Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Finding Our Way Home - My annual Persephone ritual (March 28th) and a new poem

I've written a bunch of poems since my Persephone book came out in 2010 (check it out here), but none about her (that I can think of, anyway).  Some Hecate ones, for sure.  But the other day I was preparing for my annual Persephone ritual for women (check it out here; there are just a few spots left) and a new one came in her voice.  There are so many themes we could focus on with this story.  What I usually do is work with whatever theme has been up for me.  Lately that has been issues around the importance of place, and more specifically of home, with all that the word implies.  Anyway, here's the poem as it now stands.  I may edit some more, but here goes:

Home


Home was always
Mother.
Where she was
I was, and
I felt safe
and loved.

I know that
every child
must leave
home, leave
her mother.
But I –
I was not
ready.

Now,
in the times
that I am with her,
the place is
familiar, but
no longer
comforting or safe
in the old way.
I have become
her equal.

Now,
I don’t know where
home is
for me.
Her home? His?
In the mortal middle ground?
I begin to suspect that
I must carry
home within me,
that I must find home
wherever I am.

After all,
All places
are my place.
All realms are
my realm.
They were given to me
in the exchange.
Here is what
I realize:
I must find a way
to welcome, and
to be welcomed.
Only then
will I know
where – and to what –
I belong.