An dà shealladh - Shakespeare's Monkeys

An dà shealladh

"Second sight" -- variations on a theme, I suppose. Might even come close to getting it right one day.

One-eyed winter, bent-backed hag, she
slopes across the shadowed corries,
harvesting the weak and wasted,
rinsing Alba with her wake.

I have seen her, outside-in and
boiling through the fog of Mary's
mildness, driving ice before her,
genesis beneath her feet.

Throw your words of he-said, he-said,
jealous black and whitely righteous,
onto fires of harvest's ending:
Cailleach cannot see a cross.

Call the mists to veil the vistas
ancient under concrete scarring;
none may yoke her, land or lady:
she is threefold, she is One.

Tracey -

A perfect pagan poem for this time of year when the "veil" thins and our connection between earth and spirit are close. I love the imagery -- the crone, the change of seasons, the reference to the enduring strength of girl-woman-crone in comparison with the stereotypically "soft" visions of Mary.

You may not think it's complete, but even so it's an instant fave for me.

Leanne -

Funny, isn't it, how some religions -- the same ones that marginalise or water down women -- assume that they were the first and only to come up with the three-in-one notion?

And they'd be the same ones who encourage trick-or-treat trivialisation of something much older.

Tracey -

They usually go for the three-in-one MALE version of humankind. It's maddening.

Colleen -

I love what you have done with this concept. Does your idea have any relation to the Celtic trinity knot? this poem makes me think of the the celtic trinity knot. in the pagan beliefs it symbolizes daughter, mother and crone... three in one.

Leanne -

Yes, in Celtic tradition one of the names for the Crone is Cailleach Beara. She is "born" at Samhain, the day that the last of the harvest is gathered in and winter begins. She is almost always depicted with one eye and a blue face.

Laura doom -

Is there something with which you're not satisfied here Leanne? (croaked a voice from the dead).

My only question - 'rinses Alba with her wake' - does 'rinsing' reflect the effect of her actions, or would a stronger verb not be more appropriate?

A question/observation based on an initial & superficial trawling of e-research facilities :>

Leanne Hanson -

Cleansing or scouring maybe? I posted this on another site recently and they took issue with concrete, but I suspect they really just didn't get what I was driving at (despite explaining it about a thousand times).

Laura doom -

Only a thousnad times? If it's primarily a US site, then I think you have to show more patience :> Besides, North Americans generally don't acknowledge anything before the 'concrete' age, whichever way you read that.

Scouring sounds harsher, akin to several references I read regarding her 'smiting the earth', and cleansing, although appropriate, harbours connotations of 'permanent removal'. As far as I understand it, Cailleach's ritual cleansing forms part of the seasonal cycle, a preparation for hibernation until the 'renewal' of the land at the start of the second/summer season - the genesis beneath her feet. Funny how pagan stuff makes perfect (natural) sense Farmers and gardeners alike traditionally welcomed sub-zero condidtions to kill off harmful bacterial/fungal/viral microbes for a 'fresh' start in spring; and why they regarded it as 'good practice' to clear residual debris in which the nasty bastards can shelter. Now they just spray, play and pray, I guess.

So cleansing would be good - it sounds 'softer', but it possibly represents a more comprehensive clean-out? Scouring is often associated with a superficial, abrasive action applied to visible contamination - or is that just me scratching the surface of the word's meaning?

Do I look too particular in this discussion? And is anything ever labelled as 'finished'? :> (This one surely has to be close to the close?)

Leanne Hanson -

Not only do you look particular, but particularly peculiar

Scouring to me is something you do to pots and pans to get them ready to use again, so if I think of the earth as a kind of vessel for creation that could work, but cleansing has all those purity overtones and actually sounds better from the tongue -- or so I think. I am not yet sure but I'm sure I'll change that bit now.

Nope, nothing's ever finished. Not till we're dead, and I'm only half that smelly now.

Laura doom -

Ah - I mistook flagrance for fragrance :>