When dusk comes in the middle of the day The sun reduced to a pale ring of fire What were the ancient learned wise ones to say When scared superstitious people inquire
That their actions attracted the Gods ire And now they have to pay the bloody price To avoid consequences most dire The most precious they must sacrifice
Or the world will turn to cold barren ice Devoid of all the Sun’s life giving warmth No longer this Aegean paradise But eternal night as in the far north
As the sacrifice bled and died they did say Now the sun will rise again day after day
She was hung upon the tree Three times three times three So her mother didn’t have to her unwanted child see So the other children could hurl spear insults with glee So men could do as they pleased while she couldn’t flee
She was hung upon the tree Three times three times three For the crime of not stifling her curiosity For the crime of speaking out against bigotry For the crime of being different as all could see
She was hung upon the tree Three times three times three For the sin of searching creativity For the sin of reading witchery For the sin of speaking knowledgeably
When the God of the Hanged saw a woman tested on the tree Three times three times three Fjolnir sang one of the magic song to set her free The One Eyed taught her how to truly see Wayfinder showed all the ways on land and at sea Forni taught her the world’s history Ygg showed her the secrets of the tree Glapsvid taught her spells to once more happy and healthy Odin showed her the runes to unravel every mystery The All Father gave her mead to awaken her poetry
This painting gives me shivers. Has every time I look at it. So today’s choice was a foregone conclusion.
And for some reason it led me to thinking about the very debated part of the Edda poemHávamál(line 138-145), where Odin sacrificed himself to himself, wounded by a spear, hanging on the world tree Yggdrasil for nine nights to be able to gain greater mystic knowledge from the magic runes.
So I read about Odin in my Poetic Edda copy, and read through what I could find online including a scholastic article from 2014. (You can find it here, but it’s in Swedish.)
This is also the poem I plan to read at tonight’s dVerse Open Link Live. The price of admission is a poem written by you. But if you rather not read and just listen that’s fine too.
Jane Cornwell
likes drawing and painting children, animals, landscapes and food. She specialises in watercolour, mixed media, coloured pencil, lino cut and print, textile design. Jane can help you out with adobe indesign for your layout needs, photoshop and adobe illustrator. She graduated with a ba(hons) design from Glasgow School of art, age 20.
She has exhibited with the rsw at the national gallery of Scotland, SSA, Knock Castle Gallery, Glasgow Group, Paisley Art Institute, MacMillan Exhibition at Bonhams, Edinburgh, The House For An Art Lover, Pittenweem Arts Festival, Compass Gallery, The Revive Show, East Linton Art Exhibition and Strathkelvin Annual Art Exhibition.
Her website is: https://www.janecornwell.co.uk/
06yaninamendoza, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Goddess of rejuvenation and youth Lend us your wisdom and truth Goddess of mercy and forgiveness Grant us your trust and faithfulness Goddess of spring and green leafs Bless us with your love and belief
What oracles coo your doves What tidings from above Divine wisdom heard in the susurration of leaves Goddess, a sip of ambrosia, we thee beseech
To be healed and whole No scars to hurt or show Free to let dreams with eagles soar Free to love as our hearts adore
Let us hang our shackles in your grove Let us cleanse in the waters of your cove Heal these hearts forlorn Let us be remade, reborn
Goddess of youth and forgiveness Bestow your peace and happiness
Statue of the Greek goddess Hebe (Roman Juventas), by Johan Niclas Bystrom (1783-1848) at the Gripsholm Castle, Mariefred, Södermanland, Sweden Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Seven stars in the fall sky Shining sisters with a cry Shall we forever fly, flee Stalked by hunters, never free Scribe us a new life story See us love, laugh, kiss, worry Shroud us in modern glory
Written for Poetics: Stars that count over at dVerse. This Pleiades form, seven lines with seven syllables each, and all starting with the same letter as the one word title, is wholly new to me and took a couple of tries.
Tried to find inspiration in mythology, only found a tiredness over the way women are used in almost all of our founding stories.
The world according to RedCat 
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