what street? what sinew?


July 10, 1:11pm

The rain in pain falls mostly on the strains which I am only saying because I can. oh elocution.

'Pain in the body becomes poetic only after it has waned enough

that you have breath to say: Pain is poetic…

The giddiness of having less pain may drive you to drink or worse,

to rhyme.

Pain unveils hidden cities that occupy desert bodies - and then, I asked myself, where are you going to live?

what street, what sinew?' [from Sinew]

This is what comes from making faces at tyrants in the mirror and following animals down arroyos! Ergo, heretofore, I share:

​SINEW​

  • A 12-page illustrated poem
  • A performance of Sinew in my voice. [Preview]​
  • Walk into Sinew Space—an audio invitation to write from your own animal space. [Preview]​
  • Downloadable PDF with embedded audio links.

just one poetic tadka, one touch of animal earth feeling

when you need to remember we are also

wild

dark

ones

made

of mystery

following smells of other animals

even as

we do what we gotta do

sign the ___ papers

but also

so what? - they

don’t own

you

no one

owns you

inside the skin, there is a vast

llano where

winds sweeps across

the steppe

the yag

hodoo

no roads here no fences

only rutted marks of who went this way or that

you go where you like

go yav chalo

because in that muscle

ready to leap

I swear

you don’t have to know a single

thing

only step

into sinew

and let the body

sing

​Step into Sinew​

the first offering FROM THE WILD LANDS

[more wilds to come]

sincerely,

Shebana


contact me at info@shebanacoelho.com

To subscribe to this newsletter, go here, click that​

Shebana Coelho

-who knew sinews could sing?

-from the wild lands, or from the wilds? - this or that is the question

-yawns but does not yarn, sews only if it's cross stitch on a blue apron and three nuns show you how

-wrote this about tyrants and animals and starry starry future rivers

you are getting this newsletter because of your connection to the projects of Shebana Coelho | Faraway is Close. If this no longer speaks to you, please follow what does and UNSUBSCRIBE below.

Shebana Coelho | Faraway is Close

News of workshops, performances, travelogues, sudden ah-has or ah-nos

Read more from Shebana Coelho | Faraway is Close

October 22, 2026 what is this longing to be the sea or go off to sea? It is not just mine. I keep hearing the same words in different guises. what is this quickening in the body at the side of the sea? what is the remembering? what is the wanting? I keep wanting to make it into destiny or destination or action, but maybe this is the restlessness that John O'Donohue speaks of that keeps us going, the vitality that keeps us vital. Every day, may I remember that we come from such mystery and...

a white flower with water droplets on it

October 12, 2026 ...by which I mean Columbus. Still appearing - the same show every year! get your tickets now! on the Google calendar as Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples Day. Some years ago, in Spain, one day in Sevilla, a poem rose, "Why did Europeans kill Indians? why did they come from so far away just to kill their curiosity? But their journey haunts me" - because I have always longed to go off to sea. I would have signed up right there - would have answered that famous...

September 16, 2026 I've known Anton Hunkins since forever! Well, at least 10+ years. They came to the very first creativity workshop I did in Santa Fe in like 2012. And we've been friends since! Anton is an amazing poet and tracker. Last week, we went on a walk together and it was so swell that we up and put together this experience which we call: TRACKING THE EXTRAVAGANT UNIVERSE are we poets or what, jaja :) We’ll meet at the Randall Davey Audubon Center on the Upper Canyon Road in Santa Fe...