Category: Poetry & Music

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Solstice Blessings

December 21st marked the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. And today is Christmas. This is the time of year when Mother Earth seems to be dead and lifeless. It can be difficult to believe that spring will ever return when a cold wind blows all night and icy sleet covers the ground. And yet, the days will slowly lengthen from here; the earth will warm and six months from now, we will awaken to the longest day of the year.  Nature’s rhythmic seasonal cycle is one of the innate blessings of life on Earth.

For me, winter solstice is about embracing Mother Earth as she rests for a season. It’s about learning to love the dark, quiet energies of winter and death.

My Celtic ancestors called this dark season Seed Time; long, cold, dark winter nights are the perfect time to dream of the life we want to create in the new year.  Just as Mother Nature gently holds flower seeds safe in her dark soil until it is time for them to stir and grow, we too can honor our dreams for the new year by holding them safe within our hearts in these dark cold days.  We can gently love each little dream and nurture it until the right and perfect time comes for it to grow into a new reality.

To everything, there is a season. And now tis the season to dream big and seed the new year. This song by Enya celebrates dreaming in the dark quiet of winter:

O mor henion i dhu:
Ely siriar, el sila
Ai! Aniron UndomielTiro! El eria e mor
I ‘lir en el luitha ‘uren.
Ai! Aniron…
[Translation]From darkness I understand the night
Dreams flow, a star shines
Ah! desire EvenstarLook! A star rises out of the darkness
The song of the star enchants my heart
Ah! I desire…
☾ ☽
Composed and performed by Enya,
Lyrics by Roma Ryan

 

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Snowy Blessings

Winter Blessings
My Two Guides in Winter

May you awaken to the mystery of being here and
enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
May you respond to the call of your gift and find the courage to follow its path.
May the flame of anger free you from falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame
and may anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.

~ John O’Donohue ~

☾ ☽

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Daughter of the Mother

Mom and Me
Mom and Me

My mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2006. She made her final transition last week, after years of inhabiting both this world and the world beyond. This poem is for you Mom:

Daughter of the Mother
 

I am the daughter of the mother who sees beneath

Raven’s eye shows me the way through

To the other side where down is up

And time can stand still

Until the time is right.

 

I am the daughter of the mother who sings in my bones

Drum song carries me out of now

To a place where fiery dragons roam,

Mother Moon dances with her Sun

And Spirit Bear guides me home.

~Nancy Lankston

☾ ☽

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Bone Songs and Moonlight

 
 
Flaming Night
 

I am the moon goddess casting a silver net over this night

I am the brooding black raven asleep in the dark wood

I am the dreamer and the fox who guards the dreamer 

I am the windswept plain where lost dreams can be found

I am the bone songs of my ancestors playing on the wind

I am the heart of the ancient sycamore crumbling into dust

I am green leaves capturing rays of sunlight as they fall

I am the lone crane, standing watch near the shore

I am the jumping salmon crane silently waits for

I am the dance of flickering flame consuming it all

I am Phoenix reborn from the ash of what came before.

~Nancy Lankston

 
☾ ☽
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Smoke and Stone

Smoke and Stone
Smoke and Stone

I sit

breathing out my worry

and my wonder

as I silently ask the Goddess

what exactly is compassion?

and can I offer it to myself?

I sit

breathing out my fear

am I brave enough

to love

like a Boddhisattva

without reason, without end?

I sit

watching the Goddess

smoke dances, we sit

suddenly, the stone of me cracks

there is nowhere to hide

I am love.

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I Am

Reflection
Reflections
Wonderland Lake  October, 2013

I Am

My bones are mountains.
My tears, rushing rivers.
The earth’s crust is my skin.
Trees adorn my head.

The sun, moon, and stars
Are in my eyes.
The ether of the Universe is my breath.
Separateness is an illusion.

I am all things and all things are me.

~Anya Phenix

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Be Still

Stillness
Coot Lake by Nancy L

Keeping Quiet

by Pablo Neruda

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

This one time upon the earth,
let’s not speak any language,
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be a delicious moment,
without hurry, without locomotives,
all of us would be together
in a sudden uneasiness.

The fishermen in the cold sea
would do no harm to the whales
and the peasant gathering salt
would look at his torn hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars of gas, wars of fire,
victories without survivors,
would put on clean clothing
and would walk alongside their brothers
in the shade, without doing a thing.

What I want shouldn’t be confused
with final inactivity:
life alone is what matters,
I want nothing to do with death.

If we weren’t unanimous
about keeping our lives so much in motion,

if we could do nothing for once,
perhaps a great silence would
interrupt this sadness,
this never understanding ourselves
and threatening ourselves with death,
perhaps the earth is teaching us
when everything seems to be dead
and then everything is alive.

Now I will count to twelve
and you keep quiet and I’ll go.