Imbolc 2013 - a reading (on YouTube)
In darkness we are born of
fire. Small souls sparked from the ashes of midwinter. The caress of Brigid's
breath coaxes life from cold, dark embers. She sets us on a year-long quest,
her inspiration as much a geas as a gift.
By her hearth we are nurtured by harp and fipple flute. Her hall, once rich with drink and song, now marshals its resources until relieved by the forces of spring. Warriors sharpen swords and oil boiled leather. Like mothers preparing to greet as yet unborn children, they plan meet their destiny come snowmelt.
Ours is not given to conquest. Our time is too brief, our works unenduring. Bones are cast and pieces set in motion while shadows linger by the map tracing tendril fingers across the contours of our fate. Thousands of starlings turn and wheel in unison like a cloud of smoke from an extinguished candle suddenly possessed by consciousness and animated into life.
By her hearth we are nurtured by harp and fipple flute. Her hall, once rich with drink and song, now marshals its resources until relieved by the forces of spring. Warriors sharpen swords and oil boiled leather. Like mothers preparing to greet as yet unborn children, they plan meet their destiny come snowmelt.
Ours is not given to conquest. Our time is too brief, our works unenduring. Bones are cast and pieces set in motion while shadows linger by the map tracing tendril fingers across the contours of our fate. Thousands of starlings turn and wheel in unison like a cloud of smoke from an extinguished candle suddenly possessed by consciousness and animated into life.
Dawn gathers beyond the window like a thousand
candle-bearing angels arriving one by one until a soft, golden glow suffuses
the room. And we are set free.
© 2013 Edward P. Morgan III
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ReplyDeleteNotes and asides:
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This is the first installment of a full set of Celtic holiday messages written all at once. Which means I’m actually ahead for a change.
Brigid is an Irish pagan deity who may have been syncretized into of St. Brigit (whose feast day is celebrated on Candlemas aka Imbolc). A fipple flute is a recorder. A geas is an obligation bound by a spell (using the Scots Gaelic spelling). It can also be a prohibition.
Picture Notes:
ReplyDeleteThe image of the candle in this piece really struck a cord with me, but I knew I didn't have anything like that. Both Edward and I have seen the flocks of starlings bob and wheel across the sky.
For this sketch I grabbed some images of starling flocks off of Flickr, the traced the shapes of some of the birds on the iPad. I then copied and scaled and copied and re-scaled the birds until I had a flock. I used selective deleting to give it the shape I wanted, like candle smoke. Next I drew the candle. The red adds interest and some "pop". It needed something in the background so I started with some gray clouds and added from golden highlights.