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Tag: rebirth

Wounded to the Core: Chaucerian stanzas

Published on April 28, 2011

If you would comprehend the world at all,
imagine this: a place so pure and wild
it knows just spring, not summer yet, or fall.
Like a capricious, spoiled and errant child
it knows not between sacred and defiled,
but treats all things with equal joy and lust
until their centers start to rust.

Once wounded, everything betrays its core;
the earth, no different from a broken limb
that was fed by the tree, but is no more.
Inside the wound, there is no chance or whim;
just living and then death, which is not grim,
but time to put one book back on the shelf
and start another version of one’s self.

28 APR 2011

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An Ostara Blessing

Published on March 20, 2005

Today the dark begins at last to fade,
the Winter’s fulcrum balanced with the Spring.
Once great and mighty shadows turn mere shade,
and green returns to color growing things.

Rejoice! The world is born again from seed.
It cracks the brittle crust of earth to reach
out for the sun’s return, its will to breed
and manifest all nature’s divine speech.

Rejoice! No more on cold and bitter thoughts
allow the hibernating heart to dwell;
The fallow time, when actions come to naught,
has ended. Broken is the sunless spell.

Today, the light returns to take its place,
with Summer’s children growing in its womb.
Let melancholy no more taint your face;
Throw back the shutters! Let Spring in the room!

Rejoice! The season for despair is through;
Just look — snow melts, and leaves begin to show.
Once more, the world is sacred, fresh and new,
and waits for you likewise to find it so.

This equinox I wish for friend and foe
alike to find perspective they may lack;
in our own darkness, to see some light grow,
and in our sun-washed days, respect the black.

21 MAR 2005

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Imbolc

Published on February 1, 2005

As the world wakes up from Winter’s slumber,
she starts to shake the sodden snow that lies
heavy on her cloak of gray and umber.
After the long months of silence, she sighs

a slow breath of warmth into the crisp air;
and time, that has hung suspended and numb,
begins again to find its soft rhythm
and heralds new Spring on its muffled drum.

Deep in her fetid womb, where life has formed
in silence through the dark and bitter days,
a season’s promises ache to be born
and feel again the nearing sun’s bright rays.

Relax and slowly breathe, she says, the wait
is nearly at an end; the world will wake.
Stretch out your tired limbs! Don’t hesitate!
The cracked and brittle Winter’s bones will break.

Rejoice, rejoice! The world is waking
Winter’s hold is slowly breaking;
See him old, infirm and shaking
as new Spring is in the making

Rejoice, rejoice, the Spring is nearing
Winter’s fleece is set for shearing
Share the sound of life you’re hearing
Green and wild, in every clearing

Rejoice, rejoice, the Spring will come
its heartbeat pounding like a drum!
Begone, the cold that stings and numbs,
and to the sun we bid welcome!

01 FEB 2005

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Eroica

Published on January 2, 2004

Allegro con brio

And so another year has come and gone.
In that span, has any touch of greatness
found me, or have I just been marking time,
waiting for a something that hasn’t yet?

Marcia funebre (Adagio assai)

So many little deaths, so much anger,
endless rounds of pointless meandering,
squandering life, making some kind of war
against hazy perceptions of cruel fate.

Scherzo (Allegro vivace)

But a new year arrives, and with it hope
That some of the seeds sown will root and grow
And in this desolate plain, may flower
Despite the past winter’s hibernation.

Finale (Allegro molto – Poco andante – Presto)

My spirit quickens, finding a new song
and a bold voice to speak its tune aloud;
May the gods hear my name in this great sound,
and give my hands work worth remembering.

02 JAN 2004

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