Tag: Moon

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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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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Surrender Sky-clad to the Moon – 6 December (2020 Re-post)

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night

On Love – Kahlil Gibran

Surrender sky-clad to the Moon
Heal, love, rest, grow, bathed in her glow
Soul singing her clear silver tune
Surrender sky-clad to the Moon
Accept the Goddess given boon
Love that will never cease to flow
Surrender sky-clad to the Moon
Heal, love, rest, grow, bathed in her glow

©RedCat

Re-post comment:

I have friends who actually go bathing outside all year round. Which makes me cold by just thinking about it. So does imagining dancing sky-clad to the moon in this freezing cold. So with a shiver and a laugh. This is tonight’s advent calendar post. :-)

Kahlil Gibran is a favorite of mine, so the Epigraph was easy to choose. The Triolet is a 8 line Octave form I tried before. As in Sit, waiting, longing, only you and Make Art – Triolet inspired by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell.

Image credits:

First image: Photo by samer daboul from Pexels
Second image: Photo by Fabian Reitmeier from Pexels
Third image: Photo by Joel & Jasmin Førestbird 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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Besom Buddies

We went flying today
My besom buddies and I
High up in the star studded sky
Practicing how we’ll say trick or treat

When we got tired
We rested on the sickle moon
Rejuvenated by her October tune
Feeling our magic rise afired

As the sun rose
We went happily to our beds
With the night sky singing in our heads
Dreaming of our future beaus

©RedCat

Yesterday there was a ghost child. Today it became teenage witches. And I learned a new word. Besom – I had no idea a witches (or traditional) broom had a name of its own.

Written for the second day of Sammi Cox’s 13 Days of Samhain (volume ii) – A Horror / Halloween Writing Prompt Challenge. 

13 Days of Samhain

Graveyard Shift

Besom Buddies

Soul Cakes

Image credits:

First image: Photo by Benjamin Voros on Unsplash

Second image: Photo by Schaa Rabbani on Unsplash

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Your Touch Lingers – A Quadrille

In the cool moonlight
The warmth of your touch
In my mind
Lingers

The memory of your kiss
Makes my lips
Tingle

Remembering how our bodies moved
And our passion
Intermingled

All through the night
Until both were too exhausted to lift
A finger

© RedCat

It’s a beautiful full moon tonight!

Written for tonight’s Quarille prompt, Let’s Linger, over at dVerse.

Read other Quadrilles by me here.

Image credits:

First image: Photo by Brandon Morgan on Unsplash

Second image: Photo by Constantin Popp on Unsplash

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Reading: Daughter Of The Moon – A Mirrored Refrain Poem

Knowing what only hearts and souls know
Blessed by nature in the womb
I am a daughter of the moon
From my loom I call buds to bloom

Seeing what the eye’s can’t see
Knowing the meaning of the ancient runes
From my loom I call buds to bloom
I am a daughter of the moon

Feeling what the forest folk feel
Hearing wisdom from the tombs
I am a daughter of the moon
From my loom I call buds to bloom

Hearing what the trees hear
Dancing to the season’s tunes
From my loom I call buds to bloom
I am a daughter of the moon

©RedCat

Written for Poetry Form: Mirrored Refrain at dVerse. Yesterday I sat stargazing while mulling over the refrain lines. Then I wrote in a furious tempo before going to sleep. I realised it felt like this poem really should be read aloud. So I held off posting it until I had the time to make a recording. Click on the Soundcloud link above to hear it.

I love writing repeating forms like the Pantoum, Triolet and Echo poems. And almost always read my poems out loud when editing to hear the sound and rhythm, to feel out the places where the melody snags on a word or phrase. That’s why this one has extra repeating sounds and an internal rhyme in one refrain line. Because I liked the sounds it made.

The Mirrored Refrain is a rhyming verse form constructed by Stephanie Repnyek.

The poem is formed by three or more quatrains where two lines within the quatrain are the “mirrored refrain” or alternating refrain.

The rhyme scheme is as follows: xaBA, xbAB, xaBA, xbAB, etc..

x represents the only lines that do not rhyme within the poem. A and B represent the refrain.

From Shadow Poetry

Also shared with Promote Yourself Monday at Go Dog Go Café

Image credits:

Purple moon image: Photo by Silas Peters on Unsplash

Moon over water image: Photo by Javardh on Unsplash

Forest image: Photo by Michael Krahn on Unsplash

Loom image: Photo by Nickolas Nikolic on Unsplash

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