Falling Stars

(Painting of Reindeer Goddess by Judith Shaw – see FAR Feminism and Religion)

 

My mind swells

with confusion brought on

by lack of sleep.

I am stuck in mud

thick and oozing.

Quicksand makes effort seems pointless.

I cannot free myself.

 

Perhaps the Reindeer will come

and the lost child

will find comfort

between antlers of  white bone

Will the two take flight beyond the stars?

 

The black man wears a horned

Cowskull on his chest –

thick with points.

Sharpened steel knives are

a force to be reckoned with.

Death always demands respect.

 

Heeding this call is not our choice

to make.

 

Flying over a frigid white moon,

He tosses shells and stones

into a raging sea.

Visioning, his images

flow like water –

Turn to ice.

 

Changing faces, shapes

and rigid perspectives

is after all his job –

as Medicine Man

wrapped in Coyote’s furry skin.

 

Reindeer and her consort,

a four footed Shapeshifter,

are nothing less

than

the Voice and Body

of Nature

directing the next chapter of the story

for good or ill.

 

Working notes:

 

This poem came out of the darkness that overtakes one with lack of sleep. It also came out of a vision of Death as Medicine Man with ice crystal spears, natural gifts that cut through delusion. This dream occurred a few days after Iren and I found calcite crystals and I used one in my wreath.

 

Last night I also saw a beautiful painting of a reindeer by Judith Shaw and remembered how the Reindeer story used to be about women who flew through the night, for they were Shamans too, appearing from the Northern skies.

 

This morning the child received an unexpected gift from a Mexican builder, a man of great heart who is building an adobe house.

 

It isn’t too late for the child after all as this morning’s dream suggested, for now she can play with a shelf festooned with tiny handmade clay containers.

Gifts from the heart always matter.

.

 

And this gift came to me just as Mario returned from Mexico having just lost his own father to sudden death just before Christmas. My heart went out to him in his loss…

 

Thank you Mario.