BELTANE

(a gen-x sonnet)    
   
Under a cat’s eye moon I watch her move.    
Could such a lover simply come to be?    
In her, does God his holy presence prove,    
And prove again who gave me eyes to see.    
   
Her words give form where once I formless stood,    
My lungs are filled with her unknowing airs.    
For she can't see this creature of the wood,    
Who seeks her love to vanquish Earthly cares.    
   
In slow fires burned to equal Day and Night,    
To honor Winter’s Spring and put to rest
My lengthy cold, to vanquish Dark in Light,    
She takes me full into her being blessed.    
   
And so our love encompassing ‘til morn,    
It’s from our love all life will be reborn.    
 
Author's Note: "BELTANE" is an Anglo-Saxon pagan holiday with it's roots in the pre-Christian British Isles. The holiday, which current tradition has a May Day festival, celebrates fertility and the rebirth of the Earth in Spring.  It involves the "marriage" of the Lord of the Forest (the god Cernurros) and the May Queen (the Goddess, Mother Nature)... various myths and explanations surround the origin of these celebrations.
 
  
Photo Credit: Page 161 illustration in More English Fairy Tales (detail)