Nancy Lankston
We are the blood
of the witches
you thought were dead.
We carry witchcraft in our bones
whilst magic still sings
inside our heads.
When the witch hunters
imprisoned our ancestors
when they tried to burn the magic away.
Someone should have
warned them
that magic cannot be tamed.
Because you cannot burn away
what has always
been aflame.
~Nikita Gill, “Wild Embers”
The Word
Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,
between “green thread”
and “broccoli,” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”
Resting on the page, the word
is beautiful. It touches you
as if you had a friend
and sunlight were a present
he had sent from someplace distant
as this morning—to cheer you up,
and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing
that also needs accomplishing.
Do you remember?
that time and light are kinds
of love, and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder
or a safe spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue,
but today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile,
proclaiming that the kingdom
still exists,
the king and queen alive,
still speaking to their children,
—to any one among them
who can find the time
to sit out in the sun and listen.
~Tony Hoagland
in Sweet Ruin, 1992
☀️
Image: Pacific Sun
by Nancy Lankston
River in flood carries me to a new mountain.
Mountain holds me and whispers,
Bringer of the fairy light
Learn to hold the valley… learn to hold.
I rest in the lap of Isis
Sacred mother of all
Tears flow and heal.
Blood river of my ancestors
Washes over me, through me
Dark Goddess smiles.
Just dance your dance.
Just dance your dance.
I am drumming my sister awake
Blooming hills surround
Bee priestesses dance
And Her honey flows.
~Nancy Lankston
☾☽
She who reconciles the ill-matched threads
of her life, and weaves them gratefully
into a single cloth—
it’s she who drives the loudmouths from the hall
and clears it for a different celebration
where the one guest is you.
In the softness of evening
it’s you she receives.
You are the partner of her loneliness,
the unspeaking center of her monologues.
With each disclosure you encompass more
and she stretches beyond what limits her,
to hold you.
~Rainer Maria Rilke
☽☾
#SelfLove
“I am dreaming back my sisters
Whisper-worn footfalls on the Temple steps
Skywalkers
Storm dwellers
Heavy-breasted cauldron keepers
Songweavers
Snake sisters
Darkmoon dancers
Labyrinth builders
Star bridgers
Fiery-eyed dragon-ryders
Wind seekers
Shape shifters
Corn daughters
Wolf women
Earth stewards
Gentle-handed womb sounders
Dream spinners
Flame keepers
Moon birthers
Come home sisters, come home”
~Marie Elena Gaspari
She wants to meet the serpent
Have a chat with Eve in the garden
Before she was banished
For the sin
Of wise curiosity.
She longs to sit with Medusa,
Gazing into her eyes
While M recounts
The whole sordid tale
From her point of view.
She craves dinner with Lilith
And all her beasts
On a beach overlooking a sea of red.
They will talk until the full moon rises
Then dance with Cybele until dawn
She wishes to hear stories of HER
The Great Goddess
Stories that lie long buried
Beneath a pile of myths and legends
Told for millennia in a male voice.
She longs to learn more, so much more
About Her lineage
Her story
Her wisdom
From the she’s who came before.
And so she sits quietly waiting.
She senses every story of Her Is still here,
Hidden in ripples on still water
In bird song at dawn
And the flicker of flame in the night.
So she sits
She listens
She waits
Holding her longing
Close.
~Nancy Lankston
May a good vision catch me
May a benevolent vision take hold of me, and move me
May a deep and full vision come over me, and burst open around me
May a luminous vision inform me, enfold me.
May I awaken into the story that surrounds,
May I awaken into the beautiful story.
May the wondrous story find me;
May the wildness that makes beauty arise between two lovers
arise beautifully between my body and the body of this land,
between my flesh and the flesh of this earth,
here and now,
on this day,
May I taste something sacred.
~David Abram
