Author: michael raven

casting runes — 13dec25
thurisaz
```
pierced sleeve hearts
drive to pale hollow
shadow, wraith and man

dreaming verdant gardens
there, in tanglewood
desolation, an angel, iron sea

thunder sparks the stone
him in waiting
```
A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is thurisaz, which has several core translations: “thorn” or “giant”. The rune is often associated with pain or discomfort (often for an important transitional or transformative reason) or raw power that may be destructive. It is also considered protective, regenerative, and is frequently associated with women’s menstrual health.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
13 Dec 25
Half-penny thoughts — 13dec25
Here’s a question for you. I won’t get much into a preamble because it is an oldie (but goodie) that is rattling around in my fat head for some reason or another and I’ve decided that I’m curious on the current state of affairs with opinions on the subject.
What are your thoughts on the concept of “love at first sight”? Does such a thing even exist, or is it a romantic notions more akin to fantasy than reality? If it exists (for you), does it require the other party to reciprocate that love? Or does it still exist when the feeling is unilateral? What the heck is “love at first sight” anyway?
As things are wont to do on these 1/2p posts, feel free to go off on your own tangents with your comments, just stick to the concept of “love at first sight”. I have my own thoughts but I am more interested in what you might have to say about it, no matter how mundane or outlandish those thoughts might be. For science! Or, just to satisfy my curiosity.
And… Go!
13 Dec 25

snow queen

phantasm i the winter white
flowing through empty
fingers trace rail wood ruddy
dust undisturbed to wake

linger long hallways and
snow queen her dwelling
in the still failing faint,
unseen her dark eyes

12 Dec 25

casting runes — 12dec25
jera
```
grey gone him raven
fetching at flint
festering storm winds

grey gone him raven
turning at stone
her come kiss our winter

grey gone him raven
arthritic at tree
curse to carve a snow

tok


tok



tok
```
A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is jera. Jera is translated as “year”, and has also been translated as “harvest”. This rune is representative of cycles, the “wheel of the year”, the union of opposites (implied by the summer half of the year ending, winter half of the year beginning), balance, as well as cause/effect relationships.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
12 Dec 25
Half-penny thoughts — 12dec25
The only thing they feared more than failure was success.
– appropriated variant of a common phrase, applied to The Replacements
There are several variations of the above quote from across time; I’m not sure who said something like it originally. There are several people credited with saying something like it. It has been rattling around in my head since I saw it (again), although I cannot say exactly why.
There’s something somewhat terribly romantic in that notion, isn’t there? That idea that failure is somehow more desirable than success, even if driven by a fear response.
(more…)
12 Dec 25

under

stone blind the woodpost
and standing antler pale
we nightwing under

falling into her lovi
love, fallen in her
let us dream a song-her
let us fall within her home

we heartdrum blackwing
at edge lake drift snow
we break our under

lovi, we dream us,
deep within her home

11 Dec 25

casting runes — 11dec25
dagaz
```
twilight torches
push at shadows,
hint at a dawn
blanketed in mists & fog

one hand beckons
another wards away
while the drifter
goes on the drift
in twilight once again
```
A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.
Today’s rune is dagaz, which has been translated as “daybreak”, that transitional moment between night and day. By extension, it might also be interpreted as “twilight” and is representative of liminality, transformation, the space between worlds, and suggests walking in both the material world and otherworld.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
11 Dec 25

unmoored

my mind is on the drift   and
i cannot find the will     to
moor it anymore,      perhaps
i will butterfly      instead

10 Dec 25

one last

all i ask is for
just one last kiss
before dying
just that one last
chance at bliss
before i surrender
in your arms

10 Dec 25

casting runes — 10dec25
ingwaz
```
drifting hollowbone
to fill of the empty
fall back, fall back
to slender dark cold
salts slip of memory
```
A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.
Today’s rune is ingwaz, a rune named after the god Ing or Freyr. It is representative of a channeled energy or transformational process. It is also be seen as the male component of life, and therefore a symbol of sexual passions and the contributed “seed” of life (and, therefore, an aspect of one’s ancestral ørlǫg, or fate/destiny). Some interpretations conceive the rune as a symbol of darkness, solitude or dreaming.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
10 Dec 25