Pleasing Sights and Pleasing Sounds: Dance Edition*

What music makes you feel your best self? What sounds inspire you to to get dancing? 

I Crave Your Mouth

Sonnet XI

“I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.                        

Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.                                  
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day . I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.

I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.

I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body, the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
Like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.”

― Pablo Neruda


Commentary:

One of my favorite poems from Pablo Neruda's book, 100 Love Sonnets. Its a poem that I read every so often. I've always wondered what such love is like, to crave the entirety of another being. Consuming the whole of a lover and being driven mad by such emotions. There's a human longing for comfort, a longing for close intimacy, and a longing for an unnerving bond. The hunger in the poet fuels his hunt in turn drives him mad pacing around for his lover's hot heart.

Admiring Other Women

"I admire other women's beauty. It makes me want to be the best version of myself."

I read this comment sometime a while ago and it has always stuck with me. Perhaps it is because I so much believe in the truth of it, at least for myself. I have always been amazed and mesmerized by other women's beauty whether it's in her style of dress, her graceful movements, beautification of her hair, etc. all of it reveling in femininity and sensuality. I most wholeheartedly believe in always complimenting other women :) One may never know how far a positive comment may brighten someway's day. In fact its the moments when I feel a bit down and out of place that a compliment by another women lifts my spirits immensely.

Admiring another women's beauty is akin to admiring another flower that has come to full bloom So here is a small collection of women I admire for their beauty, style, and presence. Every time I see such photos I feel even more inspired to adorn my hair in gold trinkets, wear my staple kitten heels, paint my nails a seductive red or a feminine coral pink, mist the air around me in a cloud of sweet perfume, and start the day just right :)

For my readers, are their any pictures of women you admire that makes you want to be the best version of yourself? If so please post away in the 
comments section :)  

Modern Pinup model Angelique Noire

Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai

Actress Kerry Washington

Gossip Girl Stars Blair & Serena

Actress Madeleine Mantock

Singer Janelle Monae

Silent Film Actress Clara Bow

Brazilian Model Isabel Correa

Singer Corinne Bailey Rae

Black Woman wearing a Turban

Actress Lupita N'yongo

"How a Woman Walks" - Zora Howard

"Walk Like a Woman, did with the suns of a nation complacent in the crook of your neck." - Zora Howard.

Zora Howard is a Black American writer, spoken word poet, and activist with roots in Harlem, New York. Ms. Howard I believe has given phenomenal contributions to modern American poetry and writing. Ms. Howard is also the youngest NYC Youth Poet Laureate.

At some point in my last years of high school I discovered Zora Howard's spoken word performances on YouTube, stumbling upon her video "Walking" as an introduction to her. Mind you when I found her spoken word videos in high school she was only a few years older than me, but her words and voice commanded an age that was far beyond who I saw on the video. Ms.Howard's poetry is heart tugging, engaging, and is heavily sprinkled with biting metaphors that linger in my head for hours on end. I IMPLORE YOU to to set aside time to watch her videos without any distractions. I find my favorite spoken word video by Ms.Howard to be Walking. I can replay that particular video over and over without any hesitation. Every time I hear Zora Howard perform her spoken word piece Walking I want to reach out to every black woman and man and just simply bring them closer towards me and simply hug them. Ms. Howard speaks on everything I have always felt and spoke on but says it with such power and her voice commands great attention.

The main reason I want to show people this particular video are for these lines in particular that really spoke to me.

• Every night since I was nine my daddy told me I really was an angel 
• He mad me promise to always walk like a woman did,
• Carry your divinity in your chin, and try not to trip, walk hard little angel 
• If you lifted your eyes from her breasts maybe you would see your sister in her face and hear her heart trying to break free
• Teach them how to soldiers but never fathers
• We teach them how to be gangstas but when are they going to find time how to dream

Little Black girls you all are angels, every single one of you. Every little girl deserves to be told she is an angel, especially by her father or any other prominent male figure in her life. She deserves the showering kisses of love and attention from her father. As women I truly believe we carry our divinity in our chin as 

Ms.Howard says. Black women and Black men we deserve better, so much better. However this post I want to really speak to Black women when I say this: Promise to always walk like a woman did ... and carry your divinity in your chin.