May Day 2009

Wrote this at a Beltaine (Celtic May Day) celebration today. I've known a good number of the folks there since 1994 (if my calculations are correct - end of my junior year of high school I think but due to medical problems I had back then my memory is poor so may have been 1993). The first time I went to one of these, my mom and then-just-turning-5 brother were with me, and it really struck me that now my own firstborn is roughly the same age my brother was then. That is a major part of the inspiration for this poem. First draft, unedited, written aroung 5:30pm today.

Half a life ago
or maybe two
Under a sky
Almost blue
Clothed in time
And ribbon
We danced the
Summer in
Young without
And within
We help the
World begin again
Faces new and
habitual
Essential parts of
ritual
Bellies filled with
Divinity
Have waxed and waned
repeatedly
The earth dances
round the sun
Lives ending
and begun
We gather here
Rain and shine
To be blessed
and our selves divined
As long as
memory lasts
our futures
will adorn our past

This pic of D reminds me of my dad

Just took this, not exactly sure why, but something about the look on his face reminds me of my dad. I think it's in the eye expression.

Instigator (another original "poem")

When I was young
the great big They
called me an Instigator
slur-like and slanderous
as if I would amount to
Nothing
and there was w real problem with that.

I have grown beyond them
And embrace my instigation
personification
arms thrown open to the universe
I let myself in
and stir up trouble that needs some stirring.
I am the Official Nobody
and gleefully fulfill my role.

I have found
Everything Essential
in my Nothingness.
Perhaps not comfort for myself
(and surely discomforting for others)
but always
Instigating
Progressing

And that ain't Nothing.

(written on my bberry during the sermon at WSUUC)