Miriam Feder

After the guinea pigs featured in Special Delivery there were more critters–of course.  This is the journey through reptiles and that most unbelievable pet–the rat. Can you imagine inviting rats into your house–ON PURPOSE?

 

 Small Pets: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (14)

When it’s hard to stand up, sometimes the asphalt can help.  I found that my town was there to support me in some wet, green, slippery, nice sort-of way. It’s a sweet town

 

 Portland [1:07m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (20)

Thank you so much for sharing your friend Miriam! I needed to hear her take on lunch as an only child…it was like reliving my parochial school days all over again…and a chance to “grow up” about something I had forgotten, yet needed to let go. What a blessing!  Leah
On Peanut Butter Neglect

When I fell from marriage, home,
bland feats of life-as-I’d-known-it,
coupled-into some twenty-plus years ago,
suddenly everything was a question again.
What is? What isn’t?

All my assumptions broke into pieces:
sharp; slithery; and none-too-shiny.
Portland spoke through my ticklish in-step.
She pressed into the soles of my feet with
rose-and-tumble acceptance,
as I skirted puddles known and unknown.
Restless possiblity swayed along my sides
while Portland steadied my stride—“It’s ok.”

Who knew that asphalt could be a tender touch,
that this patient, old-friend town of mine
would roll out padding and take me easy,
while the stuffing in my head blew ‘round
many cups of coffee: many thanks, Portland.

Bring one of these shows to your non-profit’s fund raiser or friend raiser.

·         Big Words:  a kaleidoscope of follies enticing the heart and teasing the mind

This show runs about 1 hour. It goes from Mother and Father to Time and Love.  How did these easy words get so complicated?

·         About Love: the bittersweet heart

This show runs about 40 minutes. It ranges through the different kinds of romantic love and includes Rubber Top—a musical review of the condom.

·         The Vestibule: life, love and tears through the midlife lens

This show runs about 50 minutes and looks at entering the stages of life from our own protective cover—The Vestibule.

or let’s talk about customizing a show for your audience.

These shows travel easily and spark good discussion (stage is optional.)

Please contact me about performing at your fundraiser, friendraiser or other event.

I love the subterranean world of the subway.

 

 Subway [2:50m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (17)

For most of us who sign up, Motherhood is the biggest, most wonderful, most frustrating and demanding job we ever do. It is exceptional and ordinary, divine and accursed. And you never look at your mother the same way after you’ve gone there. I’m pretty sure it’s way bigger than I yet know.

 

 Mother: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (26)

The great hall at Ellis Island echoes with ghosts. They mutter, roar, cry and sometimes they even laugh in multilingual cacophony. Listen for the frightened whispers and halting speech in the examining rooms. Taunts and whispers slide through empty hallways of red brick school houses. Ancient songs and rhymes pop out of bureau drawers or cackle in the whoosh of a campfire.

Voices trapped in air currents swipe my ear, my memory and my imagination. They brush my eyes or my nostrils, and suddenly, the indelible media of song and spirit rush out. I feel the trials and joys, the courage and fears recorded there. The more these voices catch me, the more I crave their stories. I don‘t think this is mere longing for a tender time past. Rather, it‘s time-trained listening joined to a jagged sort of hearing—-pressed deep into the quick in some dark amino acid.

The stories transcend time and technology. I listen to the wind for epics that blow across plains. I touch the earth and feel the hoof beats of settlers. I soak in the river that bathes the heron and native bones.

Fondling tea cups stained with gossip and advice, I hear shuffles, accents and laughter of women I know, yet I’ve never met. Thumb-prints entice; are they mothers, maids or visionaries that twist canvas, stitches, stone, and glaze into beauty? The dust of Moses, Beethoven, and my grandfathers showers me with gifts. Ancient brothers sacrifice goats while sisters raise timbrels and dance in the deserts. My imagination dazzles.

Sometimes they weigh me down, the promises duty binds upon me and the gifts I can never repay. Those days, I am haunted by history, especially the dreams stolen from young dreamers. I cannot avoid the stench of camps where emptiness crushes the spirits of millions in the machinery of fear. I feel wooden and unworthy.

Other times these bygone days tingle in my nostrils and lift my wings. They charge the hair on my neck and drive the balls of my feet into ground. My pliers easily bend the next link of chain. I fill the song with my voice. My chest heats with wonder and the future shines, illumined by the past.

hear Backlighting

The bittersweet heart isn’t a downer. It’s focusing it’s lens on “love past the bursting of passion in each artery wall and sticky bit of skin. Love past the years–that lasting, longed-for, whole adult love…”

About Love is a gift book and a 40 minute show that tours easily. Here are some pictures from the February debut at HipBone Studio in Portland.