As you remember, once, a very long time ago, an old man and a young woman took a long icy winter’s journey….
Light is Born into Darkness and all Earthlings Rejoice
And now the Solstice Light is with us!
We now celebrate with all our fellow earthlings, for the celestial corner has been rounded and Light returns! Minerals, plants, and animals rejoice. We humans, whose bodies are composed of these living ancestors, give gratitude and honor to all creation. These poems have come as gifts from the dream world; they arrived to me as visitors in the velvet night. For more poems subscribe : https://www.sharifaoppenheimer.org Click on the thread A Litany of Wild Graces, or order the book from the Books tab. Happy Solstice to all!
Mineral
Hillside forest.
Spider webs are quilted sunlight.
Her veins open into this dawn.
Tourmaline crystals
tumble at her feet.
She is mineral.
Plant Woman
Her ancestral home
succumbs to fecund
silted flood waters.
A chair rocks slowly.
Lavender grows
in the palm of her hand.
Waters slowly rise.
Land Animal
Her hair becomes silk banners,
flags flying in mist-laden wind.
She dances on tiger’s back.
Jungle fronds sway,
green waves parting
as the she-tiger passes.
Human
We are composite
permeable form
a place
the world-spirit
travels through:
minerals
waters
plants
animals
starfire
wind
all these
gather fragments of humankind
carry bits of our genetic alphabet
downstream or disperse them
on dandelion filaments.
We greet these guests
spirit embedded in earth
tend them
as they flow through us
know that elements borrowed
from star-born
ancestors will be returned
for our children’s
children.
Photo Kate Knott@a_clear_lens_photography
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
We Honor the Plant Realm with a Mid-Winter Story
Stories for the Early Winter
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.
