Palimpsest - A minha desnudez

A minha desnudez é
a minha terapia, y
a minha amante.
Ela dorme comigo
y comparte as minhas
comidas.
Bailamo junto.
Mas quando salgo
a la cashe
ou quando vo
ao centro
tenho que enropá me
no incómodo disfarce
dos feridos.

My Nakedness

My nakedness is
my therapy, and
my lover.
She sleeps with me
and shares my meals.
We dance together.
But when I go out
into the street
or when I go
downtown
I have to put on
the uncomfortable disguise
of the wounded.

Dhuni

The fireplace is my dhuni,*
and I am as naked
as any nanga sadhu.**
But I am not a teacher,
just a tender
of the sacred
fire.

* ritual firepit
** naked ascetic

Commentary on Gymniad - VI and Preceding

There is a photographer, Spencer Tunick, who uses (many) naked bodies in his art. He gets ever-larger crowds of naked people to pose for him. I'm sure he's broken several Guinness records. Almost invariably, the people who pose say it was an enjoyable and liberating experience, and they often say that they'd like to do it again. (This in spite of the fact that he often requires them to strip off before 5:00 a,m., even on cold mornings). This tells me that people really need nudity, it has been kept away from them too long. Let's work to normalize nudity, and enjoy life the more! It's essential.

Photo by Spencer Tunick Models: the people of Hull.

Palimpsest - LXIII

Faze muito frío mas estoy muito nu,
calentado por un fogo interno
e impelido por una visón
do que huvisse podido ser.

It is very cold but I am very naked,
warmed by an inner fire
and driven by a vision
of what could have been.

I invite translations of my Gymniad series into other languages. The poems are unrhymed, and there are six of them at present, plus a couple of commentary entries. I'll give translator credit, and will barter other translation work that I can do (preferably into English, which is my native language). Please consider it. Thanks.

Gymniad - VI

Nakedness is not only
pleasant and healthy,
it is the identity
that we have forgotten.
It is essential,
it is natural,
and it is joy.

Commentary on Gymniad - III

Another thing that I did not understand is that humans, alone among all creatures, are ashamed of our sexuality. Such an attitude is not natural: it had to be taught. History does not take us back very far, but it is safe to say that we have labored under this burden of shame for thousands of years.

Why was such shame spread, and even enforced? Why did we have to be squeezed into a mold of the unnatural? Who stood to gain by such a perversion of our nature? I submit that it was, again, the patriarchal forces that came into prominence after the agricultural revolution. Those patriarchal, machista men had already perverted love and sex in their own lives, and they were ashamed. They were, in other words, ashamed of themselves.

Coming more into times that we are familiar with, we are met with the biblical prohibitions against allowing ones "nakedness" to be seen (even by family), and Paul's sad, anti-sexual attitudes. These trends unfortunately increased, and were enforced with ever-greater ferocity during the "Middle Ages" in Europe.

But we do not have to be like that. For the sake of our mental, physical, and emotional health, let us reject all that is not natural, and begin again to truly love.