[Editors’ Note: Learn about how the “Nine Poets Speak” series came to be in place here.]
when all this was under ice
rising in waves, the slowest hand
carved earth's contour
sheared the rock's face
thirty tons of spiraling limestone
the glacier placed to mark the center of the island
this ancient boulder whose nose drips
atop the holy hill Uisneach
the hand of glacial ice melted right here
on this bellybutton of the land
where Éiru is buried
Goddess of all goddesses
for who Ireland / Éire is named
Éiru came to Aill na Mireann’ / the Stone of Divisions
with her sisters Banba and Fódla
out of the mystical fog from the west
and met with the Druids where she negotiated
that the island would be named for Her
and so to invoke the divine
look to the earth
look down, nod to the roots and mud and divine clay
where her presence resides
feel the mythical fifth province inside you
where she reigns
from this lone boulder sacred rock
you can see twenty counties
the volcano to the west
and from here fire can be seen from seven hills
and from those seven hills
fire can be read all along the coasts
fire messages farther than drumbeats
across the entire land
and through every rock, music, water
is that music, the first language, water speaks
through rock crevices whispering
over precipices singing, giggling
drops, paradiddling sunshine onto limestone cliffs
slate roofs, the bog, on stone ledges gathering
doubling the sky in nooks, caves, grottos
where lichens and moss grow over rock walls
wet with life, walls pulsing green
talking, under the brush
whistling, beside animals as they walk
fly slither run. Water sings everywhere.
Sky slides downhill
through pastures, silver spiraling
into a rock, sacred bowl
where the Goddess kneeled
rocks frame equinox suns on their descent
and in the center of standing stones
water hums, latches onto sun
where distant trees in supplication to earth
sway and bow invoking heaven in
this anointed earth
(Meet Contributor) Annie Lanzillotto – Return to Mago E*Magazine
What a beautiful description of sound, movement, and light. A great way of honoring the Mother as land and life.
Very powerful. so mythical and beautiful
What an adventure from the mythical mists, the unnameable power of the universe, source, earth … you just want to run to this place to embrace it.