We Goddesses of Shining Light – who do not
claim to be ourselves divinities, only
that we seek to embody, as best we might,
Her good qualities –
have been slowly ageing, over all these years
of meeting and sending out our love as light
to the whole community, and thence the world.
Now we’re old and few.
We no longer dance in circle when we meet,
nor sing to Her, but still we breathe in, breathe out
a flood of light, which first we see as a star
and then as our torch
beaming wherever needed. We have become
a small circle of elders, the grandmothers
who, someone on facebook said, are needed now.
Well then, here we are!
How will you use us, world, before we leave you?
That is not ours to know or even to ask.
It is enough that we meet, as do other
small wisdom circles.
The world has no listening for our wisdom.
We are wise enough to understand this fact,
wise enough to know our only task: send light,
continue sending.
This is loosely based on the Sapphic stanza (aka Sapphic ode). I was inspired by Rajani Radhakrishnan's recent use of the form. Named after Greek poet Sappho, this form (in its 'lesser' version) has 38 syllables in four lines in a pattern of 11/11/11/5, which I have followed. However, I have ignored patterns of long and short syllables which are also classically used.
Written for Friday Writings #165 at Poets and Storytellers United, in which we are asked to use the word 'torch' in a piece of writing.
Wow! This poem feels completely organic and effortless...I struggled with those syllables!!! Wonderful writing!! Wisdom, energy, light - the world needs all of it and more to get out of the mess it has dragged itself into. And the rest of us must learn to recognize the light coming from those older and wiser and do the right thing.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rajani. I thought your poem, that I linked to, seemed effiortless too. Maybe we've just both had a lot of practice by now at stringing our words together — even if not usually in this particular form.
DeleteI love the power in these women - the knowing and most importantly the light they hold - Jae
ReplyDelete*Smile.* I like to think it is available to all women who set out to consciously cultivate and use it.
DeleteFellow torch bearer! Never underestimate the power of planting a seed.
ReplyDeleteHail, fellow torch-bearer! I'm glad to know that!.(One of my greatest teachers once told me: 'You don't have to do it all alone. There are many others on the same team, including people you don't know about and will never know about, and some who have died, and others who have not yet been born.')
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