Poetry for the Esbat: Blood Moon 2011

This Esbat I chose a piece by Annie Finch, a poet I discovered through the Poetry Foundation's website. I do not know if there could be a poem better suited for the Blood Moon. It speaks especially to my women kin... about change & life & womanhood. Please enjoy.

Moon from the Porch

Moon has dusks for walls,

October’s days for a floor,

crickets for rooms, windy halls.

Only one night is her door.

When I was thirteen she found me,

spiralled into my blood like a hive.

I stood on a porch where she wound me

for the first time, tight and alive,

till my body flooded to find her:

to know I would not be alone

as I moved through the tides that don't bind her

into womanhood, like a flung stone.

With each curve that waxed into fullness

I grew to her, ready and wild.

I filled myself up like her priestess.

I emptied myself like her child.

Flooding, ready, and certain,

I hid her—full, fallow, or frail—

beneath each long summer's rich curtain.

It covered her face—the thin grail

that delivers me now. Now I’m with her.

All cast shadows come home.

I stand in these shadows to kiss her;

I spin in her cool, calming storm.

Now as I move through my own beauty

and my shadow grows deeper than blood,

oh triple, oh goddess, sustain me

with your light’s simple opening hood.

Annie Finch's blog "American Witch," filled with "poetry, magick & life" can be found here. For more, including additional poetry, prose, theatre projects, photos, etc., see her website here.

Blessings to you this Esbat my friends.