Got Ojas?
Ojas is the juiciness of life, made possible by mental, emotion, physical and spiritual balance. Think about the qualities of a person who is healthy. They are strong yet supple, easy to smile, generous with their time and energy, resilient and a visible radiance. The Sanskrit word ojas describes this glow. This video is a first person documentary, free associatively constructed around a poem by Karen Minzer. The video explores the relationship of Ojas and its parallels in zen and socratic philosophies, referring to essential nature residing within us. What’s inside of you is outside of you. And vice versa. This video defines ojas and essential nature through home movies of three generations of the same family. Audio of Minzer’s poem is similarly layered to suggest generational overtones. The video incorporates iPhone call-in readings by Karen Minzer, Monika Bell and Imogene Bell. Visuals were collaged by Monika Bell, using Karen’s family videos, some clips from both Monika and Karen’s performances, Suze Riddle’s ambient film work, and audio of Karen defining Ojas in an interview by Brian Townley. Music is public domain.
Text:
Got Ojas?
Holey Chirping of a bird that loves it when the sun comes up
A flower that loves it when it rains, and not too much
the colors that love any kind of light
the wood that loves the ancestry of the tree
the tree that casts a dance of leaves
to have kin so near
though a park bench it may now be
the bed that loves your sleep
the water that loves your drink
the people that let you watch them
the people that watch you
what you imagine you share in a stare
the spoon that loves to stir
the book that loves it pages
and holds them tight in its arms
the spirits of the Dead
did love die when they did?
Holy the truth that loves to surface
the journeys that love us to pieces
the pieces apart
attracted to a whole
or picked up piecemeal
loved individually
the splinters of the self
divided, multiplied physically altered
but never wavering in the soul’s composition
the composition that loves your soul
the soul that loves you
the you that loves them
the Them that is You
the All that is the It
the Them with You
The All is nothing more
than nothingness plus
all deathlessness, birthlessness
living, dead, and in-between.
the shining of nothing in a hole
the hair that grows down a river
the river that perches on a tree
the tree made of a tv
the tv that is nature
the nature that is the furniture
` the silence that speaks
the ceiling that rains thought
a floor’s cradle of the heart
the walls that cheat the feet
Start to finish
Finish to be started
the in-between bleeding into
opposite attractions— All of it!
the eye of the daisy staring
at the face of the chair
the choir of voicelessness
the danceless rhythm
the un-seeable obvious
the oblivion of the known
refusing and accepting
everything
simultaneously!
Vacuum the rain
Publish the sun
Fax the clouds
Pressure a void
You can be loved
by millions of people
a spaceless of people
Unless you love yourself
You will never feel their love
It’s not all or nothing.
It’s everything that’s nothing
Be the problem and its solution
Be as empty as you are full
Be a dimensional plane
Be dimensionless
Be aimlessly passionate
Be passionately aimless
Lose the answer
Find the question
Dawn is never wrong!
Nobel worm awaken!
A red-breasted robin
pecks the earth for you!
Karen is a writer/poet/wanderer, published by the Austin Sun in the 70s, Paris Records in the 80s and Wowapi, 90s to present. Her most recent work is published in Entropy (2019.) In 1977 she discovered WordSpace founder, Robert Trammell, reading his poetry at Old City Park across the street from her home at the historic (grundgy) Ambassador Hotel. She is a co-recipient, with Dee Mitchell, of the 2015 Dallas Observer MasterMind Awards and has served WordSpace as program curator, coordinator, board member, programs chair, program director, and executive director 2009-2018. She is currently a WordSpace Advisor and co-chair of Special Events; and Humanities doctoral (old) student. She holds an MFA from Naropa University Jack Kerouac School, where she also studied as a poetics apprentice to Allen Ginsberg, back in the day. She has curated thousands of writers for over 30 years in DFW, Boulder and Santa Fe. Karen is a veteran punk band shouter, but is pretty quiet and retired these days, a Dharma Broad, 500 hour E-RYT yoga instructor; and sometimes participates in Thomas Riccio’s Zombies. Jennifer Smart: Dallas Observer. 100 Dallas Creatives: Underground Culture Mainstay Karen X. Minzer
