It took me awhile to get started with the Oracle this morning, but once I got the first couplet, the rest wrote itself.
I also consulted with the Oracle to answer Suzette’s W3 prompt for a haiku on the theme of a way to relax or unwind. The Oracle, as usual, has good advice.
who knows where now
has hidden its secrets?
the seeds root deep beneath
a wandering path of song
you must listen
to the rustle of stone
be forest whispered–
dream in sky music, soaring
on seawind moonships
Imagine your rivers calling
to the stars. Imagine sleeping
beneath a midnight sky dreaming
through the unfiltered crescent moon,
your vessel rocking, lullabied.
Imagine your rivers calling,
echoing songs of vast darkness,
remembrances of ancient seas.
Imagine floating on silence,
the stillness between your heartbeats.
Imagine your rivers calling
you back to beginnings, the womb
of elemental conception–
currents of matter and spirit
inside indefinable light–
imagine your rivers calling.
For dVerse, where Grace has provided the quatern form. You know I like poetry with lines that repeat.
Open the word list; allow the words to
roll around in your mind for awhile. Pay
attention to the ones that jump out, that
correspond to intuition. Observe;
listen; rearrange. Coherence can be
encouraged, but best to follow Her lead.
Colleen asked us to write a syllabic acrostic for Tanka Tuesday from a list which included the word oracle. I have regular conversations with several of Her manifestations. And as Kate recently asked me to clarify what to do with the Random Word Generator (aka Oracle 2) that I post on Sundays, I decided to use my acrostic to give some general instructions. But really there are no rules.
The top collage uses the Collage Box Oracle, which is just a box of words I’ve cut out of various places that I pull out and arrange in a similar fashion to the Magnetic Poetry Oracle (seen in the second collage and here on Saturdays). For my acrostic I’ve used words from this week’s Random Word Generator as inspiration.
Our surroundings are always singing to us–all we need to do sometimes is be still and take the time to listen.
what do we really know?
the emptiness of space
the rhythm of light
This week’s list from Oracle 2.
Another stark message from the Oracle. But she also reminds us that even from inside what seems sometimes like endless darkness we can work for change.
with what shadow whisper
could the goddess soar
the skyship through this sea
of raw blood tongues
that scream only in the language
of me?
it is never too late
to ask why
after must be like before
sing as if you were one with moontime–
shining light into these black waters
of stilled life of a thousand unmet needs
“Beware of greedy leaders…they take you where you should not go.”
blues transpose
against each other,
broken into
patterns, as
threads barely stitched into air
become one with sky—
a shadow
rests lightly, almost
unnoticed–
awaiting
disturbances in the web–
summoning futures,
the castings
of circumstances–
eyes glinting
like mirrored
kismetic intersections
of orbiting moons
A shadroma quadrille for dVerse, where Merril has given us the word mirror.
Clearly, Oracle 2 knows I’ve been using these words for Thursday Doors at memadtwo.
My message from the Oracle after another restless night.
fire lingers,
the color of ice–
a voice that flowers
like a ghost
must stars only live
in the ocean sky?
night surrounds us,
vast with a wild
secret always
we grow wings, awaiting the return of the sun
as branches and leaves dance patterns over the moon–
invisible roots weave themselves through our hands
and become imprinted inside our eyes–
alert to the gaps in the circle,
we lie still, glittering like coiled snakes
We shed our skins, discarding them like snakes
and bask in glittered nakedness beneath the sun.
We turn our insides out, become the circle–
shapeshifting, orbed, a secret following the moon
through the thousand doors of the cosmic eye,
the lines on the palm of the soothsayer’s hand.
We stand just out of reach, beyond time’s hand
among the whispers in the wake of the snake.
The sky trembles as we gather into the Devil’s Eye
and rearrange the seasons by summoning the sun,
dropping it into darkness. Who can contain the moon?
The hares alone see everything, like the circle.
Exposed and whirling us in surprise, the circle
weaves a web of lines into every hand,
a talisman of light reflecting the moon.
It collects our beginnings and endings. The snake
trades paths with the absent elsewhere of the sun,
a geography that exists beyond the all-seeing eye.
Our spirits walk on the edge of the hare’s eye
as hidden crows echo across the circle
trying to catch the light, steal the fire from the sun.
The landscape breaks apart, a wheel without a hand,
consumed by the changing riddles of the snake,
retrieving its magic by chanting the songs of the moon.
Our hares are like ships that sail the moon,
shining in the mirror of the third eye.
We feast on desire like the dreamsnake,
bending layers of souls into a spiraled circle.
Crow approaches and takes each open hand,
extending its wings to carry us far away from the sun.
Reawakening the moon, we reverse the circle,
crossing the hare’s eye with the left hand.
The snake casts its ancient shadow through the sun.
Lisa and David both posted sestinas yesterday, which reminded me I had never posted this one, which I began with one stanza for the Kick About prompt that highlighted the quilts of Harriet Powers. I later revised and completed it to submit to The Ekphrastic Review as a response to the wonderful print by Jane Burn, above.
For the Kick About, I made felt appliqued circles, similar to those found in penny rugs, taking the motifs from the quilts. I didn’t have a large enough piece of fabric to sew them on, so I photographed them on black paper, white paper, and the wood floor. I’m still undecided as to which background would be best, so the circles are still in a bin waiting to be put together.
There were birds in Powers’ quilts too. I didn’t put them in my felt circles, but I didn’t forget them either.
K. 