Wing Bones

[Fox of the Oaks]

Wings on wind, welcome friend;
Fly against the torrents strong.
Cliffs all white, hide the night;
Welcome friend, no sombre end.
Sacred cliffs, fast cut land;
Deepened caverns, gem-lit world.
Arcs of rainbow, stormy seas;
Welcome friend, here we rest.
Landward gale, crashing waves;
Harken to the test of days.
Sombre meeting, sacred bond;
Heartbeats deepen, world beyond.
Welcome friend, sacred friend;
One of us until the end.
One of all things here and now,
Of the natural endless power.
Deepen to the windswept bright,
Carved from long rhythm of the night.
Choose the words that choose your soul,
No darkness will you not console.
Circles turning, deep and holy,
Births and deaths, endless rolling.
Wandering into many lands,
Understanding through worlds so grand.
Your wings outstretched to pave your plan,
Sacred women, sacred man.
Destiny is bright for you,
I have heard you feel it too?

(comments/feedback welcome)

[wyeuro]

this is strong magic - each phrase a wing beat. it casts a beautiful spell. reading it, i soared, but felt very safely grounded at the end. i feel strengthened by it - it delivers a very special kind of energy - eagle 'dreaming', you might say. have you tried it as performance, or used it in ritual as a chant or song? what kind of rhythms would you use?
wyverne /|\

[Golden Eagle]

Wonderful!

[Fox of the Oaks]

Performance is an area I wish to work on further, my experience is yet a sapling there.
I do use some poetry for chanting in ritual and magic, yet haven't used this one yet.

The rhythm of 'Wing Bones' I can attempt to describe in two ways:

First Way: Somewhat technical.
If / marks a heavy syllable and * a light one, then it may come out like this:

/ * / / * /
Wings on wind, welcome friend;
/ * / * / * /
Fly against the torrents strong.

That's how I feel it, at least for the first two lines... I find most poems develop their own rhythm and the first line is most important in establishing this.

Second Way: Descriptive.
I think you had a clear feel for it wyeuro when you said each phrase is like a wing beat. Also I think the imagery of the poem is related to the rhythm; the words and meanings and rhythm are connected, so the imagery of waves, wind and wings, to me, reveal a 'storm-swept dance of flight' kind of rhythm.

After developing my performance skill some more, I may be able to offer some recordings of my poetry to share with OBOD.

Thanks for the feedback.

PineRaven.