A Few Poems for Samhain

[pagios]

Samhuinn

When Death comes
May I greet him with a smile
As an old friend
I know his work, his commission,
I know how he guards zealously the sacred boundaries
Separating the living and the dead
I know these boundaries
I have crossed over them
For love I have died
Entering darkness with no guide
To search for anothers heart
To join in the Celebration
For which the universe was created—

The stars by night are the same
The same sun and moon do shine
But the sea is different
It has no shores
It winds are dreams and visions
Its waves are bliss and ecstasy
Its depths contain Eternity
And I have sailed upon it
My craft rests by the dock
Its sails ready to hoist, to set, to trim
The helm awaits my hand
Soul companions are my shipmates
The fire of stars burning in their eyes
The songs of the constellations
Circle within their smiles
Joy dances in their hearts
But it is not my time to depart.

My hands say,
“These palms still contain seeds of light
To be scattered upon the earth.”
My lips and tongue say,
“We taste the air—
It stirs, it whispers,
It hovers and drifts in restless gusts.
The air is pregnant:
Light and darkness
The turning of the year
The barriers separating all worlds grow faint
The gateways now luminous—
The eye clairvoyant
The ear telepathic
Touch clairsentient.

The Earth Herself is here
Waiting for Her children,
To hear the Song—
To feel the Fire
To taste the Light
To touch the Joy
To embrace the Love
At the center of our hearts
At the center of the circle
At the center of the universe.”

Listen! Can you hear it?
The sound of galaxies whirling, spinning, and colliding
Sailing on celestial winds?
The wind in the leaves of the trees
The soft rustling
The tender caress
As sweet as any Lover
Her fingers running through your hair?
Who is like my Beloved?
At her touch,
The sun and moon dissolve
Into a brighter light
Day and night join as one
The life animating plant, rock, animal, and tree
Human and Divine being
Returns to its source
To the seed at the center of the heart.

In a dark place
Silence blossoms
Revealing the distances separating and uniting all things—
I hear the Song of the Universe
In a solitude pregnant with love
Distances are overcome
And the stars draw near and greet me
As an old friend


You Are My Soul

When she awoke she turned to me and said:
You are my soul.
My first breath in the light of dawn
And all my dreams at night
I dedicate to you, my Beloved.

When I shove off and depart for unknown shores
Your inspiration guides my craft
Flows with force through my sails.
You are the electricity in my heartbeat
The separate fibers of my being
Unite around my love for you,
The surge, the pulse, the wave
The circle of life within my body
Ride upon my desire to hold you within my heart.

My love for you is as deep as the sky
More vast than the winds
That caress the seas in ecstasy.
Softer in flight
Than the moon's light
My body yields to you
As I spiral and turn
Caught in the currents
Of your smile
As I drift into a sea
Of pure bliss
When I enfold you in my arms.

Desert sands of Haleakala
Russet, crimson, citrine
Parched, dry, burning
Yearn with volcanic craving
Solidified rock
Once flowed molten, liquid
Lit with tongues of flame,
Yet Haleakala is but a small reflection
A small reminder
Of the fire with which
I burn for your touch.

Reflected in your eyes
I become a purity
Acid can not etch
Time can not drown
Space can not hide.
I am luminous light
The transparency
Shining in all colors

The dreams that yield their visions to me
Of birth, of galaxies colliding,
Of seas turning into wine
These are your gifts to me
When I hold you close to me at night.

Note: I actually awoke on Beltane from a nap and wrote this poem. It took me a while to find it a home. I put it in my story, Fall of Atlantis where it is spoken by a woman who has died and then appears to her beloved in a "sending" to say good-bye with these last words. And so you see it applies equally to Samhain. I recently met a woman who used that phrase, "My husband and I 'share the same soul.'" One day, in this life or another, a woman will love me in this way. For the video redition of the poem, see What's New: http://www.lava.net/~pagios/new.html

[Daryvas]

The dreams that yield their visions to me
Of birth, of galaxies colliding,
Of seas turning into wine
These are your gifts to me
When I hold you close to me at night.

I liked this stanza especially well.