Samhain – The Four Swans

The Oracle didn’t send this one, or if she did, it was without me consulting her. Life is so busy at present; I’m juggling too many projects, too many visitors, and several back issues over the last three weeks. Excuses, I know, so here is the poem I wrote for yesterday’s Broken Spine prompt (blood), topical for yesterday and today.

For this one night

Night dark is spangled and netted with stars,
crisp glitter, tears in our eyes,
the cry of an owl.

Almost I can believe I see beyond, to the place
that is always summer of plenty and laughter,
where love never fades.

In the wind that blows
between one year and the next,
I hear the whispered voices, never forgotten,
the soft tread of feet that know the way home,

and in the wavering candle flame,
sparks rising to confound themselves among the stars,
I feel the flutter of so many gentle hands.

Samhain

It is a soft night beyond the fire, and candles at the window. The rain has stopped, and the wind keens gently among the trees, a keening as for an old one died a sweet death. We throw another log on the fire and bar the door. Those who wish to find their way home know the way of locks and bolts.

It is a soft night and the stars drift slowly behind the clouds. The owls are calling. They are calling to the shades, silk-soft, night-soft and silent who walk without a sound the long miles from the other side, to taste the air of home once again. They crowd like moths to the candles and we feel them drift slow as stars to the place at table set for them.

Fire warms the blood, but the dead have no need of its heat, for where they are, the sun always shines and the fields are always green. We joke about the easy life the dead have, as we eat, voices low and laughter low, and we raise a glass to the presence we cannot see.

The door to the Otherworld stands open this one night of the year, a soft night full of cloudy stars, and new-shed tears, for soon the door will close again, the fires burn low, and our fingers will close around the lingering touch of beloved hands as they draw away.