<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[World Water Hub]]></title><description><![CDATA[Ayo Oum Shanti - Author & Poet]]></description><link>https://ayoshanti.wixsite.com/ayoshantiauthor/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 02:16:41 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.shanti-author.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[The Red Qipao]]></title><description><![CDATA[...all the stories that filled my childhood, even the ones about my beloved Lemminkainen, were overshadowed by my growing obsession with the mystery surrounding Mother. And at the heart of her mystery was a red silk dress...]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/the-red-qipao</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6843f58f0dba6b78c4b363b4</guid><category><![CDATA[Published - Works]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2025 08:22:33 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_ec6ab102ebfc4c43b9e8ce60abe46bda~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_240,h_360,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tashi Delek Magazine: The Most Beautiful Valley]]></title><description><![CDATA[In Shingkhar, Bhutan, there is a growing concern over the impact of tourism and modern values on the well-being of the village. Shingkhar is a pastoral yak-herding village (about 250 people in 30 homes) situated at 11,000 feet in a beautiful idyllic valley in eastern Bumthang. My assignment was to help assess potential eco-tourist projects which could benefit the village.



I stayed in Shingkhar for three weeks, before and during their Annual Puja. Every morning I was woken by the chanting of ]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/tashi-delek-magazine</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6851b90f37311867b5ebf0c1</guid><category><![CDATA[Published - Works]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 01 Sep 2025 18:55:13 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_2121a2ee84f44e5b8b7785ba3887ca0f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Transitions Abroad Magazine: Ecotourism in a Bhutan Village]]></title><description><![CDATA[In Shinghkhar, Bhutan, a pastoral yak-herding village of about 250 people, there is a growing concern over the impact of tourism.



I stayed in Shinghkhar for three weeks, before and during its annual tsechu (or religious festival). Every morning I woke to the chanting of the young student monks (gomchens) as they marched up the steep hill and past my window. Drums, cymbals, chanting, and singing resound continuously as the ceremonies and rituals are rehearsed. ]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/transitions-abroad-magazine</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68addf71d8941e921d33f7e9</guid><category><![CDATA[Published - Works]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 01 Sep 2025 17:00:37 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_dc4e48f83a004bfc90634ac3d86a6a1f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[She of Babylon]]></title><description><![CDATA[From darkness comes fine remembrances of times
When silken threads hung desiring to entice
And swollen ruby reds were heavenly gates.

Once alabaster, in the dim light stretched out
Now the dry papyrus of a map so arduously drawn
With spidery wiggly lines in reds and purple blues

Mapping out wanton warm summer delights
Or discrete winter whispers exhaled leaflessly
Or the heavy monsoon air of rat rani scented nights.

Oh the dream, the fine lines of so many dreams.
Yet even the ache of longing ]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/she-of-babylon</link><guid isPermaLink="false">684400ad8b06ce86ada7547c</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Portraits]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 2025 09:07:15 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_6e6f504024ff400fb2dc439386a5a328~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Dokoudovsky]]></title><description><![CDATA[A lean mean hawk of a man
Pounding his big stick on the floor
“Un, deux, trois, quatre”
Till his demeaning voice withers the spirit
Of his next anorexic victim, later left
Distraught in the dressing room
Sobbing in silence
Her thin bony frame pulsating.
I was grateful those dark piercing eyes never settled on me,
But I always listened intently
To every barbed comment
My mind filtered out
The harshness of his words
And I learned the essence
Of how a body is transformed]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/dokoudovski</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6843fff78b06ce86ada75302</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Portraits]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 2025 09:02:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/430f555db3d943699524225fc7a0df24.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Portrait of a Broadway Lady]]></title><description><![CDATA[Carefully sitting on the stool,
she counts out some change in slow motion,
pauses, and tries to remember why she’s there.

Electrified bleached-white hair
shoots out from her white powdered face.
A slight furrowing of her brow
disturbs her immobility.

The counterman waits impatiently.
She concentrates, then whispers
the order he already knows.

"Coffee regular and a sugar doughnut."]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/portrait-of-a-broadway-lady</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68aab540855527eea2cc2aa7</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Portraits]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 2025 06:59:38 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_fae1995762fd4fd785b0ad18f958269a~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Changing Roles]]></title><description><![CDATA[Alone with him in his room,
his eyes closed,
his breathing slow,
I became mesmerized
by the rise and fall of his chest.
A precarious balance was sustained
between life and death
by this slight involuntary movement.

Suddenly his breathing became irregular,
his eyes opened wide
and he took in quick gulps of air.
I held the oxygen mask over his mouth
till his body relaxed
and his head sank back into the pillow.

He smiled and held his eyes on me -
glazed expression,
weary resignation -
then ]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/changing-roles</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68aaae08e0731e33266771f2</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Portraits]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Thu, 07 Aug 2025 06:18:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_f0e0d44a31c94e27ae916360e5fe4aeb~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rising]]></title><description><![CDATA[Unconscious, eyes closed shut,
his hand, on auto-pilot, reaches out
before the 6 AM alarm cries out.
A tender stillness lingers in the air,
while the long black night slowly fades
into the gray disconsolation of early dawn,
and the sun’s fingers stretch long and wide
across the uncomfortable divide
between midnight black and noontime light.
Inside all others lay dumb in deep sleep
even their sonorous breath is laid to rest.
Slowly sounds disturb his gradual awakening.
Water bugs skitter-scatt]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/rising</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68cf27c0c9b60ffcbec843be</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - The Dark of the Moon]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2025 22:21:07 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_177c690a981744d8ae183d3df0938d32~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[State of the Union (pulling roots)]]></title><description><![CDATA[It has been a long slow process,
pulling ourselves up by the roots,
disengaging from our connection
with Earth and language,
spirit and culture.
We are now floating free
in the turbulent sea
of fear.
The disconnect is driving us
away from each other,
away from values,
away from lives well-lived
and spirits well-expressed.]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/state-of-the-union-pulling-roots</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68cf0b58c9b60ffcbec80192</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - The Dark of the Moon]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2025 20:26:46 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_dac4ca0d5e7743f0a58d157f902099ff~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Lash of Time]]></title><description><![CDATA[Why am I rushing...
driven even in my sleep?
The sting of time
moves me into a future
Where I’ll become an old crone
bent like an angle iron
precariously toddling around
with a toothless smile
in half-dream mazes of past memories.
Why am I rushing?]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/lash-of-time</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68ac30a72bdd62742c72de01</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - The Dark of the Moon]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:46:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_6fe7c95df7854ca09903c53d2399bc09~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Broken Wing]]></title><description><![CDATA[Over forty years ago
you broke my thumb
somewhere between my bed
and the porcelain tub,
nicked and scarred
and filled with ice water,
on a cold March day
wind howling as you dragged
me writhing and flailing
and dumped me in
holding me down
with your dark fury.]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/broken-wing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68ac2c56e0731e33266b7039</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - The Dark of the Moon]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Wed, 06 Aug 2025 09:28:53 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_c74d9e2efb624dd1ada6f6cca8fcb5c3~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Surfboard Linguistics]]></title><description><![CDATA[Hauling the board down the craggy cliff he stops
benches at the half-way look-out, and waits
for her descent – steep steps of roots and stones
and raw wood, slippery from misty rain,
a challenge to her untried “goat” legs.
Brief dialogue sitting legs sprawled breathe
heavy, pause, dig deep, dredge for words
of mutual comprehension – comprendo? si…si
See sea? Look out from the widow’s peak cliffs
double beached with la cueva between now]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/surfboard-linguistics</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68cf13f1aef6910f9dd9e73d</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Lingual Strata]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2025 21:00:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_07941e8969a240cb836e87afa081b2b4~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Words]]></title><description><![CDATA[Now and then I try to put down some words
and I’m left with silence, wordlessness.
Other times, in metamorphic release,
I break through to externalize and crystallize.

We all have our moments
(some more often than others)
when the hard shell cracks and breaks off
cleanly and effortlessly.

Sometimes we shed baroque emotional obesity
to shoot thin finely-honed arrows,
or in suicidal anguish we flash
crystalline jewels through winter trees,]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/words</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68ac59f7a77e0227b6e83111</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Lingual Strata]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:43:49 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_94187a1dd79c46f3b93e180a5b5d80e7~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Who Are We?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Earthbound, heavy with gravity,
sandwiched between rock and cloud,
more water than anything else,
like wicked witches of the west
we are fearful of our own liquidity,
Full of illusions of solidity,
we lock ourselves in the prison
of sensory perception,
and mistake this for our home.

We are bone and muscle,
blood and nerves,
thoughts and feelings,
genes and chromosomes,
arms, legs, fingers, and toes,
atoms, molecules, and enzymes.

But we are more, so much more.
We are eyes that hear,
taste, ]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/who-are-we</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68ac58bc4e3cebc8aeb5ea44</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Lingual Strata]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:39:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_ab4cf564940f4daaa6ccd9ed509d4090~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Language]]></title><description><![CDATA[Our childhood dreams call us
over and over again
and draw us inevitably closer
to our destined purposes.

Any attempt to elude their pull
just magnifies their magnetic power
and we’re drawn more tightly than ever
into our dreamy webs of purpose.

We are immersed in longings
which leave empty spaces to be filled
and childhood images which pulse
with adrenalin fear and aching desire
in a symbolic language
which seems foreign and cryptic.

We live our lives
haunted by fears, dreams and desires.
The]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/language</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68ac57022bdd62742c7348c4</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Lingual Strata]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Tue, 05 Aug 2025 12:33:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_6fb0881adafd4ecf90875128ba0f165e~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Free to Dance (for Mother)]]></title><description><![CDATA[You were still warm
with whisps of silver and gray
on your parchment skin,
eyes shut tight against the world,
and lower lip hanging down.
I kept waiting for an intake of breath
one more breath
just one more for the road.
I felt the heat
at the top of your head
as though your mind
was still busy with thoughts.
Ahhh, but you are free now,
free of this old skeleton
fetally curled into itself.
You are free to dance again.]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/free-to-dance-for-mother</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68d080f70786a9f747aa227c</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Book of Love]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2025 22:54:12 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_394cc6f111514451a26714f3e2392f60~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Duet]]></title><description><![CDATA[Love is the fibrous intermingling
of our lives and beings.
All else falls away
into the forgotten gravestones
of wounding ill-spoken words
and awful permeating silences
now buried under the rain-softened
leaves of fallen time.
Now there is only the clarity of love -
notes played true
which run like a plumbline
through our beings.
It nourishes in silence and absence,
it enlightens in the midst
of all the darknesses we encounter.]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/poetry-book-of-love-title-placeholder</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6851c7540ae8e37d9a01dcad</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Book of Love]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2025 19:52:33 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_4fea3a03f1ca496e9dbfafe3fdc904ce~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Yin, Yang and Union]]></title><description><![CDATA[Unique and separate
in our union
we are children
and mother and father
and man and woman
and vision and music
and water and fire
and earth and air
and darkness and light.

Coming together
in our union
we are stars
hurled
bright and igneous
transcending
exploding
and spiraling
through the darkness.]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/yin-yang-and-union</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68ac058fe0731e33266afd3d</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Book of Love]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2025 06:44:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_e9301ca34f1147a8a312c047f564ab22~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[In the Iris of the Cosmic Eye]]></title><description><![CDATA[I saw you dear Warrior
In the radiant iris of the Cosmos
Your heart glowed its beautiful deep blue
and pulsed through me head to toe
filling me with so much energy and life.
The eye of the Universe looked right at and 
through me, and the multitudinous details
of my here and now diminished into minutia
that couldn’t distract or displace
the power of its omni-presence.]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/in-the-iris-of-the-cosmic-eye</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68abeb4f583a7f433c439c21</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Book of Love]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2025 04:53:46 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_3289f70ccab2429dbbb397635ff1378e~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Plow]]></title><description><![CDATA[Did you fly invisible
through the night air?
Or did you rise
head first
through the damp dark grass?
Sister Earth calls
leaf-whispering cries
fill the night.
Plant me, plow me
fill me with life.]]></description><link>https://www.shanti-author.com/post/_plow</link><guid isPermaLink="false">68cf26b7f8183e249292c1d8</guid><category><![CDATA[Poetry - Nature Journal]]></category><category><![CDATA[Poetry - All]]></category><pubDate>Sun, 03 Aug 2025 22:14:41 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9fba61_2c4b905528d34e5aa1758befb9e49eb3~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Ayo Shanti</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>