Category: writing

  • casting runes — 24oct25

    fehu
    fox fire, raven coal
    first flurries pale
    i offer crimson now
    to keep all relations, mine
    both safe and hale

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is fehu, which has a core meaning of “cattle” or a more generalized “livestock”, which was a representation of personal wealth or earned prosperity. Sometimes luck played a role. Wealth and prosperity was valued, but was looked down upon when material accumulation appeared to be excessive, greedy, miserly or turned to hoarding, especially when those around you were lacking.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

  • rings

    Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
    drained, i pour inside
    to sit within my pain
    —don't speak
    everything runs over
    and i cannot drink
    another drop

    instead, arthritic fingers chase
    wet rings on the hard

  • wilderness

    come the sluagh nights soonly
    come they baying at your door
    sickle scythe under nightmoon
    a'reaving long before the dawn

  • at the wytching tree

    this chronic river
    flawing through
    is a stoning earned
    for the time cast 
    down drunk at
    the wytching tree

    there is no care
    for these secrets 
    that might be shared
    those left to die here
    in the wee hours down
    at the wytching tree

  • casting runes — 22oct25

    othala
    under the cloak
    the patterns burn
    all the more clear

    slip to the well
    and dive, emerge
    in the lands
    under the sea

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is othala, which has a core meaning of “heritage”, “inheritance” and “legacy”. These are all associated with home, kin, ancestors, stability and (in some interpretations) past lives or spiritual legacy.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

  • on the wind

    "throw your head away
    and let branches replace
    the empty left behind",
    said the acorn man

    so
    we gathered round
    and grew old,
    apple blossoms
    on the wind

  • New Moon

    I will drift the forest behind blind eyes with her, just as she came, here on the new moon this morn. A new year, come ten days on the loom, rides her night tresses too. Time to wrap root and gather low, gather deep, and gather below. Gather, then, and keen no more.

    If you knew me, you would understand — but I stand alone, unknown. I am wing and I am thorn, that is the best I can explain.

    But when she comes, we gather: wrapping root and pricking low.

  • to the turning within

    Photo by Trent Pickering on Unsplash
    as the nights slip
    cauldron to stone
    from wave to cold
    we turn to the 
    turning within

    spirits on the wander
    gather 'round the flames
    dancing, spinning, yearning
    as they give to the
    turning within

    let all our debt burn away
    as we turn to the
    turning within

  • slight rebellion

    tossing the tethers, ropes
    tying to dock and pier
    letting current carry away

    adrift and slipping away
    spinning in eddies away
    never wanting to arrive

    never to, never arrive

  • our lady of crows

    our lady of crows
    waits above the ford
    will you bed her at river
    should she bid you?
    be she maiden or crone?
    she waits on her lover,
    our lady of crows

    have you come to
    collect waters issued of
    our lady of crows?
    to reap on the harvest,
    as gifted bounty of
    our lady of crows?
    or have you come to
    enjoin at frenzy and fury
    of our lady of crows?