by Jana Astanov
featured polaroid of the Venus of Clove Valley
I’m whole
walking bare footed
on the Shawangunk rocks
body in akashic mist
mountain stream
sky
eternity
vajra jnana mudra
extending from a heart-Venus
to Jupiter
to the Sun
to the Moon
to Pluto
Mercury,
Uranus
Each are fluids bursting
to star-dust bliss
and my nude
female self
my frog-spider
bird-particle
of a cosmic womb.
In moments
I simply am,
and only then
Belong.
To the spirits in stones
To Saturnian lore
I am the mother
Who birthed it all.
This world is my origin story.
With Astraes’s Sound Gode, a ritual object from Astraea’s Second Coming, wood, yarn, reclaimed wood, photo by Andrew Forbes, taken on the Full Moon, May 23rd 2024, Rosekill, fire pyre in the background awaiting the night.
Jana Astanov is an interdisciplinary artist, a poetess and an independent curator born in Mazury Lake District of Poland and currently living in the US. She is the author of five collections of poetry: Antidivine, Grimoire, Sublunar, The Pillow Book of Burg, and Birds of Equinox. Follow her on IG @Jana_Astanov
