VOTE! 2011 BELTANE/SAMHUINN SHORT POEM ENTRIES

[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]

Where do I go from here?

Walking in the dark woods
Searching for the secret path
Feeling my way forward
Deep doubts, heavy hesitation
And a turbulent trust in life

No clear conviction
Many queries, many questions
Emotions
Sometimes high, sometimes low
Instinctive insights
Sun, moon and stars as guides

Towering trees to indicate east
Grass grows beneath my feet
Your hushed voice in my heart
A glimmer of green - hope
A sliver of silver - joy
A deep glow in the dark - love

[wolf560]

This is a poem I wrote to chant along as I read the Ogham sticks
They remind me (and my students) of what is important and what is to be remembered

In the spirit of the "Teinm Laida" it is meant to be chanted over and over again as the Fiosachd (augury) is performed.

Three sticks are drawn into the light
drawn one at a time with your second sight

One for the Past that’s not quite gone
still in the shadows yet lingering on

One for the Here and Now between
part of the past only partly not seen

One for the thing that longs to be
partially hidden from all that we see

Three sticks are drawn into the light
returned to the darkness and hidden from sight

[somerled]

SILENCE

just a little thought
of harmony
put on paper

a bliss
of perfection
in the air

and then …
- shhhh -
complete silence

[DaRC]

Discontented Dag

Discontented, Dag weary wakes
Lately, to usher Sunna’s low
Riding chariot o’er grey flakes
waiting for rain’s finishing blow.

Impatient for Eastre’s flushing flow
they need to see the harebells grow.
Between little blue nodding heads
Dag and Sunna happily tread.

Discontentment, a mental allotment -
Allow Eastre's bright and aqua flow
To clear your mind's misfiring firmament
And turn from fallow to meadow.

In Dag's gentle grove Sunna shines eternal
and frights shades, those impositions, infernal.

[Kima]

Full Seed Moon

a full seed moon
hangs in the night like an over-ripe fruit
its mushy white pulp clogging the darkness
then the orb climbs towards levity

.inertia seems to be the lot of earthlings.

they say
it's the closest the moon has been to the earth in twenty years
twenty years
what that means to me
i contrast with other time scales
this goddess of the stone age
is as old as minerals
in its crystal luminescence
though
younger than the earth itself

what does that mean to us who
ashes to
ashes dust to
dust will soon
inhabit liminal space make
home in the thin crust of soil that
covers our rocky planet neither
air nor water but
rock is what we know we are and
what we believe will remain of us

i wonder what would befall me
if i too could lift myself white across the sky

[somerled]

LESSONS OF MOUNTAIN AND TREE

life of mountain
is steady and slow
gaining force and power
in absolute silence
mountain moves
almost imperceptible
and unhurried

life of tree
is a bit hastier
through fruits and seeds
tree travels further away
but yet taking time
to gain strength
in restfulness

life of man
passes at high speed
losing vitality
man budges on
with an incredible haste
while modern society
still tries to accelerate

so why don’t we learn
from the potency
of mountain
and the vigour of tree
to heal ourselves
and preserve
our mother the earth

[MPutnam]

"Selkie's Song"

O, how I have missed thee!
How I have missed standing by your side,
But quickly I return to you, my beloved sea.

I have already pulled tight my cloak,
I am ready to join your tide,
To leave this land of field and oak.

I am ready for my fishy meal,
And I no longer wish to hide!
Wading into your shallow waters, I, myself, reveal.

My toes begin to web,
My skin welds to the cloak’s hide,
I am drawn back to my home by your soft lunar ebb.

O, how I have missed thee!
How I have missed myself
And my name that is, Selkie.

[Megan]

The hardest words

Why are our deepest emotions the hardest to express?
Such powerful feelings, always pushing against our lips to be free.
Even the tiniest whisper will release them...
And yet they remain trapped, rooted inside.

Often it's fear that keeps these words inside.
Fear of speaking them.
Fear of hearing them.
What will happen when they are released to the world?

I am afraid to speak these words.
Because my voice will make them truth.
Until now, I have ignored them, pushed them farther inside.
But I cannot continue like this.

I feel like I am about to explode.
These words push at every fibre of my being.
Fighting between my head and my heart to be set free.
Can I let them go?

Even alone at night, my lips are dry.
But I can't continue on like this.
I have to turn these words loose.
I love you.

[Zylah]

Three circles spin in which we live, move, & breathe:
*One full day as Earth rotates on her axis - Dawn, Noon, Night
*One full year as she revolves round the Sun - Rest, Growth, Harvest
*One full lifetime as Man lives out his days - Youth, Strength, Age

Three cycles move beyond our lives, hopes & dreams:
*One full age as a society evolves - Rise, Peak, Fall
*One full era as a species exists - Form, Spread, Change
*One full eon as a world sustains life - Spawn, Thrive, Fade

Three spheres encompass planet, stars & galaxy:
*One seen realm of movement through space – Across, Above, Between
*One felt realm of motion through time – Ago, Behold, Beyond
*One known realm of forms taken in both – Vapor, Fluid, Solid

[Frog]

The Artists Brush

Light, faint purple brush strokes caress and curl
At the base of the vertical brown lines
Green dappled camouflage disrupt
An expanse of blue.

The Goddess refills her paint pots
Ready to paint the rainbow upon the ground
Covering the canvas of the land
Revealing her new masterpiece.

[Earthwoman]

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