This Night
Dec. 21st, 2004 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
poliphiloI'm hopeless. I don't keep track of dates. And so I almost missed it- the Solstice, I mean.
I was asked for a poem and I said I would keep the window ajar. And something just flew in.
Voila....
THIS NIGHT
This Night.
This Night that trails the longest cloak-
Aldebaran the jewel at the throat
The Pleiades the jewel at the shoulder-
A red jewel and a clouded jewel-
This Night,
This Night a child is born
In some hole,
in some hutch,
In some place out of sight
Of whatever hunter is out for its blood.
There is always a hunter out for the blood
Of whatever child is born this night.
The Power,
The existing Power
With jewels arranged across its breast,
With a stamp for stamping the documents
That pass in succession across its desk
(It works so hard, poor thing, for our weal)
Is out for the blood (for it knows best)
For the blood of the child that is born this night.
But this Night keeps it secret
This Night keeps it holy:
The birth of the child in the dark among beasts-
Among bats among rats among kine among sheep-
Who will wear the sun as this Night wears stars,
The one red star and the cloud of stars,
Aldebaran and the Pleiades.
I was asked for a poem and I said I would keep the window ajar. And something just flew in.
Voila....
THIS NIGHT
This Night.
This Night that trails the longest cloak-
Aldebaran the jewel at the throat
The Pleiades the jewel at the shoulder-
A red jewel and a clouded jewel-
This Night,
This Night a child is born
In some hole,
in some hutch,
In some place out of sight
Of whatever hunter is out for its blood.
There is always a hunter out for the blood
Of whatever child is born this night.
The Power,
The existing Power
With jewels arranged across its breast,
With a stamp for stamping the documents
That pass in succession across its desk
(It works so hard, poor thing, for our weal)
Is out for the blood (for it knows best)
For the blood of the child that is born this night.
But this Night keeps it secret
This Night keeps it holy:
The birth of the child in the dark among beasts-
Among bats among rats among kine among sheep-
Who will wear the sun as this Night wears stars,
The one red star and the cloud of stars,
Aldebaran and the Pleiades.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 10:11 pm (UTC)I didn't know that was about to ask to be written. It has left me feeling exhausted.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 11:13 pm (UTC)I am sitting here with tears in my eyes.
And now to read it again.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 11:24 pm (UTC)"For Jackie"
Because you commissioned it.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-21 11:29 pm (UTC)Thank you for this beautiful poem.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 12:02 am (UTC)Of course.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 08:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 12:05 pm (UTC)Thanks.
Maybe that's why this meant so much to me--I thought of the Child within myself, always struggling to be born.
In this shortest season of the year, we all around the world manage to touch that Child by play and ritual.
Maybe this year...
no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 02:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 08:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 03:23 am (UTC)I especially liked this line:
There is always a hunter out for the blood
Of whatever child is born this night.
Thank you for sharing with us.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 08:28 am (UTC)It's a poem that wrote itself- as once in a while they do. It was almost like taking down from dictation.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 01:44 pm (UTC)Those are rare and wonderful occurrences.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 04:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 08:32 am (UTC)Then you reach the end and you see that there's this pattern that's been unfolding.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 06:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 08:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-22 12:10 pm (UTC)