the apsis of love
how far and how close 
can we be?

perihelion
yr proximity
means nuthin’
in this hemisphere 
a cold shoulder
a close turn

aphelion
yr heart on the 
outskirts or perhaps my orbit
you are so very far 
this is when 
we truly burn for your 
return return return

Most of us have been taught to think of our body as a physical structure, isolated from everything else. But if we think of it as a living system, then a different picture emerges. Traditional Indigenous thinking points towards an open system, connected with the universe and the Creator. In the mid-1970s I wrote down what I had been saying in many Indian gatherings:
— Read on www.ammsa.com/publications/windspeaker/where-do-our-bodies-end

“If I am peaceful in this discomfort, is not peace, is getting used to harm.” – Dionne Brand

booty bump bump
booty bump bump
the thick of us
together
the thick of it
booty bump bump
booty bump bump

A couple of months later, my friend Mary called me up and said it’s on again. I tape recorded it; I transcribed it, and this is when I became really interested in watching not what people say, but how they say it. Particularly when they run out of words. In the case of a person like Sophia Loren, when she runs out of words, she’s even greater because the real space is her physical space. And her physical space comes first; the words fit in to that. I remembered everything Sophia did. Whereas with Joan, I remember everything she said, and I don’t have a single image of anything about her appearance. See what I mean? And that just sent me down this way of watching talk shows all the time. Transcribing them and watching them for how people behave in the moment the interviewer questions their identity—usually it’s threatening.
— Read on bombmagazine.org/articles/anna-deavere-smith/