VOTE! 2012 IMBOLC/LUGHNASADH LONG POEM

[Earthwoman]

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

[Kris Hughes]

The Cailleach Becomes Bride

Bleak.
Cold
and silence.
Iron hard ground
The roiling sea that blasts the cliffs
under a sky of nothingness

The frosted stone
the frozen grass
useless for fodder
under the feet
of tired and haggard sheep

They say I am wise
with the wisdom perhaps
of the migration of reindeer
who scrape the moss
the runes of twigs
the raven who finds her morsel
and the lynx
who waits it out

But I can yet dance
Climb the trees
laugh
and raise a wind
to throw last years leaves
into a dervish circle

I can tease a gentler climate
up the valley
to moisten the loins
bring thoughts of some lustier dame
Only to tumble you
onto the ice
What were we thinking!

I cackle again from the treetops
raising a storm that sends the cattle
lowing and bucking in indignation
from sleet like knives
for the shelter of the dyke
and the ponies
lower their heads to the ground
tails plastered to their legs

I will jig and reel down the beach
entangled in seaweed
Enraged
I will blast your windows
and tear your thatch
You must regard me!
I will rip your hat off
slap your face
and make you look at death squarely
We must discuss this
however briefly

Snow
soft and moist
as the blanket of a newborn
Quietly coddling
the first snowdrops
the brightness
of a candle

Like a maiden
with the gentle blandness
of purity
but knowing
Who also dances
under the peaceful
painted snow
the dance of
the quickening seed

The crocus flung up purple
like trying Mother's hat
discarded in the naked dance
of further flurries
and the Cailleach's blood
running in her veins
of the burn in spate

Dancing mad as a hare
across the lawn
like a tumble of kittens
that run
spraddle legged
on their first jaunts
or the wonder of lambs
out to pasture
flinging out a highland leg

Increasing now
in quiet knowing
in the naming of each flower
in it's successive season
their buds waiting
in her small womb
where also the Cailleach nestles
against her backbone
Dreaming

- Kris Hughes 2011

[Twyrch]

I wrote this poem in the car, while traveling to my inlaws for Christmas. I felt an urge to write it and didn't know why, but I found out a few days later that at the time I was writing this poem for my grandfather, he had fallen and was in the Emergency Room. Regardless of your religious beliefs, I hope you will accept this poem in the spirit it is given... a man crying out for the peaceful passing of a loved one, close to crossing over.

THE GRANDPA PRAYER

Hello God, it's me again
Hoping you will hear my prayer.
You're taking all my loved ones
To live with you up there.

This man you see before you,
His name is Robert John.
I'm praying that you bless him,
And tell him, "Job well done!"

Tell me God, that you remember
The good things he has done.
The war, his church, his family
And the life lived for Your Son.

This patriot here before you,
Went to war in '43.
He spent 2 years in China,
So that others could live free.

Listen, Lord, to his story;
How he served you all his life,
And how his faith never wavered
When he buried his first wife.

He raised 2 sons without her,
Though he married once again,
And they both grew old together,
As their boys grew into men.

Now his legacy continues,
In grandchildren left behind,
And in his 3 great-grandsons;
The greatest grandpa you could find.

So, Lord, please grant him mercy,
As he comes to live with you,
And worship in your presence,
In a body made brand new.

[wyeuro]

briefing from a brownie.

when you go hunting fairies wear a full-length cloak – please do –
to help contain the over-whelming radiance of you,
and keep things decent when around your bended knees we crowd
lest tiny ones get might get swept in much closer than allowed.
(because some of us is simple, and there’s some of us is proud).

your nwyfre, and your pulses of magnetic energy
can pummel most uncomfortably the pixy trying to see.
and the wild emotive backlash that might happen to us both,
with our poncho wrapped around us, is contained within the cloth.
it keeps us from confusion where we’re blundering like a moth!

the scent of soap, deodorant, repellent and shampoo
is poisonous to some of us, though nice enough for you.
(which would explain, all ye who’ve sought without the proper clothes,
the peg upon that funny little fairy woman’s nose!)
the toxic waste hurts gaia too, so take a break from those.

bright, busy colours dazzle us – we lose our focus fast
when floral skirts and jazzy shirts go whizzing swiftly past.
so make your cloak dark brown or black, deep green, grey, fawn or blue,
but keep away from brighter shades and eschew purple too.
(for purple hath a magic which we can’t explain to you).

the cut should be like manners, don’t exaggerate or flatter,
and while colour should be monochrome, the weave’s another matter,
woven, knitted, sequinned, braided, sculptured, crushed or corded,
be-runed, be-crystalled, decked with gems – the beauty will be lauded.
(we’ll even bless your wands for you, with brownie points awarded!)

the colour should be solid, that’s the least disturbing way
the cloth should hang in gentle folds with just a little sway.
the sleeves should be both long and wide; to them we like to cling
while garlands of enchantment round you laughingly we fling!
(we value you who seek us, and the love and joy you bring!)

the hood should cover all your hair - or wear a scarf or shawl
good management of magic is important for us all
for if we like the way you are - respectful, honest, kind -
we’ll send you home with magic gifts for body, soul and mind,
to help you search in safety, distant fairy lands to find.

when you’re out hunting fairies down upon your hands and knees,
when looking under toadstools and upon the backs of bees,
a-peering through your lenses wrought of common sense and science,
as fairies of an other-world, to offer your alliance -
bear in mind the ones you see are those out hunting giants!

[Earthwoman]

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