VOTE! 2010 SAMHUINN/BELTANE SHORT POEM

[Earthwoman]

Notice: Please use the poll to cast vote(s) for your favorite short poems. You cannot select more than three. ONLY those votes submitted to the poll will be tallied. Votes submitted as posts below will not be counted.

[Teileag]

Samhain

Golden sun on darkening leaves
Mist rolls across the fields
Empty and cold
Crows fly across the grey sky
Their call makes my heart sing


Summer is over
Winter may come
Youth has left
Cailleach will grow


Silver moon hangs in the sky
Stars behind clouds
Warm and comforting
Fire in the hearth
Flickering candles in the window

Harvest is over
Winter can come
Mother has left
Cailleach will grow

[Dragonwyst]

The Five O’clock Seal

Kelp stalks sway in the low tide swell
Silhouetted dark in the silver sea.
I hear the crack of a gull-dropped shell
Sharp against the sibilant sigh
Of the swirls of salted waters by
The rocks at the edge of the sea.

There, at the rim of the black kelp crowd,
A kelp frond seems to scratch its nose
And slip away, when the rest have bowed
To the rhythm of the gentle tide,
Like mop-haired dancers side by side.
I watch as it quietly goes.

The sleek hide dips between the waves.
He twists with grace through the bubbles bright
And rises with the fish he craves.
He tosses it across the sea
Retrieving it with playful glee -
An aqua-batic delight!

And then the playing part is done.
He seems to lounge upon the sea,
Enjoys his meal, and then is gone.
And all I have is sunset sky
And silver sea and seagull cry
And homeward path for me.

(This poem was inspired by a seal that I saw regularly when we lived near Cape Town, South Africa)

[Mountainheart]

An outpouring

Like the purest and most subtle perfume;
Your presence fills my consciousness.

Ineffable, indescribable;
You are as close as my own soul,
Yet as different and alien as the stars themselves.

In your holy embrace I live and breathe and have my being.
I call out to you and you answer in the echo of my words.

You are Incomprehensible Mystery;
Yet my soul dances with knowledge of you.

You are the one who transcends;
Incarnate in all that is;
Beholden to none.

You cannot be held by our words;
Or by the limits of the human mind.

You are within, beyond, between.
An all embracing reality, without shape or substance.
Haunting presence.
Soul of the Cosmos.

[Nikki 2]

. . . .Samhain Eve . . . .

Trees once clothed in robes of green,
Their role now cast for winter's scene.
Naked branches, gnarled and bent,
Prepared for nature's cold descent.

This hallowed night on Samhain Eve
Dark descends and summer leaves.
The wheel, it turns, it's n'er the same,
Now winter's poised to stake her claim.

The veil between the worlds is thin,
The spirit realm now welcomed in
And those possessing second sight
Seek guidance this ancestor's night.

Young and old, they both partake
In nutcrack games and Brambrack cake;
Ghoulish lanterns pave the way
To hail the Celtic new Year's day

A bonfire lights the night-time sky
With flames of hope for New Year - high;
. . . .Whilst old regrets, cast to the fire,
As if unto a funeral pyre.

With hunger staved and thirst now sate,
Brands to light the homestead grate,
Respect paid to those once dear . . .
It's time to close another year.

[cat]

Winters Shroud

The berries now have been plucked
Winters chord is finally struck
The green leaves have all turned brown
Upon the ground are blown around

Now misty day are here again
Shrouding trees upon the plain
Frosts arrive there patterns paint
Around our cooling icy landscape

Now life has gone into the earth
Waiting now for warm rebirth
Now be the Hag for little while
till days do warm and make me smile

For though the darker days are here
Sun will return have no fear
From mother womb will reappear
New life shining for all to hear

[Mountainheart]

SEASONS

Summer passes slowly and deliciously;
Cupped by mother’s hand,
Rocked by cooling winds,
Soaked in warm sunshine.

Autumn brings change.
Feelings of disconnection.
The smell of death and atrophy in the air.
Brooding unease.

Samhain.
A storm blows.
Wild screaming winds hammering at my security.
Unsafe, unbalanced:
My mind full of fear.

I fall.
Plunging.
Whirling.
Into nothingness.

Time passes.

Soft green light.
A gentle dew tickles me awake.
A feeling of fullness, of expansion.
Unbelievable joy and exuberance flood my consciousness.

I reach up, and out: stretching towards the radiance above.
The dead husk of my acorn drops away.
And lies, rotting in the fertile soil.

[skydove]

Ghosts questions

What would I say to you
Long dear departed
If I bumped into you tonight?
Would you still be my Mam and Dad
Or the long ago friend
who once I had,
Or would your eyes turn to glow with new knowledge
Of which I had no kenning?
Could we still be as once we were
Or have the distances grown too great?
Who would have changed more I wonder
and are we all brave enough to find out?
Or shall once more the veil between our worlds
Remain unlifted?

[Fox of the Oaks]

Wind and Wave

Oh the melodic blending of light with wind and wave,
With the stillness of peace and the pond's pondering days.
Following calm ripples to the shores of pragmatic play,
And allowing emotion and intelligence to dance their sweet sounding way;

Into the cohesion of the wide river's will,
Inspired like steam rising on the mirrored lake's azure fill.
Becoming a soaring zephyr over ocean's primal play,
Settling in like mysterious mist, at dawn on a winter's day.

A tempestuous gale and a torrential rain, life's weft
Deepens the roots of the quest,
And the eternal flame beyond death.
As the storm clears, for bright new skies,
Sorrow and sleep, wake and rise from the eyes,
Under stars and over stones, Mercurial breath,
The Earth is Her clarity, the Springtime's wonder-gift.

[Kullervo]

Sing To Me The Song Of Dogs

Sing to me the song of dogs,
The song of hunt, the song of tribe,
Of friendship deep, and fire and snow,
Of heavy breath and blood,
The joy of chase and the pride of kill.
The song of warm places and good things to eat,
Of sharp ears and instinct, of deep and peaceful sleep.
Sing the song of hunger and hurt,
The cold song, the old song,
The fear-song and love-song.
Sing to me the song of birth and death,
And of true bond that lives past death.

[wyeuro]

my gaia, big mama, mega eye in space,
what sort of sky do you see?
with your wrap around, zap around
flick ‘em up, lick ‘em up
hauling-in of imagery?

like magical craic is in your soup
i daresay that would be,
with us biota your rods and cones:
sightless, we help you see.

for gaia, our planet, that day-night eye’s
saccadic rhythms of sight
would surely quite methodically
process the aeons of light,

interpreting them easily
to yield celestial meanings -
whole planetfuls at every glance -
and weave them into her dreamings.

my gaia, big mama, mega eye in space,
what sort of sky do you see?
wide vistas, wild visions
wise, wyrd and free,
deep distance,
high strangeness,
calling to me!!!

[Heddwen]

CERRIDWEN

Dark mountains rub the horizon
and survey the decaying crust beneath.
The barrows of Ynys Mon yearn for remembrance
oscillating the soul songs of our ancestors within their wombs.
Lamenting, Llew Llaw Gyffes lies low in a sepia skyscape.
The gathering crows shriek heralding the descent.
A dark fata manifests and cloaks the Land in perennial dusk.

Shapeshifter, mountainmother, sorceress and awesome crone.
Initiatrix and transformer of souls.
Cerridwen, hen wrach o Gymru, embodies the Earth.
I plunge through Her vulvic portal to otherworldly realms,
offering my moonblood on Bryn Celli Ddu
our pulses conjoined
and witnessed by Luna with tacit approval.
Absorbed by the ancient memories, my foremothers sat here
bleeding in circles.
A libation to preserve Herstory.
I surrender to the Mystery and ascend
Transformed, Inspired, Regenerated.
The integration of once and future lives
An honourable bequest for those yet to come.
Byth i anghofio
Never to forget.


(First published in Touchstone, if anyone's wondering where they may have seen it before)

[meicalabawen]

in summertime

in summertime
i mow the grass
i weed and pull
and cough

you cough with me
and I look at you

you look at me
and cough
apology

we weed and pull
and cough together
in summertime

when next I weed
and pull and cough
i’ll be alone

it won’t be summer
without you

[Mellinda]

Autumns here

Today ill need to finish all the jobs half done
Today I expect will be the last day we will see the sun

Today ill tided up the garden and the flowerbeds
Today I swept up all the leaves fallen from the trees

Today ill put away the garden chairs and store them in the shed
Today I looked up at the sky, there are rain clouds overhead

Today its the 31st must get the pumpkin done
Today I will make a pumpkin pie and then have some fun

Today I’m sitting buy the fire listing to the falling rain
Today I think ill stay in bed and hibernate till spring is here again

By L F Tallis (Mellinda)


October 2010

[Fitheach]

I wrote this during my visit to Angelsey this past summer, honoring the Druidesses who confronted the Roman Army:

The Druidesses of Mona

Hear us, all who would trod
Upon this sacred isle

We have kept holy what
The Romans would defile

We are the spirits of ancient
Stone, tree and well

Nine Druid sisters, who
Cast a mighty spell

Feel the Winds of Mona
As it passes o’er the field

Know the sacred knowledge
That the raven cry does yield

Touch the hoary stones
That guard our mighty dead

Taste the sacred water
Where Druid blood was shed.

[Earthwoman]

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