Venus

Venus wears a diadem
tangled in her outspread hair.
I saw her rise above the hill
and life was not the same again.

Her hair, the night,
deep and black,
yours the dawn.
the sun on fire.

Venus rules the lovers knot.
We lay entwined beneath her spell
and lingered by her flaming fires
where passion is a sacrament.

Now Pan is here.
He came at dawn.
I scent him on the morning air
as I lay sweating in your arms.

Diamonds are dust compressed,
lust and love are all the same.
What I say I say with touch,
words of love without a sound.

Pan is dancing through our sheets
and Venus shines and smiles above.

Christmas Night

The bells were ringing
on silver frosted air.

I heard an angel singing
her voice was sweet and clear.

I was so entranced,
I walked into the night,
far out onto the ice,
where the moon shone bright.

My blades cut swirling patterns,
carving as I danced.
Spirals interweaving,
contained within a circle,
which, viewed from high above,
spread and spread and spread,
and I was filled with love.

I heard an angel singing
her voice was sweet and clear.
An ecstatic moment
That will long endure.
Many gifts I have been given
but none so strong and pure.

 

The Rose Outside the Church

The yellow rose,
like sunshine,
stands outside the door
of the founded, waiting church,
having more to give
than the sermon heard within

To see God, see the rose
From bud to bloom
it follows the sun.
It shines.
You saw it as a child,
this light,
and, though it decompose,
it is a prayer,
a perfume on the air,
a symbol of Gods love
in which we share.

 

In Utopia

In a perfect place,
In a perfect time,
In a perfect world,
Why would we not be perfect?
Why move away from the warmth
When the fires are burning so strong?
Why struggle to fend off the angels of love
When the air is full of their song?
Let heaven come down from above.
Let angels rest on the earth.

The gifts were long ago given
And each new day, rebirth.

angel and wire

Art work by A.Gouedard. 2019.

Wood Wise

too many children are divorced from nature these days so i totally agree with this article

Nimue Brown's avatarDruid Life

Learning about the natural world is an important part of the Pagan path. Otherwise we run the risks of having some very odd ideas about what nature is. We may end up thinking of nature as something exotic, away and largely unavailable to us – which isn’t true. We may end up with nature as some kind of abstract concept that we celebrate by calling to it from our living rooms, and that’s not optimal. Even if life obliges you to be a mostly indoors Pagan, learning more about nature enriches a practice.

For Pagan parents, aunt, uncles, grandparents etc, teaching children about nature can be a great way of sharing your path with your young humans. I know many Pagans are uneasy about indoctrinating children, and some paths aren’t really suitable for younger folk anyway. This is a great place to start, and a child who grows up with…

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Treason

my words were lashed,
in bonds of my own making,
with good sense and clear reason,
to stop foundations shaking
for any word i spoke out loud
might all amount to treason

my tongue was tied
my body bound
my dreams were all illusion
the roses scattered at my feet
fell in dark profusion

the bridge of stone was empty now.
loves promise had betrayed me.
i wrapped myself, against the cold,
and wondered at my purpose

but i heard waters singing
beneath the bridge
beneath the ice
beneath the river’s surface

i followed in its journey
for there is no returning

 

Fraptious Day

Frabjous ~ amalgam of joyous and fabulous
Fraptious Day ~ a day after which nothing will ever be the same again

*****

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did all the things they usually did.
The Hatter hid, inside his hat,
To snare the dreaded Bandersnatch.

He’d had enough of tea and clocks
And fading smiles from Cheshire Cats.
He was with the belfry bats.

Alice was a windy girl,
Wandering about the land,
Blinded by her flying hair.
She didn’t always seem quite there.

Alice came and Alice went.
Alice went and Alice came.
It seemed a tiring, endless game,
And Hatter always felt the same.

Trapped inside an unsolved riddle.
He wished that they could dance and sing
And fly about and braid her hair
And she might learn to play the fiddle.
Chasing diamonds in the dark,
He might ignite a special spark.

The Hatter had a fervent wish
That Alice, one fine summer day,
Would come to Wonderland to stay,
And never ever go away,
If she would,
If she could.
(He always really thought she should).

But time and age and logic rules.
Alice was severely schooled
In all the things he thought were wrong
(His wish for magic being strong).

The Hatter, so completely mad,
Wanted Alice to be glad
And share her wishes all with him
But she came out when he went in,
And he was very rarely out.

She went she came,
She came she went,
Until the Fraptious Day arrived.
He knew she wouldn’t come again.
The frabjous time had blown away,
And then he knew he was insane.
It came to him as quite a shock.
It was that jolt that stopped the clock.

Love’s a story, very old,
If truth be told,
(and I won’t lie)
Love’s a thing that doesn’t die.

But when the chicks refuse to hatch
And Humpty Dumpty’s egg is cracked
And Alice lost, and won’t come back,
The March Hare screams and runs away.

It’s time to face that Fraptious Day!

The Hatter then removed his hat
And tears ran down his creasy cheeks.
He stood in sorrow in the dark
And faced the sadness in his heart.
He told the Red Queen
(so it’s said)
That she was welcome to his head.
With Alice gone,
Quite gone for good,
The Hatter sadly understood.

He turned the teapot upside down.
He groaned and frowned
And spun the table thrice around,
Which, at the time,
Seemed quite profound
(But only proves that he’s still mad).

He hoped that Alice was alright.
He knew her world could be quite bad.
He had left there long ago.
He knew the clocks there all ran slow.
The trouble was, she might not know.

Alice, through the mirror, looked.
Alice still was not impressed.

In the morning
Hatter dressed.
He brushed his hat
And put it on.
He knows that Wonderland is best.

As for the rest,
Hatter cannot really tell.
Perhaps if fortune casts a spell
All will settle very well.

He scratched his head,
A little vexed,
And thought out loud,
For none to hear…

”Surely wonder isn’t dead!
I’ll ask the Caterpillar next.
We’ll see,
For he’s a day ahead of me.”

(He wiped a tear)

“She was a dear,
A darling dear.”

Butterflies

see the butterflies
flying in a light formation
over sunlit, dew-wet meadows
where the cornflowers
bow and sway

love brings pleasures
with the glorious newborn day

the sun will reach its central zenith,
and it’s light will cast no shade

we may burn,
but day is short
and in turn,
by the evening’s well-stoked fires
sweet memories will grow, not fade

the light will deepen into night
when the moon and stars arise
and paint the fields in gentler shades

their magic light dispels the dark
’til sleep brings rest to closing eyes

and in the morning,
rise the lark,
rise up,
rise up,
higher,
soaring,
day is dawning

see the butterflies
flying in a light formation
over sunlit, dew-wet meadows
where the cornflowers
bow and sway

love,
beyond the weight of measure,
rises with the glorious,
precious,
treasured,
glowing pleasures
of the shining newborn day

Mercurial

Some loves truly do last forever,
even when the pathways sever

In storybooks
and paintings by pre-raphaelites,
the lonely Knight,
so tired and pale,
forgets his questing for the Grail
and kneels in poignant supplication
gazing at the ivy growing
on the statue, carved in stone,
in honour of a gothic wish
treasured by his lady, lost.

but not all Knights can stay in books
and this Knight has mercurial pride ~
he doesn’t hide,
he mounts and rides,
and holds old love,
a living thing,
beating still inside his breast~
a love that lingers,
doesn’t dwindle,
doesn’t cling.

He doesn’t rest.
Some may think this Knight accursed
but it’s a blessing of his birth.
His feet have unrelenting wings.
He learns to fly.
He yearns to live
and not to die.

House in the Wind

out on the ledge
the wind stampedes,
bending the trees to the east,
forming newborn dunes on the beach,
as the moon pulls the roaring tide
thundering in on the rocks
and the dark clouds roll above

I don’t want to be inside
I want to ride
I want to spin
I want to throw my arms out wide
and scream

witches may fly here tonight

but if i must go in,
let it be to the ancient house
where the hawthorns bend and bow

let it be through the trembling door
where i left the key before,
where the hearth is built of granite
and the chimneys whistle and moan
and the fire almost gutters out

may the mountains loom as dark sentries,
to shelter the crumbling walls
as the land sinks down in terror,
beneath the quaking floors

may it stand,
as it has for three hundred years,
battling the wind

nothing will die here tonight