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Day: December 13, 2012

We Need New Gods: deibhidhe

Published on December 13, 2012

The end nears: the sharp sword dulls.
Its slices seem less useful,
the elegant, diamond edged glance
of its dark dance less fancy.

Though its blue blade is well-scarred,
these wounds seem slight from afar;
there are just two that make it
useless, unfit for gambit.

Toward the tip, the first flaw:
result of a reckless draw;
the hilt, where some blood was spilt
has lost gilt and needs rebuilt.

But such a sword it once was,
for noble knights in the cause
of laws and learning, sacred stuff
that bade us bluff, in the rough

where blades meant business was done
by the strong and those who run
them, son. How soon we forget,
and quickly let a prize pet,

who we think so meek and mild,
assume control and loose wild
a chaos child that just kills
and cannot still its ire’s will.

We must end this mad worship:
the steel, the spoils and kingship;
to strip the sword of its might.
We start tonight, while there’s light.

13 DEC 2012

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The Owl (Cailleach-Odiche)

Published on December 13, 2012

The Owl (Cailleach-Odiche) by Bill Worthington

Late at night, strange cries break through the vale,
And in that echo, the soft beat of wings;
A messenger from far beyond the pale,
His lesson in the warning that he brings.
With glowing eyes he peers through our shadows,
And unaffected, seeks our inner guise,
which finding, he gives keys to doors once closed,
where wisdom waits that we must recognize.
The night that shimmers secretly, his range,
and there in esoteric mists we find
that much of what we seek is not so strange,
but blurs our sense of past and future time.
A mystery to those who fear the night,
The owl patrols the edges of the light.

REVERSED:

Alone in darkness there in the cypress,
a shadow ‘gainst the moon, he travels light;
his wariness a shield against loneliness,
he withdraws from the day and seeks the night.
The lesson that he brings is to reach out,
be less discerning, holding self apart;
a cool detachment watching from without
is oft defense protecting tender heart.
There is no need for secrecy, he cries,
that we begin again is nature’s fact;
and each initiation, as we die,
brings life anew to those who take its path.
Exposing our shy hearts to loss and risk,
the owl bids us to return from the mists.

From my 2001 project to describe each of the totem animals identified in the Druid Animal Oracle, written by Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm and illustrated by Bill Worthington, based on its Celtic/Druidic symbolism using the English sonnet form.

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