Tag: Beautiful

Flamenco Recital

Posted on May 25, 2017 by Kathryn Atkins

Con El Alma Dance Recital

The night before a recital. tumblr_ltxpemhhsj1qkx2rdo1_500
Flamenco practice done.
The dancers are ready.
Their hair in buns.

Their feet are sore
From practicing every night.
Excited and happy,
Their goal is to delight.

Filled with elation.
Full of anticipation.
Feeling exhilaration.
There’s never a temptation
To back away.
No way, no way.
Attack. Stay.
Dance. Sway.
Sweat ‘til you’re wet.
Don’t forget. Don’t forget!

Smile.
Grimace.
Spin.
Keep the beat.
More heart. More heart.
Feel the passion!
Meet your art.

The newbies in awe
Watch the seasoned dancers dance.
With hope, with work,
We may have a tiny chance
To be half as good some day.
We sigh, as we say,
“Look. Just look.
They’re lovely to behold.
We’ll be there one day
Before we’re old!”

Flamenco is hard—much harder than it looks.
It cannot be learned from reading books.
Our teacher, dear Sarah
Works tirelessly, but has fun.
Thanks. Sarah. We’re excited.
Break a leg everyone!

Author’s note: Whatever you do, you’re bound to face the fear of failure when you’re first starting out. Flamenco so inspires me, I’m willing to face that fear. Eventually I’d like to dance with abandon and revel in the beauty, sensuousness and passion of this historically significant, culturally rich dance form. Until then, I’m willing to learn, practice, and embarrass myself, even, to reach my goal. Olé!

Death in the Garden of Eden

Posted on September 27, 2016 by Kathryn Atkins

aa026359 Death sat curled up in a large swinging wicker chair in the long shuttered Garden of Eden. The warm breeze smelled of plumeria. A colorful macaw bobbed on a branch of that famous tree. The snake near the tree knew who the beautiful woman was, and recoiled from her, even though she really had no jurisdiction over the animal kingdom. Still the snake stayed his distance.

A bright green frog peeked up from under a leaf. The rest of nature’s creatures crowded around in a careless exhalation of extraordinary beauty. Death went there sometimes to think things through. She loved the natural habitat and the irony: the Garden of Eden had actually been the beginning of the end: the birthplace of man’s mortality. Had those two humans (symbolic or not) never been “human” by succumbing to temptation, they would not have known death or Death, either one. The latter smiled at the irony.

Did Adam and Eve not know these words at the time: “… and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…”? Death decided they didn’t know or chose not to heed the words because they were lead into, and they were not delivered from. The forbidden fruit was the temptation on that fateful day. Today, the Deathlist is the forbidden fruit. It’s man’s quest to know all there is to know. And this knowledge, this Deathlist, has been as nasty and unforgiving as the sin in the Garden of Eden. And as before, they’re paying for it.

“But perhaps we can still fix it,” Death said to those creatures around her. “The Deathlist that is. Adam and Eve’s little slip is way too far gone. But the Deathlist… maybe yes.”

Death arose from her chair, nodded to the pretty frog and raised an eyebrow in the snake’s direction. He flinched. Death chuckled, pleased with herself, and left.

Death Isn’t Just Beautiful — She’s HOT

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Kathryn Atkins

Deathlist excerpt:

She was wearing a black dress with a plunging neckline and an air-light shawl. Her hair sparkled with tiny, exquisite diamonds. They looked real. Her wide, sensuous mouth and perfect teeth smiled at the gray-haired gentleman seated next to her at Table 16. Harold got up from his table and started to go over for a closer look, but she casually turned away, her back denying identification, and all he found when he arrived at Table 16 was a napkin with lipstick stains and the guy who had been sitting next to her face down in his watercress soup. Harold wondered if he were dead or just sleeping. Old people sometimes fall asleep at dinner. Without stopping to double-check, Harold could see no rise and fall of the man’s back. So the man wasn’t breathing. He was dead.