Birth Echoes Through Time – 15 December (2020 Re-post)


Birth echoes through all our time
Time shard echoes in our minds
Minds echo with contact cruel or kind
Cruel or kind actions, echo through humankind
Humankind echoes, with what was done before our time
Time to shed the old, to let new life echo all around

©RedCat

Re-post comment:

I’m running late for everything it feels like. But mostly it’s about the writing I have left to do. And the fact that I haven’t prepared the advent calendar as I had thought to do. So here a day late you’ll get the post I have thought to re-post to free my time up and celebrate my oldest turning ten.

Enjoy!



At first I thought I’d do a re-post today, of my first Echo Poem, to give me free birthday time. But my mind keep going round and round in echoes, so I had to write a new one.

Each year in the day leading up to my children’s birthday I have flashbacks of birth both in mind and body. Not something I mention often as it sound so trippy, but both my own mother and others have described similar feelings. And if your open to it, giving birth is one of the most profound birth-death-rebirth experiences, aka trips, a woman can have.




Image credits:

First image: Photo by ©Jonas Norén
Second image: Image Source on Wikimedia Commons
Third image: Photo by Isaac Quesada on Unsplash
Forth image: Photo by NASA on Unsplash



Two Lucia Poems – 13 December (Re-post)


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)


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


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.



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


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.




Snowflakes Dances Down – 8 December (2021 Re-post)


Snowflakes dances down
Tickling nose and cheeks
Covering the world with a down blanket

Muffles every sound
Except the footfalls squeak
The swish of a winter jacket

Breath deep and ground
With your hidden sides speak
Plant seeds for regrowth under the snow carpet

©RedCat


Re-post comment:

Looking for a post to fit both Wandering the Archives Wednesday and the Advent Calendar I came across this from February of this year. And I wanted to share the wonder of a snowy winter.

Enjoy!




Image credits:

First image: Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Second image: Photo by Egor Kamelev on Pexels.com
Third image: Photo by Darius Cotoi on Unsplash


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


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


Onyx darkness (2019 Re-post)


Leave any light on the endless shelves
Speak the pass phrase
Only those with flawless elocution
A mind open to betwixt and between
Shall pass the warden
Go through the Nyx-door
Plunge into onyx darkness
Within are nights that never die
Without the world spins on
Here only esthesis will guide you
Stay as long as it pleases thee.

©REDCAT


Re-post comment:

Body and mind buzzing with the joy of dance class, I felt this to be a good way to get back to Wandering the Archives Wednesday that I’ve missed for a few weeks.

Enjoy!



Written for Get Listed! with a Mystery Guest at toads.
Really fun, and much harder to than one word prompts.


Both club images by Antoine J. on Unsplash



Star Studded Sky (2020 Re-post)


Star studded skies
Mind soar

Time flies
Passion roars

Be wise
Read lore

Hope rise
Loneliness cure

Fear dies
Love more

© REDCAT


Re-post comment:

Time for another post from the archives. The autumn sky is full of stars, so this one felt appropriate.

Enjoy!



On my evening walk today I collected, not things, but words, in this case two word couplets. Then put them together to a poem when I came home. I often find inspiration when walking, and often compose stanzas, or rhyme schemes, on the go. Turning them over and over in my head also lets me live and breath the rhythm of a piece.

Linking to Day 19 at GloPoWriMo.



Image credits:

First image: Photo by Min An on Pexels.com

Second image: Photo by Cliford Mervil on Pexels.com

Third image: Photo by Kristopher Roller on Unsplash

Forth image: Photo by Fernando Rodrigues on Unsplash


GloPoWriMo 2020

DAY 1 – Build a New Start
DAY 2 – Beloved Bookstore
DAY 3 – Sunshine and Hail
DAY 4 – Isolation Dating
DAY 5 –Staring out a Windowpane
DAY 6 – Casanova Comes Closer
DAY 7 – Swirling Colors of my Mind
DAY 8 – White – Red – Black
DAY 9 – Different World After
DAY 10 – Spring Hay(na)ku
DAY 11 – Love – Hay(na)ku
DAY 12 – Make Art – Triolet inspired
by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
DAY 13 – What did you think would happen
to a child left on my doorstep?
DAY 14 – Ballad of the Lost Poet
DAY 15 – Writer’s class – Hay(na)ku
DAY 16 – What is a Nomad without a Tribe?
DAY 17 – Pale Spring, Here Again, Nature Awake
DAY 18 – Spring Day in the Garden
DAY 19 – Close Couplets
DAY 20 – Lost in Love’s First Flush
DAY 21 – She Tasted Like Memory
DAY 22 – Struggling Mind
DAY 23 – Written in the book of dust
DAY 24 – At the end of every week, Friday-Cozy!
DAY 25 – Slip, Crack, Shatter
DAY 26 – Humans Really Don’t Know
DAY 27 – April Rain
DAY 28 – Greeting the Watch Horse
DAY 29 – Letter of Hope
DAY 30 – Witches Walpurgis Night Preparation

Giant hogweed (2019 Re-post)


Taller than grown men
silent reminder
of human folly

One look at you
one whiff of scent
declares intent

This land your domain
roots spread foundation
seeds spread your vanguard

To combat your growth
we must don armour
One touch might burn us

Arm ourselves for
axes will fell your
sturdy stems like trunks

Poisonous sap flow
burns skin in sunlight
blisters and blackens

Down but dangerous
still lying in wait
Second growth or seeds

Wait for guerrilla
warfare without end
Generations feud

We teach our children
to heed the danger
to combat your spread

Write history books
declaring lack of
knowledge led us here

Still we change Nature
before learning of
her intricate ways

©REDCAT


Re-post comment:

I’ve been struggling all day with writing a song.
Keeping every line between five to eight syllables long.
So this poem came to mind for tonight’s
Wandering the Archives Wednesday.


The Return Of The Giant Hogweed by Genesis

Written for Kim’s prompt at dVerse ~ Poetics: Sylvia and Ted. Where we’re asked to write about growing, multiplying, invasive species. As well as try to emulate style of one of the poets.

I decided upon the challenge to keep my line short, with five syllables in each like Sylvia Plath’s Mushroom. It took some editing, but eventually I got there. But boy, do my inner saboteurs have a field day every time I decide to say I actually can do something that connects with writing. Just as they did when I decided to make a new translation of one of Edith Södergran’s poems.
Even though I actually have paid bills working as a freelance translator.

As yesterday’s Haibun challenge showed me how much harder I have with counting syllables in English than my native Swedish. This time I put most words trough a syllable counter I found online.

Wikipedia informed me that this weed too have at least one song to it’s honor.



Image Credits:

First image: Wiki Commons

Second image: By Ronnie Robertson, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons


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