Category: poetry

  • 2º. mono no aware

    knapped flint night
    knapped flint day
    marrow deep kisses
    underwood decay

  • casting runes — 15may26

    hagalaz
    hail seeks no permissions—
    it arrives as revelation
    small & indifferent

    the field it falls on is i—
    the silence after, too 

    roots that never
    believed in a summer
    grieve not when
    one draws to an end

    A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.

    Today’s rune is hagalaz, which has a core meaning of “hail”, which was associated with potential, transformation, renewal and change; hail is imagined a seed from which change will arise. Hagalaz is also seen as representative of things beyond our control: a clash between fire and ice.

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

  • lost, so lost

    tincture these reflections of
    tracing sweat beads down
    your side with a kiss, pressing
    cherry petals to your skin 
    and on drunk your wine
    lost, so lost, this time again

  • slipping snares

    slipping those witchy snares
    letting hedges fall away—
    i am not here to cosplay

    i sky scree lake water blue
    i dark root mycelium bound
    i æsclāst, that wending path

    fever, dreams draw heat
    forest and wode, grown old
    crows rise calling—

    blood on virgin snow

  • casting runes — 12may26

    othala
    ancient this wood
    sheltering spirit
    a compact made
    in the ever ago

    moss at north
    & lichen scalloped
    at deadfall we hoard

    fox bark, underdark
    a crow calls, naming
    from branch & from floor

    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.

  • oculus obscura

    i am not of dreaming
    her eyes mind not me
    laugh crow at skies 
    laugh stone at feet

    i am hoar of unnight
    shattered & unseen
    laugh flint scrape skin
    laugh bone under me

  • no such thing

    those lips still cut
    with every touch
    with every view, so
    tie me to the screen
    to bring them closer,
    still closer, to me

    there is no such
    thing, love
    there is only bruise
    a thumb pressed to
    heart-boxes caged
    within rows of ribs
    and vanities

    so give over blind
    a seer for sweet pain
    rending through
    to see so clear
    it hurts

  • atelier

    We held feather to flame and come out charred, there, in the underwood, the oaks rising sentinel high. The many mutter and shuffle, not wanting to be left behind. But the barrier is the bending of knee supplication, to both the underwood and also the trees.

    And stiff knees bend not.

    Though fevered and enflamed, I wish I could remain here kissing, improbable memories, unlikely times. We might talk to the old skull stone and antler, carving names with flint beyond the skin’s deep. We might slumber afterglow warm, sweat dripping chill on your side.

    This bone atelier, sanctuary and rain. Inkstained. I close blind eyes tight to stay.

  • casting runes — 10may26

    uruz
    a discarded broken thing
    you wouldn't look twice
    at what can be seen—
    an old thing overlooked

    raindrops splinter
    on corrugated steel

    A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.

    Today’s rune is uruz. The rune is named after the now-extinct aurochs, a wild ox and has become associated with standing up to challenges, having both confidence and courage, stubborn tenacity, and boundless strength and health. Uruz is alternately associated with the more raw elements which include rain, primordial potential, and the slag/dross cast away during the making of iron.

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

  • surrender

    there was a used-to-matter
    and now a not-certain-it-does
    laid across existence-as-wraith
    as the haint at the bottom
    of the stairs and down the hall

    it could beautiful, one supposes
    if such a dream were real and
    i am dreaming of us dreaming
    of one of us drowning and
    one of us is just me just dreaming
    of slipping under the wave

    surrender comes easy with
    no ropes cast to the deep