Our Lady of the Not So Barren Tree
artist Elizabeth Kay
Wild Woman I.
Looking back at the journey of becoming who I am,
through transformations wonderful and strange,
I grew bewitched by the beauty of the world.
Nature became my lover, and I was forever changed.
Looking in the smokey mirror I see
a strange lady looking back at me.
A wildish woman is growing older there.
Normal is not an option.
Check out her wild and frizzy hair!
She has lived her life determined to be free.
Control and oppression Wild Woman can't abide.
Every time they tried to tame her, she would flee.
Now when she speaks, she speaks a truth I cannot hide.
She doesnt act like anyone I ever knew.
Wild horses gallop often through her heart.
She is the one I have run from and run home to.
From now on we will never be apart.
She is free now - she can never again be tamed.
She will not grow old gracefully, and refuses to be blamed.
She plans to laugh and sing,
to hope and dream until the end.
This wild woman is becoming
my best friend.
She has brought me through the fire and the rain
and to the Circle of Sisterhood we turn.
We find the gain has been well worth the pain,
and turn to help our younger sisters learn.
Standing on the brink of an ancient way of knowing,
I can feel wild woman singing through my bones
and I know that I am standing in the doorway
of a special passage to the Age of Crones.
Wild Woman II.
Truth: A Wild Woman knows
what she knows.
It is time, Wild Woman, to bring forth all your gifts,
for the seasons now are quickening and swift.
Sing out your songs; sing loud and strong and clear.
Write all your poems, to say that you were here.
A Wild Woman creates her own way.
She runs with her inner wolves, and she has a lot to say.
She speaks with an authentic voice, avoiding angst or wrath.
She follows her intuition, along the unmarked path.
Truth:
A Wild Woman knows
what she knows,and she'll share
her wisdom well
before she goes.
She follows her heart - in trust,
honest and sweet and clear.
Her spirit has been forever
on the rise,
the long journey making her
compassionate and wise.
She no longer harbors life,
brings new visions forth instead
that she sees with eyes located
somewhere else besides her head.
She feverishly transcribes
dictated words.
Her songs she then gives freely to
all the singing birds.
Follow these pawprints into the forest,
Sister mine.
They will lead you to a home
Grandfather Cedar makes so fine.
An owl with piercing yellow eyes,
a cat with Cheshire grin,
will be on the doorstep watching,
waiting to let you in.
There is a conjuring old woman
living there,
her spirit fixed between the sky and earth.
She has lived apart from others
since her birth,
doesn't care at all
what other people think.
Listen well to every incantation,
for all of them are linked.
Wild Woman has fallen bewitched
by the beauty of the earth.
Before the fire,
she is singing over the bones
and, when she finishes her song,
she will arise
and welcome you
into the very Sisterhood of Crones.
(Ha ha. I typed Sisterhood of Crones into google, and it asked me: did you mean sisterhood of Crohn's? Maybe that, too. Cackle.)
At Real Toads, where we are always trying to Think Outside the Box, I have set the topic for this week's Sunday mini-challenge as: Release Your Inner Wild Woman. I never quite know what will come, when I begin a poem. But this is what came this time, in two batches, and I couldn't choose between them........Do join me in checking out the other responses to the challenge, as I expect there will be some interesting poems!
