The peace of wild things by Wendell Berry When despair grows in meand I wake in the middle of the night at the least soundin fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,I go and lie down where the wood drakerests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. … Read more
Winterby Danica Lee, Age 11Sanford, NC© Stone Soup Magazine The flowers callTheir last farewellTo the woodsAs winter comesTo wilt their petals. The snow fallsUpon brown leavesFallen on the roofsOf houses strungWith sparkling lights. The crisp airAnd glittering frostThe little puffs of breathAnd mugs of steamy teaOnly come in winter.
Now let us rest easy, my friends and beloveds. Enjoy with me the Halcyon Days. The Sun has surely turned back towards the growing Light (in the Northern Hemisphere). So now let us draw close to one another, and absorb the gifts of the Dark and Quiet. You, Darknessby Rainer Maria Rilke You darkness, that … Read more
Brothers, Sisters, Come and SingTo the tune of Hark the Herald, Angels Sing I.Brothers, sisters, come and singGlory to the new-born King!Gardens peaceful, forests wildCelebrate the Winter Child! Now the time of growing starts!Joyful hands and joyful hearts!Cheer the Yule log as it burns!Once again, the Sun returns, Brothers, sisters, come and sing!Glory to the … Read more
The Holly and the Ivyadapted by Susan M. Shaw The holly and the ivyWhen they are both full grownOf all the trees that are in the woodThe holly bears the crown. The rising of the sunAnd the running of the deerThe playing of the merry tunesAs we Pagans sing with cheer. The holly bears a … Read more
Hymn of the Forests (excerpt)by Fiona McLeod (William Sharpe)We are the harps which the winds play,A myriad tones in one vast soundThat the earth hearkens night and day —A ceaseless music swaying roundThe whole wide world, each voiceful treeEchoing the wave-chants of the sea. For even as inland waves that moanBut break not ‘midst the … Read more
Inversnaid— Gerard Manley HopkinsThis darksome burn, horseback brown,His rollrock highroad roaring down,In coop and in comb the fleece of his foamFlutes and low to the lake falls home. A windpuff-bonnet of fawn-frothTurns and twindles over the brothOf a pool so pitchblack, fell-frowning,It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning. Degged with dew, dappled with dew,Are the … Read more
In a Dark Time— by Theodore RoethkeIn a dark time, the eye begins to see,I meet my shadow in the deepening shade;I hear my echo in the echoing wood–A lord of nature weeping to a tree.I live between the heron and the wren,Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den. What’s madness but nobility … Read more
Everywoman Her Own Theology— Alicia Ostriker I am nailing them up to the cathedral doorLike Martin Luther. Actually, no,I don’t want to resemble that Schmutzkopf(See Erik Erikson and N.O. BrownOn the Reformer’s anal aberrations,Not to mention his hatred of Jews and peasants),So I am thumbtacking these ninety-fiveTheses to the bulletin board in my kitchen. My … Read more
All Soul’s Nightby Loreena McKennitt Bonfires dot the rolling hillsidesFigures dance around and aroundTo drums that pulse out echoes of darknessMoving to the Pagan sound. Somewhere in a hidden memoryImages float before my eyesOf fragrant nights of straw and of bonfiresDancing ’till the next sunrise. (chorus:)I can see the lights in the distanceTrembling in the … Read more