PSALMS OF MY SOUL
ספירת העומר
HOD sh b'TIFERET
Kabbalistic Sephirat Counting of the Omer day 19
Splendor and Awe in Harmony and Balance
TODAY I AM A POT
- by Joy Krauthammer
When I was a potter,
some pots needed orphanages,
whether birthed or aborted, a mistake.
Too raw, I recycled them into
mud once more, back to the earth.
No ritual burial, no chanting Kaddish.
Kneading clay back to fertile birth
spinning centeredness and stillness
turning round and round
mound of moist mud
ecstasy through my embracing fingers
and all over my soaked
clay-caked body.
We were one.
Clay called to me,
"Come play with me, form me, caress me,
harden me, color me, use me, delight in me."
Vessels of ceramic beauty,
weird, altered, exploding pots
push past boundaries
and respond to my touch.
"In what fire will you finish me?
In what kiln will I cook?
Electric or Raku or Anagama?
Heat high my body -- transform me
until I am birthed firm and beautiful."
When I did what I loved,
and I loved what I did,
in delight and joy
night and day
on the potter's wheel,
although I didn't understand Oneness
I was Oneness.
No separation.
Then, I didn't know "G*d".
or did I?
Thank you, G*d,
for the glory of creation,
of immersion and joyous passion fulfilled.
Today I am a Pot
May my outer self portray
My inner self --
awakened, conscious, mindful
of the wholeness, the harmony,
the strength,
the character, the integrity,
and the honesty of a good pot,
half-filled or half-empty,
standing upright,
glazed or not.
Gaze upon me
or fill me with nature's treasures:
tea leaves, a sunflower, pebbles, a pod,
seashells, lavender buds, fruit, or a feather.
Friends
Discover even more pleasure
and truth
when you look inside.
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"Surely G*d was in this (sacred) place, and I, I did not know."
"Achen Yesh HaShem, B'makom hazeh, v'anochi, lo yadati."
Parsha Vayetze, Genesis 28:16.
"Like the clay in the hand of the potter - he expands it at will - so are we in Your hand, O Preserver of loving-kindness..."
ArtScroll Yom Kippur Machzor, page 121, evening service.
"And now Hashem, You are our Creator, we are the clay and You are our Potter, and we all are the work of Your hand." Isaiah 64:7
ArtScroll Siddur, page 127. Tachanun read before Torah, weekday mornings.
Otto Heino, potter extraordinaire, died July 2009. Otto showed me his first place, award winning pot from the International Ceramics show in Paris, and exclaimed to me that he "won FIRST PLACE because it was an HONEST POT" . That emet, truth has permeated my being. Today I held one of his baby pots.
.
TODAY I AM A POT reprinted from "The Deronda Review" Vol. III. No. I Fall-Winter 2009-2010
a journal of poetry and thought. http://www.pointandcircumference.com/
and
published in The Jewish Woman 2010
http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/11715/jewish/Krauthammer-Joy.htm
Published in
American Ceramic Society, Design Chapter, ACS-DC Newsletter,
March 2013, Vol. 14, Issue 22, page 12.
Published in
Huffington Post, Religion, Omer LiveBlog, Day 49,
Malchut sh b'Malchut, May 14, 2013.
http://huff.to/16bvdWv
Readings:
"TODAY I AM A POT" Aleph's KALLAH 2011, Univ. of Redlands, CA
"TODAY I AM A POT" Makom Ohr Shalom, Encino, CA
"TODAY I AM A POT" Opening of Sound and Light studio, Sherman Oaks, CA
MUD POT, ten second watercolor with Japanese brush at LACMA, by Joy Krauthammer, created to accompany Today I Am A Pot.
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Joy Krauthammer
wheel-thrown pot |
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Joy Krauthammer, MBA, following Queens College, and before becoming a medical social worker, a weaver, sound healer, performing percussionist, publisher, poet, etc., received a Max Beckmann full scholarship for her graduate ceramics work at the Brooklyn Museum School of Art. She continued her ceramics studies and exploration in California.
In the 1970's, Joy taught ceramics at Cooper Square Art School, NY, opened an arts school for the City of Los Angeles in the late 1980's, and taught ceramics for them and other schools. Favorite memories include 24/7 chopped-wood stoking the firing for her pots in the Anagama mountain kiln at ISOMATA, Idyllwild, San Jacinto Mountains, and belonging to the American Ceramics Society and travelling with 63 other divine potters to New Mexico to visit Indians on their sacred lands.
Joy's award winning art has been exhibited in many shows.
Before the 1994 Northridge earthquake struck her town, Joy thought that her beautiful pottery took up too much space and decided that if she became a drummer, the music would be "ethereal", taking up NO space. Joy has spent the last couple decades travelling around the world collecting drums for her performing as a spiritual percussonist.
Joy wrote TODAY I AM A POT, because her soul still yearns to play in the mud, and her heart is touched by all the memories deeply shared for the last four decades with wonderful creative and talented pottery friends and teachers.
PHOTOS:
Joy Krauthammer and her salt glazed wheel-thrown and altered pots.
Created at ISOMATA, USC's Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts.
Joy's ANAGAMA experience is included in the "Ceramics Monthly", March
1985.
The ISOMATA mud gang, including Susan Peterson, obm, smiling behind me, in photo below so you can see me in my muddy potting apron in the front row. - Joy Krauthammer
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Pot photos by Joy Krauthammer ©
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