The summer swells and swelters inside her
Ripe with seeds of wildflowers sewn
Her womb a planting ground for fertility
Irises rise and curl in her belly
Locks of Sweet William
A patch of white-cupped lilies
She is moss and heat and life
Her floor is dense and lush
Arcs of bone-trees shading wet warmth
She takes new seedlings deep within her
Sprouts and nurtures their tender growth
Steady legs stake through wobbling infancy
Soon they will be heavy and laden with bounty
She will eat of them and swallow the pits
And from them she blooms again
it's like she's made out of the entwined (re)birth and death, mother and child, goddess and worship, all of it carried along on this fertile and amazing energy, the way she's made out of her creations and they continue to make her as she makes them.
it's written in a way that feels both beautiful and respectful and the running flow of assonounce through it all gives it a soft linguistic togetherness that itself entwines with the imagery and meaning.
and perhaps the worship comes in the form of human creation and making love and children and making the beauty (even poetry) that makes us, though i'm not too sure on that point.
First of all, my mother would love this. This is in no way a put-down; she's a member of a goddess worship group called Cakes For The Queen Of Heaven. To me, this represents spring (which is also birth, or rebirth, because it comes around every year). All right, I'll just break it up stanza by stanza.
STANZA #1: This sounds like fertility, life, femininity, bounty. The Wiccan ideaology of woman/the goddess.
STANZA #2: This is sex. There is no way to pick it apart, to find an ulterior meaning. This is sexual in every dimension.
STANZA #3: It seems like the almost subliminal comparison of her to a tree takes root (no pun intended) as she takes the hearts of the seedlings she has nurtured...they become branches laden with fruit. But the cycle starts over again. Mind if I show this to my mother? She's a writer and a disciple of the goddess.
To me this represents the awakening of springtime. Up here, we only have two seasons; summer time and autumn time so although i can't remember precisely how springtime comes about i do remember that it's there and that the feeling is just as though mother nature has awakened.
The thing that made me think most about this piece is motherhood and i think it makes most sense in terms of representation because this is a type of goddess that needs to be worshipped. I'm thanking my mom each day for the nine months in hell she had to go through especially the very last part. Delivering a baby into this world and nurturing it with everything that she is can always be worshipped.
I think you have used your words very wisely and your ideas didn't stray away from your meaning. the comparison you have used in terms of nature and motherhood was carefully planned which made it very enjoyable to read. I really like what you have written. It has a lot of power and understanding.
She is the personification of Summer: the ripe and full Mother of the Triptych. She is also Rebirth: the transition from cold to warm, darkness to light. And she is also you: an overwhelming feminine grace. I also detect the yearnings of motherhood in this too.
That's three things, right?
I have strong views about matriarchal earth mother worship. Superseded by a violent and aggressive patriarchal system where food in the Middle East is/was scarce and people had to adapt to that... from gatherers to hunters, from feminine to masculine. There are so many dichotomies/paradoxes entwined in this simple deduction of the male and female way, don't you think?
I'm not really talking about your poem though, but I think you understand exactly where I'm coming from. Your imagery is lush and full like it should be. And that's all I have to say.
Submission Name: Goddess Worship
