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| Found at the Chalice Well in Glastonbury, UK. |
In Ursula Leguin's Earthsea Novels, the Summer Solstice is celebrated by dancing "the Long Dance" all night, to watch the sun rise in the morning. Something many do on this planet as well, and still. I have done so myself. I wish all the Blessings of the Day, and may we each find a way to "dance the Long Dance" together in body or in spirit this sacred and most primeval day. Here (again, and again) is the poem I share on such days, because the words and harp of the poet will always arise as I look out at the rising sun on the Solstice, the "World's Self Seen" in all of Her abundance, no matter where I am. "Every blue yonder Her brass harp rings" for those who can stop, who will listen to the deep throb of the Heartbeat, to the Harp strings sounding. "She will seal us with Her seed", the poet tells us, and this, strangely, is the taste of immortality I experience, each Solstice, when I stop to listen to the Song that Walks among us.
Every morning when I rise with the sun to water my garden, and especially this morning, I find myself talking to all the people that live there. The tall sunflowers, making seeds beloved by finches and sparrows. The desert tortoise who has decided to live here. My cats, and the green scarab beetles getting drunk on tree sap. The bees, having a drink at the bird bath, and the hummingbird. All the beings sensed and unseen, but friendly somehow too. As a child, the garden was full of "people" for me to visit, and now, an old woman, I seem to have returned again to that happy experience, unconcerned with what others think, and increasingly tired of all my human "identities" at last. So much is possible by just shifting the way we see things, from an "it" to a "you". When we "see with a Webbed Vision". The world becomes again conversant. I think (again) of a story by Ursula Leguin called "May's Lion" that speaks so eloquently to that power of naming. But let the rest of this post belong (again) to the Poet, Robin Williamson. And the Glory of the Summer Solstice!
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| Summer Solstice, Brushwood, 2008 |
Verses from Powis
I am a lover of the steady Earth
And of Her waters.
She says: “Let the light be brilliant,
for those who will cherish color.”
What if there be no Heaven?
She says: “Touch my Breasts - the fields are golden.”
Her Songs are all of love, lifelong.
Every blue yonder, Her brass harp rings.
Unlettered, in Her rivers our cherished sins
Drift voiceless in Her clouds.
She will rust us with blossom
She will forgive us
She will seal us
with Her seed.
Robin Williamson
You that create the diversity of the forms:
Open to my words
You that divide it and multiply it
Hear my sounds
Ancient associates and fellow wanderers
You that move the heart in fur and scale
I join with you
Making shapes
that my throat cannot tell
You that harden the horn
And make quick the eye
and the zigzag fly
You sizeless makers of the mole
And of the whale: aid me and I will aid you
and the green branch
You who make symmetries more true
Who dance in slower time
You rough coated
Who eat water
With your green blood
My red blood
Aid me and I will aid you
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Who have no shape
Who are not seen
I will call upon you
You who have no depth
But choose direction
That you blow love
upon the summers of my loved ones
That you blow summers
upon those loves of my love
Aid me and I will aid you
Of the waters
And the spark of the flame:
And guard the growth of the growing things
I make peace with you
And the wrath of the storm
I take the cup with you
Earth shakers
the sharp and the hollow hills
I make reverence to you
You who are awake
Every created thing
both solid and sleepy
Or airy light,
I weave colors 'round you
You who will come with me
I will consider it Beauty
Beauty, beauty
