Some chaps
Boom the truth
As their eyes feel
About women
How they are afraid to look into their own flesh alone
And feel the softness
That is only female
To touch the gooey tisshe
That brings warriors to their knees
Paranoia without emotion
These men
love baseball more
And sell coldness
As manliness

A bit hesitantly
We observe what winter has done to delicate daisies
As the priests of darkness grow louder
In the advancing cold
Bad times inevitably come
As a flower’s breath disappears into the wind
The warrior's lance defenseless

Perhaps if she were womin
She could survive alone

Real male pros avoid fairy tales
And use their manlessness to touch souls
The Cheshire-cat muscles
Chasing demons away
In partnered battle
With the emerging womin

Moonlight cuts the darkness
Shining in her smile
As their holographic images
Climb from the marsh together
Standing taller
Than apart

Both should not fear
The sloppy side of love
It’s brief wars and scratches between them
Worth the battle
She has the right to be womin
And spit into the wind

I do not know what to say
To say to whom
What
I can feel why
But not know how to share the feeling

Warm, rich, tasty eyes
Turn and twist
Like retracted headlights
Flying from the compartment
To protectively scan the horizon

There is safety in your sight
I wear your presence like armor
To slay dragons
That now seem harmless
Even pain is fun with you

I do not know what to say
To say to you
What
I cannot understand
When we are not one

When shadows
Dance
And the night blinds
Dragons always win
When we are not one.

Small, gentle breaths
Gentle eyes
Embraced by years
And shadows of undone deeds
Feeling much pain
And even more joy.

Small, gentle gestures
Only that blood can share
With restrained excitement
Under the rough and torn
Caring.

Small, gentle eyes
Gentle breaths
Gone
Moments past
Now comfort enough.    

I
THE WINGLESS PHOENIX

He lay
still
quiet, not moving
the hairs on his face real and apparently alive
the mists of snow dripping from his nose and chin
covering him like white, crystal ashes
only his head protruded from the prayer shawl
rapping his cold body
I expected him to shiver
and blow frosty air from his nostrils
his eyes closed
his lips slightly pursed as if trying to speak
as if he knew it was to be his last breath
as if he was trying to scream
to finally say those last things
that we can never say when alive
The coffin  was made only of fine woods
no metals for the dying Jew
just the clear shine of hand-carved sapwoods
cool to the eye
glistening in  the darkness of the chilling night
like a warm, tightly fitting glove
it held him in its artificial womb
in the quiet broken only by the whispering of the cooling winds
keeping him asleep with its soothing lullabies
as if the winds were to stop their song
he would leap from his birth and live again
wingless and ground born
I quietly anticipate his flight.

II
THE SINGING SILENCE

then came the morning hymns
chanting ditties to the budding flora
reaching their long limbs to the sky
like young, flexing muscles
the clouds accompanied with its serenading  landscape    
of chirps and girgles
covering the earth with its shadow
of silent song
warm in its coolness
like the dancing liquid flowing from a young mother's womb
the sprouts jumped into and through the coffin
wrapping my brother's body with its gentle clutch
whispering into his ear its life giving drone
that echoed into the air
prancing with the newly born sun rays
ever so carefully tickling the flesh of his ears
and the tone of the cool morning air
the silent sounds wailed
at once in rejoice and mourning
in the growing light
his lifeless body wingless and ground born
I quietly
patiently  
anticipate his flight

III
MOURNING SONGS II

First I lost my father
But didn't know the Jew's way to mourn
So only my inner heart sang the kaddish
Each passing day
Filled with the butting chests of males
Blowing steam from their nostrils
Trying to eat my flesh
Inside I wept
Floundering in the viscous sea
Like a fish that hasn't been taught to swim
Then
As my brother died
I lost another.

IV
THE DANCE

Then the dancing starts
the parade insidiously leaks into the night and day
with prancing children
grandchildren, ancestors, great-grand children
singly and in hoards
they taunt the stillness of death
with their understated sway
refusing to let the dying and dead sleep
they swing arm in arm
in jigs and horas
shouting in challenge
to the silence of the night
embarrassing  the dead and dying to attention
with spirit thick with blood
they touch and sashay
with one communal step
I blink
and they are still there
I rub my confused eyes
and they are gone
but I can hear them
and I bring myself up to my knees
then rise
like a newly born pony shivers to foot
precariously balancing his large body
on his spindly legs
in the growing light
I look down upon my brother's  lifeless body
and angrily
await his flight

V
WORDS WITHOUT SONG

time causes feelings
in death that life wouldn't answer
a yearning for discovery
for the secrets locked
in the stillness
tightly latched
in the confines of his fate
I reach out
into the naked night
and remember
remember all the moments that I didn't have the warrior's spirit
to act upon
I lay down by my dead brother
awaiting my turn
breathing
in rhythm with the calmness
as the silence sings
I hear nothing
but feel so much of the unexplained.

VI
DREAMS
Children play
Children's things
In their world without beginning or end
As fateless as a small puppy
They seriously romp
Boundless and hungry
For the ways
That only forever brings.
Then his birthing mother died
And my brother never trusted
Again
Taking his breaths through straws
And his loving through armor
His games
No longer children's things.

VII
MORNING SONGS II

First I lost my father
But didn't know the Jew's way to mourn
Then I lost my brother
And now know even less
Blowing frosty air from my nostrils
In tune
With the winds
Singing quietly
I grieve with my own song
And await the first soothing promise
Of the coming morning
From the darkness of the chilling night
As assuredly as my brother's body slowly rots
In the melting snow
There is the sun's mending breath
For the living
And we gradually step into the dawning
With memories
To hold together our wounds.

VIII
FLIGHT OF THE WINGLESS PHOENIX

The warm snow
beats against my chest
Like a tireless, angry warrior

If only I had known
That I didn't need wings
To fly.

A special point in time.  
A special quiet, unchallenged moment
We observe fireflies cutting the darkness like fighter planes in combat
then long periods of stillness
broken only by the rhythmic hum of insects
We passively watch the  streaking hints of dawn
that turn into responsive sunlight, warming us
Reminding us that goodness eventually comes again
And we slowly close our eyes
Smiling.

Celeste, the young dame
Had a sister
Who was misnamed
For it is Celeste who is the fower
As her siblings should have been named stone,
For a rose, is a rose, is a rose
baptized Celeste

Their holy father in all his misgodlyness
Stole her being
And brothers and dad left her for dead

And this little beaming star
Sat in the mud
Muddled and unaware of her noble birthright
Looking into the wisps of the dew
And seeing only  weeds.
Mirror, mirror on the wall
Have I the right to live at all?

Like discarded toys
She lay broken
In the arms of  evil
As these sightless voices ran their boats
And gave their sermons
Only in the secrecy of their hearts stopping to admire their ability
To turn gold into coal

But almost unnoticed
At first just the gasp of a cough
The first tear of her unbreakable will on her cheek
Then whole movements
This jewel willed herself  from the mud
Unbeaten by the evil
And unbroken by the spiritless father
She rises
Her scent evident to everyone
Touched by her magic

For a rose, is a rose, is a rose is always a rose
Is a wonder
Is enchantment
Is Celeste.

The Electric Arts Duo is an intermedia performing arts ensemble composed of composer, clarinetist Burton Beerman and dancer, choreographer Celesta Haraszti.  The ensemble particularly incorporated interactive music and video technologies going back to the mid-80s, using such hardware as multiple slide projectors, color dyes dropped in water and projected on dancers with plastic projectors and Amiga Computers.

The clarinet processed its clarinet sounds with MIDI effects units, controlled with footpedals and a pitch-to-MIDI converter to drive MIDI voice modules with the sound of the clarinet.  Using Amiga Computers, the Duo worked in a Mandala Programming Environment.  This allowed the Duo to control both MIDI sound and video in a world in which a camera placed the live dancer in a computer constructed projected world.  Later the Duo replaced MIDI voice and effects modules with the multiple processor Capybara 320 sound design system from SymbolicSound using the Kyma  software.

The Duo incorporated the BodySynth in the 90s, a wireless sensor system that attached to the dancer at different locations on your body by Velcro.  The system uses a wireless guitar transmitter to send signals determined from her movements to a Bodysynth receiver.  The movements of the dancer then determined changing MIDI data as placed in a programming environment.  At first KeyKit  programming environment by Tim Thompson was used then the Kyma software was used with the Capybara 320.

Celesta Haraszti, began her dance training in Budapest, Hungary and later studied Fine Arts in Dance/Choreography from the University of Utah. She has been acknowledged as "one of the leading soloists of the avante-garde dance world…" by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Having firmly established herself as an undaunted collaborator with many internationally-known composers and directors of multimedia productions, she has performed and created over 40 works. Since 1982 she has toured as a member of the Electric Arts Duo ensemble performing throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. "Ms. Haraszti has a uniquely individual virtuosic style that combines the strength of an athlete with the grace of ballet and is noted for her dramatic ability to establish a perfect equilibrium between the rival magnetisms of music and dance." The late John Cage referenced Burton Beerman’s NIGHT CALLS for clarinet and solo dancer, " a real " tour de force", beautifully executed". Her teachers have included, Viola Farber, Bill Evans, John Wilson and Gus Solomons, Jr. Master classes with artists Alwin Nikolais, Murray Louis, Bill T. Jones, Daniel Nagrin, Marcel Marceau, and David Parsons.

Composer, clarinetist, Burton Beerman’s music spans many media, including, solo, chamber, and orchestral music, interactive real-time electronics, interactive video art, theatre, dance, and musical score for documentary films. His works have been the subject of international, national and public television and radio broadcasts, including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, NPR and PBS. Beerman’s works have been recognized by over thirty professional journals and publications, and his activities have received national and public television networks broadcasts. LIVE! with Regis & Kelly Television Show (ABC), The Eastern European Talk Show “RTL-Klub Reggeli”, HEAR Radio, ( Hungarian-Austrian Radio), and the week-long Pepsi Sziget International Festival (broadcast at Margit Island in Budapest, Hungary, which annually attracts over 500,000 people).

CNN and CNN International, FutureWatch, and The World Today, broadcast Beerman’s Virtual Video Opera, Jesus’ Daughter to a viewing audience of 50 million plus, showcasing the music, dance, video and interactive technology utilized in the opera. The opera addressed a critical social issue of Violence against Women~Children-at-Risk and was chosen as a Video Installation ArtWork exhibited in Switzerland and Italy, endorsed by UNESCO-CIRET, sponsored by the United Nations, at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (MOMA), Lincoln Center Gallery, and Dance on Camera Festival. CNN maintains a webpage as a source of information on the story and the opera: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9602/performance_art/index.html.

Beerman continues to be a major creative force in the American music arena. Milton Babbitt, a Pulitzer Prize honoree, William Shubael Conant Professor of Music Emeritus at Princeton University, and a member of the composition faculty of the Julliard School states of Beerman. “He is a virtuoso performer and a knowing sophisticated composer and musical thinker.”...

Most recently his 90 minute multimedia chamber oratorio TIKVAH (“Hope”) was featured on PBS. TIKVAH, scored for saxophone quartet, soprano voice, digital video/film and dance ensemble based on the memoirs of living Holocaust survivor Philip Markowicz has received over twenty performances to critical acclaim. “Beerman’s “Tikvah” breathes a stunning honesty musically and sets an ardent mood of inspiration” (Atlanta Journal Constitution).

Beerman’s music, characterized as “spicy, captivating, and filled with exotic sounds and lush textures” (Los Angeles Times), has been presented at prominent venues and festivals worldwide, such as the Edinburgh International Art Festival in Scotland, New York’s Carnegie Concert Hall, The Chicago Sinai, Martin Luther King International Center in Atlanta, Rudolfinum Performing Center, Prague, the Haag, Amsterdam, OrfRadioFunkhaus, Vienna, Chopin Hall, Mexico City as well as throughout Australia, Canada , Europe and Asia.

The Warsaw National Philharmonic performed and recorded Beerman’s Morning Calls for B-flat clarinet and orchestra featuring Richard Stoltzman as clarinetist under the baton of George Manahan, present music director of the New York City Opera. Morning Calls received a performance by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra with Beerman as soloist. Beerman has been hailed by audiences as one of the leading clarinetists of contemporary and avant-garde music whose virtuosity and technical control of the instrument establish him as a remarkable and compelling performer.

Amongst some of his prestigious international awards and honors is the 2005 Barlow Endowment Commission for Music Composition, “The Barlow Award encourages and financially supports individuals who demonstrate technical skills and natural gifts for the composition of great music.” the 2008 Governor’s Award for the Arts in Ohio, selected as one who is recognized as a “distinguished artist sustaining extraordinary artistic talents and achievements throughout his career”, a 2008 CINE Special Jury Award, the 2007 CINE Golden Eagle Award as composer for the film documentary 203 Days produced by bbarash productions, LLC. (others who share the CINE award are Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Marvin Hemlisch, and Ken Burns).

First Place Winner International Society of Bassists for Voices, for soprano voice and contrabass (1989), a Lipscomb prize for Romance, piano and tape (1986), the Arthur Honegger Prize, Fondation De France (1979), the Martha K. Cooper Prize for orchestra (1984), Meet the Composer and Meet the Composer/Global Connection grants, and the 1999 Olscamp Research Award for outstanding scholarly and creative accomplishments.

Recent projects include eight week summer residencies for four years serving as Music Director for The Hungarian Dance Theatre, Budapest. During the residency, Beerman developed original compositions for their concert programs and served as principal clarinetist. Beerman was invited as guest composer for a five week residency at STEIM Research Center in Amsterdam where he presented concerts and masterclasses both in Amsterdam and at IRCAM, France.

Beerman has over ten recordings to his credit, which have garnered excellent reviews, the most recent CD release Beerman Unplugged…. almost (CPS-8757), 2005, can be found on the Capstone Label, “Living Voices in Contemporary Music” His ground-breaking recording The Electric Clarinet on the Capstone Label sold out and is in its second pressing.

Beerman received his Master of Music and his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition with a cognate in clarinet performance from the University of Michigan (1971). His composition teachers were Ross Lee Finney, Leslie Bassett, George B. Wilson, and Eugene Kurtz. He is the founder of the internationally acclaimed New Music & Art Festival at Bowling Green State University, now in its 30th year and served as the Director of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music from 1998-2008. The New Music & Art Festival has been a springboard for bringing a diverse group of artists and composers together and serves as a prestigious venue to showcase their music. Amongst some of the composers who have been hosted are John Adams, Milton Babbit, William Bolcom, Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Chen Yi, John Corigliano, George Crumb, Mario Davidovsky, Anthony Davis, Philip Glass, Lou Harrison, Karel Husa, Paul Lansky, Pauline Oliveros, Bernard Rands, Terry Riley, Christopher Rouse, John Harbison,Frederic Rzewski, Gunther Schuller, Bright Sheng, Joan Tower and more than 200 other guests and artists.