Tag: Rhymes

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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Tatters of Brown – Folktober Challenge Day 26

She’s hunting the corridors
In her once splendid gown
Now, just sad tatters of brown
Retracing her steps, as countless times before

Where once there were eyes
Is now pits of black sorrow
Knowing there will never be a bright tomorrow
The house echoes with her cries

She will never again hold her children close
Or see them thrive and grow
Never again see their smiles
Or guide them through life’s trials
Never again hear their laughter
Or have the joy to care and look after

A mother’s love never dies
Keeps her searching forevermore
Trapped here on the lonely moor
Even as the centuries flies

©RedCat

Another small contribution to Folktober Challenge over at The Wombwell Rainbow.
See all images and read other responses for today here.

Image credits:

Image 1: Claimed photograph of the ghost, taken by Captain Hubert C. Provand. First published in Country Life, 1936

Image 2: NWT Roydon Common by Richard Osbourne

Image 3: Dorothy Walpole by Charles Jervas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image 4: John Sell Cotman – Raynham Hall, Norfolk, circa 1818

ps. I have become aware that in some browsers this blog is experiencing what is called the white screen of death. I’m working on figuring out how to fix it. ds.

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Pain

A child cries heart-wrenchingly
With growing pains
A mother cries silently
Wishing
Heart filled with anguish
To take away and hinder all pain

Through experience knowing
Life contains heartache and pain
It’s even required for growing
All she can do
Is to help her children see it through
Emerge on the other side of fear and pain

In all life’s disappointments
Through all sorrows and pains
Be a supporting presence
Hold them with love and care

As long as there’s breath in her body
Always there

©RedCat

The other night I never got to fall asleep. Around midnight my youngest started to cry heart-wrenchingly because of growing pains. Aside from heating the wheat-heater, there was nothing I could do beside hold him and comfort him. He fell asleep again, fitfully. Waking every other hour to cry. Sometimes during the night, after crying myself because I felt torn in two wanting to do something and knowing I couldn’t, I wrote this poem.

Image credits:

First image: Photo by Marco Bianchetti on Unsplash
Second image: Photo by Jordan Whitt on Unsplash
Third image: Photo by __ drz __ on Unsplash

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March Morning Meditation

© RedCat

Morning dawns

Frost covering the lawns

Ten below zero

Radiating fairy glow

Cold and clear

No hint spring is near

Soon there’s a haze

Icy cold air rising

Lifted by the sun’s rays

Winter vaporising

Gentle touch on skin

Warmth starts to seep in

Giving cause

To slow down and pause

Halt the morning commute

Let deep breaths inner landscape transmute

Calms and quiets the angry anxious din

Roaring deep within

Giving peace and clarity of thought

Reducing the turmoil chaos wrought

Showing there’s no need to hesitate

Seek the benefits of taking a short moment to breathe and meditate

Changing the trajectory of morning and day

Allowing what the world throws at you to be handled in a more constructive conductive way

© RedCat

For the first time in ages I felt the drive to meditate. I’m grateful I did. Since it both started off my day in a better way, and sparked my creativity to write a short poem on my morning commute.

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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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Late Train Blues – 10 December

The train is late
Very, very late
Making everyone sigh and grumble
Making every stomach rumble
Creeping past endless white fields and forests
Blanketed by a coal black cloudy sky
Begging the question if there even is a destination
Or if we’ll just keep traveling for the rest of life’s duration

© RedCat

Image credits:

https://unsplash.com/@sandramode

https://unsplash.com/@larisabirta

https://unsplash.com/@iartiom

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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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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

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