Yvonne Aburrow, a resident of Bristol, England and a Pagan, published author, and regular visitor to the Crossroads shares with us some of her own poetry reflecting thoughts and feelings that many of us are dealing with in the aftermath of the violence we have seen in recent days, and the memories of such from the past.
Here’s one I wrote for September 11
http://www.yvonneaburrow.org.uk/poetry/haiku.htm#911
September 11
words, images, music
combine to tell our sorrow:
but grief is silent
we light a candle,
silently hoping for peace:
feeling their absence
as their souls journey
towards the light, our tears fall:
an ocean of grief.
carry them over
to the islands: carry them
gently, gently.
[there is an old African belief that the souls of the dead are carried to the other world by the tears of their loved ones]
And here’s one I wrote in 2003, just before the start of the Iraq War.. juxtaposing the beauty of the spring with the horror of a war of revenge, and dealing with some of the same themes that others have expressed:
http://www.yvonneaburrow.org.uk/poetry/mirror.htm
Mirror
Looking at the cherry blossom
Just opening on the black branches:
Fragile stars in the February wind.
It seems so easy, when the flame
Blossoms from the end of a gun
To destroy the enemy.
Under the pale blue winter sky,
Drifts of snowdrops bring unheeded
Their message of peace.
Distant faces we will never see
Twisted in pain, because we cried
For vengeance.
Life calls to life in the turning
Of the year, as naturally
As breathing.
Charred corpses in the dust
Cannot rise up and speak.
Their mouths are stopped.
Birds sing of reconciliation
But their truth is silenced
By the call to arms.
Bombs are impersonal, smart:
You can’t hear the dying
From so far above.
The frogs are mating in the pond
So many spawn, life to excess:
Some will die.
I have not forgotten the dead
All the dead sing in my blood
The innumerable dead.
But Nature wastes nothing,
Life feeds on life. Only the savagery
Of war is unnatural.
Easier to call for revenge,
Than to look in a mirror and see
The enemy staring back at you.
******************************************************************************
Yvonne Aburrow has been a Pagan and polytheist since 1985, a Wiccan since 1991, and also dropped in on Druidry for a while. She has just started an MA in Contemporary Religions and Spiritualities at Bath Spa University. She has written four books : The Enchanted Forest: the magical lore of trees; Auguries and Omens: the magical lore of birds; The Sacred Grove: the mysteries of the forest; and The magical lore of animals. She also writes poetry. She has a strong interest in ethnography, mythology, symbolism, languages, science fiction, history and archaeology. She lives in Bristol, and is married to Nick Hanks, an archaeologist. They have 2 cats.
If you have a poem, prose, or just some writing that you would like to share here at the Crossroads, please feel free to email Ocean at oceanwitch@insightbb.com
This sculpture shows the sign for "connect"...and that is what Deaf Pagan Crossroads is all about - making connections. Connections between Deafhood and Paganism, connections between the Deaf Community and the Hearing Community, connections between myself as the writer and you as the reader. I hope you will take the time to read my various posts, some of which are listed below. Welcome to the Crossroads, and I hope you make some connections here!
This is a poem that my friends Ombudsben shared with me last week, and it works right now. Richard Brautigan:
Boo, Forever
Spinning like a ghost
on the bottom of a
top,
I’m haunted by all
the space that I
will live without
you.