We honor the Animal Realm, as we approach Solstice.

#15 As we approach Solstice, this week we honor the Animal Realm.

A medieval principle of kinship invites us to imagine that all of nature….as well as we humans, feels rising anticipation for the return of the light. In the time preceding Solstice, week by week, each of the realms is honored and recognized as kin. In this vein, I offer you ~ week by week ~ a poem honoring mineral, plant, animal and human. These are from my book A Litany of Wild Graces. Click on the Books tab to order!

Animal

Wide cretaceous wingspan
heron descends in majesty
steps high
with ancient grace
through autumn’s garden stream.
Cool intense gaze
studies creek-bank
stream bed
plucks a
crayfish midstream
an elegant Asian woman
she reaches with chopsticks
to extract a plump water chestnut.
Woman moored at the window
a slight quiver trembles between
shoulder blades
as bird ascends
cruising
with slow deep wing beats.

Coyote prints in mud
bear scat amid birdseed
possum’s marsupial parenthood:
we bow to
their warm blood
salute the sun-being
who walks across
his blue arch
raying out beneficence
generosity.
The father of all incandescence
brings light
by the gift of fire.
Our limbs are warm
hearts ablaze
free.

Photo by Pixnio

Nature's realms, and we humans, settle-in during mid-winter. We all wait for the Solstice.

A medieval principle of kinship invites us to imagine that all of nature….as well as we humans here in the temperate northern hemisphere…. is settled deeply into midwinter. As we wait, we feel rising anticipation for the return of the light and the coming of springtime warmth. In the time preceding Solstice, week by week, each of the realms is honored and recognized as kin, as we wait together. In this vein, I offer you ~ week by week ~ a poem honoring mineral, plant, animal and human. These are from my book A Litany of Wild Graces. If you’d like to hear these poems, go to the Sacred Earth Thread’s videos. If you have young children, look for stories of the realms of nature on the Family Life Thread ‘s videos. I hope these offerings bring you warmth and light.

Mineral

Minerals are stardust
coalesced in deep space

messengers of light

shot from Sagittarius’ bow.

Luminous arrows travel

through a new sun’s orbit.

Pulled by love’s gravity
they shape the intelligence of light

into Appalachia’s igneous core.

Electromagnetic signatures ray invisibly

from caves’ palpable dark.

Woman-in-mountain is our sister

breasts twin peaks
waist a deep valley
hips rising smooth

long thigh bone a treeless ridge.

Her timeless gaze
illumines evening’s blue ridge.

Her minerals tumble
through our blood
like stones
carried in highland freshets

come to rest for a time
in our shoulder blades, ribs

then flow on
to nourish sacred ground.