“Cycle for Nembetsu Udori, Festival to Summon Ancestral Spirits” by Judy Schavrien
Summer in Kyoto,
Remembering Van Gogh
Cicada(1) at Dawn
From the full-throated
throb you alight – sawing
your single note.
Noon: Remembering Van Gogh
on Mt. Heiei
Noon swelled to bursting.
In the pine’s blue flame – one
sudden cicada!
Sunset
Cicada, silent
in a ray of sunset
you weld to the branch.
Night
Cicada, with all your heart
you throb the heart of the night –
Is it home you long for?
And when your brief
insistence of a life is over
do you finally find it?
Or does your song just stop
and the universe go out
Coda
Seven years to arrive
Seven days to live. Cicada,
you sing, you sing!
(1)In “cicada,” pronounce the first “a” as “ah.”
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Judy Schavrien Artist Statement:
Judy Schavrien is a poet, artist, and psychotherapist. As a psychotherapist, her expertise is trauma, and
she herself emerged from a seven year stint of post-trauma stress. It issued from a mugging in which she
was shot in the face. Crucial to her recovery was Tibetan Buddhist study and practice with the Venerable
Sogyal Rinpoche, known as the laughing lama. As an artist, she was nominated Oakland, CA artist of the
year and received for her work in the arts, including poetry, 15 national and international awards. As a
poet, her work is anthologized in New Lesbian Voices, which won the small press Library Journal Award.
Her paintings and poems, forged in the smithy of the feminist and lgbt liberation movements, aim for
depth—psychological, social, and spiritual. Her books—Alice at the Rabbithole Café, Shot Awake: A
Painter’s Memoir, and Everything Voluptuous—may be found on Amazon and at www.jesart.net
