branches up, roots down

WHAT: A Bloggers (Silent) Poetry Reading WHEN: Anytime February 2, 2007 WHERE: Your blog WHY: To celebrate the Feast of Brigid, aka Groundhog Day HOW: Select a poem you like - by a favorite poet or one of your own - to post February 2nd. RSVP: If you plan to publish, feel free to leave a comment and link on this post. Last year Reya put out the call and there was more poetry in cyberspace than she could keep track of. So, link to whoever you hear about this from and a mighty web of poetry will be spun. Feel free to pass this invitation on to any and all bloggers. Thank you, Reya, for beginning what I hope is now an annual event.

A very Merry christmas And a happy New Year Let's hope it's a good one Without any fear War is over, if you want it War is over now. John Lennon I can’t get these words out of my head. Tonight is 12 th night, and Solstice, Christmas and New Year's Eve are several steps back. But the song remains. It came on the radio as I drove to my sister’s house on Christmas day and then my girlfriend’s band was asked to play it at midnight at the big Code Pink New Year’s party. Both times hearing it, I found myself surprised by a choke in the throat and the welling up of tears. What is it about these words that elicit such a strong response, and that won’t leave me? It’s got to be more than menopause. I’ve been thinking about John Lennon and his song “ Imagine ” almost daily since right before Samhain. At that time, there was the usual repeating kerfluffle on a Reclaiming community list about California witchcamp ...

My aunt has been dying for awhile now. And she’s still not dead. She’s in her late eighties and has been in the hospital since Thanksgiving, teetering towards death. On Christmas she was taken off life support, the medical wisdom being that she would die within twenty-four hours. Since then, James Brown, Saddam Hussein, Gerald Ford, and Gabriel Carrillo (Feri priest and subject of countless controversies) have passed over. But not my aunt. It seems like every time I turn on the radio or open my e-mail I find out about another complex character crossing over. But my aunt lingers on. My mother is recovering from her mastectomy and has shorn her head in preparation of chemotherapy. She’s in no shape to travel back to visit her sister and make her goodbyes, which all in all, may be a good thing. Our holidays growing up were always marked, and sometimes scarred, by one of the battles in their life long war. Last year was the first in many years that my sister and I attempted to spend...

My horoscope for this week according to Rob Brezny says I should throw parties in 2007, that I am to be the zodiac's premier networker, getting people to play harder and take themselves less seriously. He also says this may very well save the world. Perfect. Last night I was hostess to a night long vigil for the solstice sun’s rebirth. I’d been preparing for this for days, cleaning the house, shopping for food, making menu plans, arranging altars, and gathering materials for the various spellwork that’s done thru the night. If I’m to be the zodiac’s premier networker this next year, it’s no big surprise or stretch. I’ve been in training for this for years. And I didn’t learn this in any Reclaiming class or witchcamp. My house has been my guide and mentor. I’ve stood in the center of more cast circles than I can count, raising my arms and invoking this that or the other thing, or leading those gathered round in a trance journey between the worlds. I know very well...

“I’ve had a great life. I’m not afraid to die. It’s just the horrible stuff that comes before it that’s got me down.” That’s what my mother said to me last night on the phone. She’s scheduled for a radical mastectomy next week, and then radiation, maybe chemo. Today, that statement keeps reverberating in mind. The horrible stuff that comes before it, yep, that is the real drag. Maybe she will die of cancer, maybe she won’t, but she’s somewhere past seventy living in a senior residential community and all too aware of the various horrible stuff that can precede death. She’s considered not doing anything, until she realized that choosing that course could be even more hideous. Even if you don’t go into battle with cancer, it for the most part refuses to claim a quick victory, and you certainly turn on the rack of pain plenty before you expire. Opening Jason’s blog, The Wild Hunt, I discover that yesterday was International Aids Day. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about th...

I can feel the dark descending, each day getting shorter, and the cold streaming in thru all the many cracks and crannies in this old Victorian house. Coming back to my beloved San Francisco , one of the first things I heard about is how some of my friends have been struggling to get an accurate telling of our experience in Seattle challenging the WTO. There’s a movie being made, The Battle In Seattle , which comes complete with real Hollywood stars like Charlize Theron and Woody Harrelson. For years, hanging out at the Black Cat, reminiscing about various actions and uprisings we’d fermented, we’d imagine movies being made about us, and who would play us. Finally, this day has come. Characters will be amalgams, mixtures of many of us, but at least one comrade will play herself, facilitating a spokescouncil meeting, I think. It helps that she’s stunningly attractive, but heck, it is a Hollywood production. As fate would have it, last night I saw Bobby , the movie just out ...

Our first night in New York, my girlfriend made a beeline with me in tow to Katz’s Deli , where she introduced me to half sour pickles, and I did my best to finish a pastrami sandwich of gargantuan proportions. Then we hit the streets again. New York is a city for walking, and walk we did. We found ourselves soon at Toys in Babeland , a much better feeling place than Good Vibrations . There’s something to be said for a sex-toy store that is completely woman owned and run. It was a perfect place to spread the word about GlobalOrgasm.org . The store clerks there got quite exited and swore that they would be spreading the word. I’m glad, as this is a magical endeavor of proportions bigger than the sandwich I was busy digesting. It could be argued that all magic IS sex magic, as all magic involves the life force, which is inherently sexual. Given that, magic that literally uses sex packs a powerful punch, and tends to be effective. A call to action to have people around the gl...