Metamorphosis TWELVE

Day 12

I would know myself : Sandra Crawford

I would know myself should I meet her some time in the future. One night when the moon is full. I would know her in the heat of the belly, in the secrets of the heart, in the light of the eyes. We would sit in circle in the house of the sisters, hand in ripened hand, in silent understanding. Woman Who Weaves and Earth Crone.

I would know myself in the beat of the drum and the rhythmic sway of bodies, the singing chant. Power would rise strong with the voices of the sisters and it would reach back through time to summon the star seed maiden we had been - the confused girl; the lost girl. She would heed the call, leaving the shores of dream-filled sleep and take her place at the centre of the circle.

Here they would honour first blood as Earth Crone and Woman Who Weaves pass on the ancient knowledge. They would braid her hair with the whispers of the passages of Sister Moon and Brother Sun; and of the turning of the seasons; they would paint her body with the colours of suffering and joy - hers and others; they would clothe her in the intricate spinning and weaving of life and the certainly of birth and death. She would speak the tongue of plants and herbs and she would learn to use them wisely. All this would be passed so when star seed maiden returns to her time she will awake with a deep and lasting knowing passed ceaselessly from crone to maiden. She will hold the power to call up the ancestors and to draw down descendants, flowing free of common time. The essence of the sisters would dwell in her blood. Their wisdom course her veins. She will carry this within her. In a world devoid of eldership and rights of passage this would be her only strength. She would know that the elders will walk with her always and that she is eternally bound to them, through deepest being to deepest being. Now she would know comfort, she would know hope, she would know belonging.

I would know myself should I meet her some time in the future. One night when the moon is full.

SURRIENTO : Laura Rimmer

some twenty-odd years

since I last breathed your sea – 

when you kept me awake with the

lure of Sambuca 

or the beautiful people

riding their Vespas –

still you feel like home

your ancient streets 

where I lost myself 

then found the old men 

playing chess in the sun-baked square 

(or it may have been some other game 

– I paid no attention – 

forgive me, I was young)

you loved me –

my imprudence

my vibrancy

I loved you –

your substance

your timelessness

I loved you like no other

perhaps it was

your wisdom

your quietude

your sense of having seen it all – yes

even this silly girl

with the too-blonde hair

I’ve never understood why I left you

and if I open your music box now

your scent consumes me

I wind you up now and again

your old mechanism never failing

mia Surriento (my Sorrento)

non ti dimenticherò (I will never forget you)

Sorrento