I have been savoring the dispatches from Christine W, who lives in New South Wales and has been traveling with her husband in Europe.
As you may recall, Christine’s original poetry package took some unscheduled twists and turns and never made it to Australia prior to the Blue Moon departure date August 31. We moved quickly to Plan B (print something off the computer) and Plan C (send poems in their “official” presentation to a son in Paris, which arrived with nary a hitch).
Christine writes, “The Drombeg Stone Circle is a magical place in the south of Ireland, a bronze age site with remains of two huts and a beautiful circle of 13 stones. At the winter solstice the sun shines through a little notch in the hills lighting up the axial and entrance stones, illuminating the whole circle for a few moments.
“At first I left the poem, ‘the rhyme of an ancient mariner,’ in the car, but later I went back to get it. We watched as small groups of people came and went, then I tucked the poem at the base of a large standing stone, fixed by a flat rock so it would not blow away. I knew it was the right spot because of the words “the heather calls your one true name,” as we saw our first heather on a rocky hillside at the entry to the site!
“The second poem went to a Holy Well in Ballyvourney, a country area not far from Cork. We visited the well, which is still the centre of ceremony to celebrate Saint Gobnait’s Day on 11th February every year.
“I walked the rounds, saying my own prayers for the Earth and the Goddess, bathing in the sweet peaceful energy of the place. When I came to the larger well with all its tributes and prayers left by those who had come searching for peace, or help, or just bringing their open hearts I knew I had to come back with the poem, ‘this is for those of us who weep’…
“…so we returned on our way to Cork airport the next morning. Rain was falling, but I tucked the poem snugly against the tree where all the tributes and prayers had been left. I had written along the edge “Dear Visitor, please take these words for yourself if they speak to you” so they would know it was not to be left there.
“Wishing you the sweet peace of Saint Gobnait’s Well, and the old certainty of the Drombeg circle ~ Christine.
“PS: the poems I received in Paris are so beautiful, I love your presentation, they look wonderful! I will stay open about where they go,but I think the one that touched my heart most is for me…. Unremitting faith for the fearless … “and so touched the exquisite flesh of being human for one more day.”
words divinely wrought 