Moondala Ooh-la-la
I have written scores of poems about the moon. One of the first little chapbooks I put together for myself was titled “MOONDALA OOH-LA-LA.” During that time I was participating in an improv-movement class and was one of three women in a local poetry troupe called “Women of the 7th Veil.” In our hey-day, we presented a poetry performance for a Mountain Rose Dance Recital (a local dance studio that is no longer in existence). Dressed all in black except for the white scarf around my neck, I read moon poetry while my troupe partners (one of whom wore my multi-tiered wedding dress, suggestive of the full moon) did improv movement to it. Here’s one of the little moon ditties from that period, which was also published in the Wemoon Journal of 1993.
mOOnlight
full moon temptation
at the traffic lights
the red light says,
“Stop”
but the moonlight says,
“Come”
awakening my natural signals
Photo: Women of the 7th Veil, (I’m in the middle in this case) performing in the building that housed The Tea House Jam and Altared Space Gallery, which would later became Oddfellas Cantina.
February 11th, 2006 8:52 am
Hi there! Michele sent me.
February 11th, 2006 10:10 am
Cheers from Michele! Hope you have a great weekend.
February 11th, 2006 10:18 am
Love the idea of hearing and listening to our natural signals. Love moonlight.
February 11th, 2006 10:51 am
Loved your poem.
Hope you aren’t too cold this weekend!!!
February 11th, 2006 11:11 am
Feb 13th is the full moon.
I love the moon and all it’s mysteries.
February 11th, 2006 11:19 am
I know. I’ve been having trouble sleeping as it’s been getting full. But today woke up to SNOW and so the clouds have covered up all signs of it.
February 11th, 2006 11:30 am
oh, yeah, mr kenju’s natural signals get aroused during the full moon too!
February 12th, 2006 1:06 am
The full moon after a winter’s snow, slmost as bright as daylight and absolutely gorgeous.
February 12th, 2006 8:10 am
Women of the 7th Veil? That sounds familiar, but you will have to fill me in because I am visualizing of an old time British movie.
February 12th, 2006 8:40 am
I still read your Blog all the time and today i’m not just lurking. oh yeah. you were a Blogger I wrote out an interview for. I’m going to see if you have an email address posted and i’ll send my Qs there…
February 12th, 2006 5:48 pm
Tabor, The first time I heard a reference to “the 7th veil was in the Tom Robbins book “Jitterbug Perfume.” (I think it was that book). I believe it’s a mystical reference to the last veil between worlds and that some belly dancers do a 7th veil dance. I did a little googling and found that it WAS the name of an old movie too…with James Mason. The link I found said this: The 7th Veil” refers to a phrase mentioned by a psychiatrist (Herbert Lom) in reference to the various depths of a psychiatrically ill pianist’s mind.
There were lots of shops and such name 7th veil, but I couldn’t find any original reference to it.
Jake, Looking forward to your questions.
December 13th, 2011 10:32 am
[…] Post Notes: By my best guess I wrote this poem sometime in the mid 90’s. It was performed by Women of the 7th Veil, an improv-movement poetry troupe that I belonged to, at the Teahouse Jam/Altared Space Gallery, which is now Oddfellas Cantina. You can see a rare photo of the troupe (Jayn Avery, me and Katherine Chantal) performing HERE. […]
January 27th, 2016 10:07 pm
[…] us. We performed somewhere in the ‘90s at Oddfella’s Cantaina when it was the Teahouse Jam (HERE) and at a ’90s Mountain Rose dance recital in the high school […]