Category: Seasonal poetry

The Midsummer Queen

The midsummer Queen
Stands proud and strong
Ready to lead the night’s dance
Ready to give her revelers the chance
To realize where their heart belongs

The midsummer sky
Invitingly deep and softly blue
Companion through the unprecedented night
Companion lending souls its light
Teaching the love, every heart is due

The midsummer sky
Lends insight and opens the mind’s eye
Revealing that which was hidden
Revealing no true love is ever forbidden

The midsummer Queen
Pleased with her fey touched children seems
Happy they still come to her
Happy they by her magic are stirred
Vowing to let her guide them to their dreams

©RedCat

It’s that time of year, where magic seems possible, somewhere near. Making heart and soul buzz with creative energy. Making pens fly speedily over paper. Leaving stories in their wake. Demanding to be let out or keep one through the night awake.

Shared to and read live at the second installment of OLN #341 over at dVerse.

Image credits:

Image 1: Picture of my homemade Maypole. By ©RedCat
Image 2: Vivien Leigh as Titania from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1937. Photo by J W Debenham.
Image 3: Oberon, Titania and Puck with Fairies Dancing. From William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Blake. William Blake, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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Glimpses of All Hallows Night 

On the last night
Of summer time
The stars are out in force
Shining bright

In the dark sky
Of all hallows
Restless souls watch
Another year passing by

In a house festooned
With ghosts and ghouls
The witch sheds blood
Offering thanks to the moon

On this liminal night
As the veil thins
The other realm nears
Bringing departed ones in sight

Hear what they say
Voices from the other side
Living in fear of death
You’ll regret not living fully one day

©RedCat

Image credits:

Image 1: Photo by Jake Weirick on Unsplash
Image 2: Photo by Andy Holmes on Unsplash

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Two Lucia Poems – 13 December (Re-post)

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Re-post comment:

As you might have noticed I’m lagging behind on writing Advent Calendar poems so today you get a double re-post of two poems with the the Swedish tradition around Saint Lucia. Both poems are from 2019.

Saint Lucia

(2019 Re-post)

Walters Art Museum [Public domain]

Fair maiden
come to rekindle the light
Hymn signing
sung to heavens delight
Not a word sung
about your saintly fight
As a woman
with your own goal in sight
Condemned by men
to suffering without respite
To write your praises
my hopes reignite

© REDCAT
Claudia Gründer [CC BY-SA 3.0]

All trough childhood and adolescence I where one of those girls that sang like the angels in Lucia processions. In Sweden it’s all about upcoming midwinter and celebrating the returning light. Also the protestant church don’t have saints so the real symbolism of the story of Saint Lucia of Syracuse has gotten lost along the way.

Also posted to OpenLinkNight #256 at dVerse. Which is why this poem is in the dVerse form of a Quadrille – a poem of 44 words, not counting the titel.

Kolforn (Wikimedia) [CC BY-SA 4.0]

Cold Moon

(2019 Re-post)

Preparations for the last full moon abounds
Where we let the Midwinter darkness fall
Then light return with a fair singing maiden
Her clear voice and it’s adoration turns our eyes upon the star
It’s light compelling us to contemplate
the birth-death-rebirth of the fisher king
Yearly reminder to shed the old and start anew

© REDCAT
Image Source

Where I grew up. A several hundreds year old small, pre-steam industrial-mining-farm-wood-lakes town. Folklore still ran deep even in the 1980s.

“The tradition of Lussevaka – to stay awake through the Lussinatt to guard oneself and the household against evil, has found a modern form through throwing parties until daybreak. ”
– Wikipedia

As a teenager and young adult, no real adult found a problem with us staying out late at discos and parties. As long as some of us (nearly, girls only) also showed up in the early morning hours, clear eyed and sweet voiced to carry lights in our hair or hands singing hymns to Lucia and Light re-born.

So, I grew up with Lucia vigil. It’s a tradition dating back to when Lucia occurred on midwinter, the origin might be somewhere in the pre-christian era, but it is known from the 15th and 16th century. Meaning before Sweden switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1753.

As Midwinter is the opposite point of the year from Midsummer the veil between the worlds where thin, and you kept vigil to keep harmful spirits away and to celebrate and greet the light of a new year in form of a fair singing maiden with light in her hair.

Written for Kerry’s prompt on Real Toads ~ Art FLASH! / 55 in December.
55 words without the title.
Read my first contribution to this double feature prompt here.

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash
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Susurration of Snow – 9 December

The pitch black midwinter night
Is filled with falling white
Giving off it’s own light

Quieting every city sound
Only the susurration of flakes tumbling around
Before they land sparkling on the ground

In the landscapes muted glow
Keep faith and let the heart know
There are buds of new life hibernating under the snow

©REDCAT
©RedCat

Image credits:

First image: Photo by Jessica Fadel on Unsplash
Second image: Photo by RedCat
Third image: Photo by Kajetan Sumila on Unsplash
Forth image: Photo by Viva Zhang on Unsplash

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Icy Blue Sky – 7 December

The afternoon sky is icy blue
Quickly deepening to a darker hue
The new moon is a thin sickle
Midwinter energies begin to tickle
The turning of the year is soon
Following upon the cold wolf moon

The time to prepare is here
Assess, take stock, root out old fears
Let go of mental cobwebs and rust
Give space to shed tears if you must
Envision yourself in the place you dream off
Let the new year new life begin and take off

©REDCAT

Image credits:

First image: Photo by Jordan Steranka on Unsplash
Second image: Photo by Jônatas Tinoco on Unsplash
Third image: Photo by Prashant Gurung on Unsplash

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Waiting a Long December Night – 1 December (2020 Re-post)

Waiting a long December night
It’s easy to startle and take fright
Imagine goblins and ghosts
Even though the night are like most
Not yet full winter nights
When the moon is hid from sight

Waiting a long December night
I light candles to burn bright
Imagine unconstrained Christmas cheer
Cosying up with all I hold dear
Wishing for a new year
Without an pandemic to fear

Waiting a long December night
When the moon is hid from sight
I light candles to burn bright
To ward off spirits mischievous fright
Seasonal rhymes and rituals write
Waiting a long December night

©RedCat

Re-post comment:

Today is December 1st, and Wednesday. So this years advent calendar starts off with a re-post from last year. My creative writing classes and the fact that I brazenly decided to take 200% worth of classes has taken all my time and energy this fall. What little I had left got lost amid some family emergencies and other normal life stuff. Even so I decided to try to keep this tradition. If you like to join in post your own advent themed poem in the comment section.

Enjoy!

Last night I where kept up until the small hours by my youngest. Giving me some time to prepare today’s Advent calendar post. Missing to much sleep is never good. But sometimes writing in the witching hour gives great results. ;-)

©RedCat

If you’d like to read last years calendar the post can be found here.

Image credits:

First image: Photo by Vlad Bagacian from Pexels
Second image: Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

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When Specters Pass In Sight

Outside it’s cold and wet
All hallows night has set
Mist creeping on the ground
Liquid sounds bouncing around

Inside the fire warms
Lending peace and calm
To this strange night
When specters pass in sight

As the veil between the worlds thins
We meet ghosts without and within
Telling us their stories
Happy, sad, mundane and gory

If we listen, learn and grow
We might find what we yearn to know

©RedCat

This week has been the first time since the start of my writing classes that I’ve had not only time and energy, but that itching urge to write. For the pure joy of creating something new. For the fun of playing around with sounds, rhyme, and rhythm. I don’t know if that means I’ve finally found that new equilibrium I’ve sought since late August or if it’s just because the workload has been slightly less this week. We’ll see…

I’m also looking forward to Sunday and The Anthropocene Hymnal Poetry Reading at 5:00pm CET. Will post more details tomorrow on how you’ll join in to listen.

Image credits:

First image: Photo by m wrona on Unsplash
Second image: Photo by Ricardo Gomez Angel on Unsplash
Third image: Photo by Ramiro Pianarosa on Unsplash

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