<\/p>\n

I cannot help but look, listen
\nTo the priest who speaks of dance I had never learned
\nBut performed flawlessly in the most scared of temples
\nOf the celestial that coursed through my veins
\nOf the hours I cannot remember<\/p>\n

Not a dance
\nBut a trance
\nA prayer to the gods<\/p>\n

###
\nKavita Venkateswar is a recent graduate of Rice University in Houston, Texas, with a degree in Chemical Engineering. Her poetry has been published in The Dreamcatcher: Awaken the Sleeping Poet Festival and in R2: The Rice Review. In 2011, she was awarded the Schumann Brothers Grant for Creative Expression, through which she was awarded $1000 to research and create a series of poems about different types of world dance. Her favorite poets are Naomi Shihab Nye and Emily Dickinson. Kavita is an avid photographer and Bharata Natyam dancer, and will be pursuing advanced study in dance in India this fall. She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dancing in Trance: Drenched in the Divine by Kavita Venkateswar Flutes of the bamboo tremble The thrum of the gamelan Resonates under my feet Strike of the mallet Metallophones ring Strings, rebab, rise In symphony Cacophony I tremble Flutter Quake Crash! It is she She comes for us Crash of the gong wadoan pendulous breasts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[428],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirational-poems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}