Phoenix Songs

An evening of personal storytelling and poetry, centered around the theme of the Phoenix, culminating in a ceremonial burning

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When people think of phoenixes they think of something momentous, of something that can live forever. They think of the fire and the rebirth, of the great red bird exploding into flames. 

 

But do you remember the most important part of the phoenix story?

 

Of the phoenix song?

 

It isn’t the fire or the immortality-

 

The most important part of the phoenix story is the building.

 

Before a phoenix can be reborn, it has to build its nest- it’s funeral pyre. The nest is the transition space, the place where time stops, where the stories are told. The nest is where there are no limits, where the phoenix goes to be reborn- the nest is what gets set on fire.

 

Do you remember how that nighttime nest made us brave? Do you remember how we felt free to say the things we could never say in the daytime, in the too-big, too-cold outside?

 

Do you remember how warm it was?

Do you remember how it felt like we were on fire?

Do you remember how it made our voices feel so strong that if we lifted them to sing, our song might reach as far as the moon?

Do you remember how it made us want to dance?

Do you remember how it made us want to fly?