Tigh nam Bodach, Gleann Cailliche - Marc Calhoun
Early on Bride's morn | On the day of Bride of the white hills |
These must be among the first verses I ever read from the Carmina Gadelica. They are two of many verses which have to do with Bride's Day, or Imbolc. If I'm honest, living here in Colorado is getting me down. Rather than looking forward to spring as I would wish to, I find myself merely dreading another summer that will be too hot and dry, and so I've been struggling to muster enthusiasm for the coming holiday of Imbolc. But a couple of hours ago, something quite small and wonderful happened. I found this:
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He or she was neatly folded between two flakes of hay, in a bale I opened to feed the horses. It felt like a sign. If anybody ever needed a sign, it was me, so I'll take it as so. I already had the beginnings of a poem in my head, but it had been refusing to form. My little serpent muse did the trick, however. So here is my poem.
| If Angus Would Come If young Angus would come We would drown the filthy plaid of winter In the speckled cauldron of Jura. We would search out my bright cloak, My green cloak, my fair cloak, My patchwork cloak of pastures and fields. Oh, if only he would come! When Angus comes He will search for me Guided by the light of a thousand candles. He will know my abode By the sark I have hung on the window sill. It collects the snow, to be wrung as dew To ease his wounds when he comes. When Angus comes The serpent will rise, And I will rise up as a queen, As a flaming arrow Piercing the heart of a crone. A merciful bolt, forged of silver. If young Angus would only come! But when will young Angus come? Then I can lie down in a bed of ease Attended by maidens. It's then I can rise up again To the sound of burns in spate. Flowers will spring under our very feet. If only young Angus would come! - Kris Hughes 2014 |  |
If you enjoyed this post, you might also like The Cailleach Becomes Bride and Visions in meditation - part 1
Poems for the Season on Imbolc
| "Some of the most amazing pagan poetry I’ve ever been blessed to encounter." - - Sharon Paice MacLeod, author of Celtic Cosmology and the Otherworld, and The Divine Feminine in Ancient Europe At Imbolc, Brigid, the goddess of poetic inspiration, walks the land. These poems were composed over many years, and under the influence of different folkloric ideas – particularly that of the juxtaposition of Brigid (or Bride, as we call her in Scotland) and the Cailleach. |
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