For the 4th year of this six-year celebration, I am delighted and honored to join in the ever-growing Brigid Poetry Slam. Throughout the blogosphere, everyone is invited to post poetry in honor of blessed Brighid today on Her feast day. She is the Irish Goddess and patron saint of smithcraft, poetry, and healing.
This year, the instigator of this wonderful conspiracy of Divine beauty and creativity, Anne Hill, has set up a Community Facebook Page to help people easily view each other’s poems and to spread them around as much as possible.
So if you post a poem on your blog, please share the link on the community page so we can all go there and read it. If you don’t have a blog or website of your own, please go ahead and post your poem in its entirety to the community page.
There are so many fabulous poems to choose from, and I love preparing for this by immersing myself in the sublime words, rhythms and images so richly accessible these days.
But the one that has really spoken to me this year is a poem in honor of our blessed Brighid Herself. It was posted several days ago on Facebook by beautiful Christine Tolf. I am delighted to share it with you.
Important: Remember that poetry is meant to be read aloud! You might even try singing these words! Hear this with your real ears, not just in your mind, and experience the exquisite pleasure of being swept away in the world’s most ancient and powerful magic!
May the fiery arrow of Brighid forever guide you boldly; may Her cloak of wisdom and healing always surround you. May you be always inspired. Blessed be!
Brigit of the Sun
by Laura Janesdaughter
-i-
I am Brigit Listen to me
Hear me whispering your name
Feel me in the warming hearth fire
See me in the Eternal Flame.
I am Brigit Fiery Arrow
See me move across the sky
Robed in blue and white I watch you
With my golden Goddess eye.
I am Brigit of the Waters
Seek me at my holy wells
For where my face has been reflected
That is where I weave my spells.
Come into my holy circle
Find your deep reflections here
‘Tis the time of my returning
Look and you shall find me near.
Know me by my holy symbol
Know I am the Shining One
I am Brigit Listen to me
I am Brigit of the Sun.
-ii-
I am Brigit Listen to me.
Let me open up your heart
Feel my flame arise within you
Feel me move in every part.
‘Tis the time The Cailleach dances
The Winter Hag becomes the Bride
‘Tis the time for transformation
Dance along the changing tide.
Come into my holy circle
Bring your deep reflections here
I am Brigit Listen to me
Look and you will find me near.
-iii-
I am Brigit Listen to me
Hear my words flow through your mind
Feel creation rise within you
Reach in and see what you will find.
I am Brigit of the Poets
Come and breathe the Brigit mist
For when my holy breath surrounds you
T’will be your words my lips have kissed.
I am Brigit Listen to me
Let me open up your heart
Feel my flame arise within you
Feel me move in every part.
-iv-
I am Brigit Listen to me
I have made strong what once was flame
Let your breath and dedication
Bless your jewelry in my name.
I am Brigit Gold and Silver
Goddess of the molten fire
I am the one of transformation
I have wrought what you desired.
Think upon my magic symbols
Find your transformation there
I am Brigit Listen to me
Look and you will find me near.
-v-
I am Brigit Listen to me
Gather round my central fire
Sing to me these words I teach
And I will grant your heart’s desire.
Brigit give us strength and courage
Brigit be our Constant One
Lead us into transformation
Blessed be the Shining One!
Bride, unto you I come
to look within your well,
Show to me my own true self
Your wisdom to me tell.
Lady of the Emerald Isle
Of cauldron, forge and fire.
Blessed Triple Goddess, come
It is my heart’s desire.
Brigid, fiery arrow
Your presence I do seek
Nourish, heal, inspire me
Your praises would I speak.
Not speech alone, but poetry
And harpist’s lilting song
Your healing power through me
Your presence in me strong.
Let your blessings flow through me
And spread throughout the earth
And join with that of others
Who tend your sacred hearth.
Bearing Water for Brigid
Sketches for a water vessel —
bottle and message bob on waves.
Voice of Brigid calls
All who hear: Imagine
Exposed to wind, to grit, to rain
and hail,
rock faces erode.
Vessel
Designated fixed space
Sacrosanct container
Conveyor through fluid
separates
Fluidity.
Creates place, surface to paint.
Amusement;
diffusement of emotion,
beatitude, foment of dueling farce.
Pure colors
blend in the dark.
Brief infusion
of giddy illusion
glows
just enough to guilefully entice.
Catch that glint, a secret
clue revealing
purpose, meaning.
Sparkling Neural net
smiles,
engaging
wild eternal child,
ages’ flamboyant fool,
Glorious
Muse
(Voice rains from within)
A wound is a sacred vessel
Pain carves into flesh
Carries sense memory
Carries the seed
Of its own demise
Sentience
Engulfed in life
Learns anew to be whole
Wounded with the potential for wisdom
when eyes are are pried
from seeping, sucking, suffering
aching to censure what future we admire.
Redefine the schizm.
This wound is our project.
To heal, discover the vision;
realign the seam to fit
self-framed landscape.
Let loose that genie of desire.
Ride rushing blood streams.
Build a roaring pyre of grief,
insane belief in wrathfilled deities.
Revile that old refrain: “life is pain” or a game
to be lost.
No Faustian bargain.
Just a
rambling adventure
daring
to explore
essence of ecstasy.
Don’t wait for the rest to see
and demur.
Stretch your sail.
Take sight of your guiding star.
The only failure is self-denial
in favor of the vile lie
that pain is destiny
instead of faithful friend
lending energy
for change.
Slice vivid memories.
Exult in the tastes, the textures.
Enliven your way.
In the end
the vessel breaks.
There the Goddess stirs
2011 Aquarius
Oh wonderful! WONDERFUL!!!
I love this especially:
No Faustian bargain.
Just a
rambling adventure
daring
to explore
essence of ecstasy.
Thank you SO much!!!
Brigid
Smithy and Goddess
my lot is
not as
understandingly randomly caught in
the Weave
as it seems
in my dreams;
Your Calling; my Falling
release releasing releases
my self in bits and pieces
into your cauldron
your sacred well
the carillon carrion bell
ringing singing bringing
my spirit apart
healing my heart
starting charting imparting
the thwarting of my mind
unwind design
no longer serving
not undeserving
but worthy and earthy
birthing a new self
that raptures like surf
deeper and older
upon a boulder
touched one time by Elves
surrounded by sand and shells
churning, returning to bits of sea
relearning my lost divinity
serenity infinity in alchemy
I come to be
the Truth of me:
Sacred One –
I am undone
unspun and hung
above your palm
in psalm
and song:
You are where I belong –
in my heart.
Wow! Glorious! Thank you, so much.. I have tears in my eyes, y’all!