Guest post – Fire, Water, Earth and Air

There are four oracles who all live on a place called The Beginning of an End.
They are the Elemental All-seeing Eyes and a person could always claim they were their friend.
Ask the Eye of the Fire and it would reply: find your heart and soul, let them burn bright and aim for a goal.
Talk to Water’s Eye and it will say: feel your calm and flow, feel your wishing grow.
Remark to the All-seeing Eye of the Earth and it could tell you: search for your place of comfort and love, your place of hearing and above.
Speak to the Air of the Eye and it might comment: gather your freeness and breath, gather your energy and death.
And then, with all that in mind, you board your boat and sail away from the Beginning of an End, feeling like you have made amend.

This amazing poem is from a talented 14 yr old, Beatrice. I have read it a few times to myself aloud, and find so many depths of meaning.

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Singing with the Stars

Stars burning above,

she sang and the song reached

the fires of the sky.

Harmonies sailed down

in the voices of moonlight.

As she walked among

winter hills of the earth,

she sang with the stars.

Earth Speaker

Earth Speaker,
tell us the way –

how to live as
a dandelion,
yellow joy,
full of vitamins,
unafraid to be picked,

how to live as
a tree
shading those
who are burning,

home to birds,
squirrels, insects,
smaller things.

Tell us how
to become
a home

even in
our final fall

to let go
of the sky
and lie back
down to earth
with grace

as the living trees
witness our change
and mushrooms
and lichens
take us.

Earth Speaker,
tell us,
for we have
forgotten
we are part
of it all.

This is our home

Lush green rooftops,
trees criss-crossing
trade oxygen for carbon,

this is our home.
How do we treat her?

Dig deep for ancient oil
an burn it into carbon
causing cracks in Earth’s core
so she shakes

or

let wind and sun
softly flow
through our technology?
We can heat our homes
in harmony.

Hawthorn blooms,
berries help the heart.
Willow bark
inspires aspirin.
Aloe Vera,
good medicine.

This is our home.
How do we meet her?

With diggers and saws
to lay high speed rails
where ancient woodland stood,
home to creatures winged
and crawling

or

could we meet each other quicker
with our Zooms and Skypes
instantaneous and letting
those old woodlands grow?

Ocean waves splashing
salt on the shore,
deep sandy beaches,
playground to children
and laughing rays.

This is our home.
How can we greet her?

Touch the Earth with respect.
She is our home.

In honour of Earth Day, celebrating its 50th year Wednesday April 22, 2020.

Earth Body

Perhaps she
reclaims us now.

We, errant trees
who have walked
so far.

She says,
take the barriers
down between
you
and
I

and let my
fertile soil
hold your pale,
soft feet.

You are from
this land
and to
this land,
to every leaf
and mushroom,
you will return.

If we stop
moving for a
moment and feel
the air in
our breath

we will know
it is not
our air nor
our breath.

She gathers
us back
to her now

to stand on
her soil and
grow roots
from our feet
and stretch our arms
to the sky
and once again hear
the true rhythm
we are.

Gratitude to the Earth

She walks.

She walks through space which is lonely.

She walks, the only colors among black and white.

 

She walks around the sun,

turning gently,

constantly.

 

She walks and

light shines in turn

on all of her lands, waters,

creatures, people.

 

She walks even if people

are choking her air

with carbon smog,

paving over green growth

and drilling down,

breaking apart her surface.

 

She walks and brings life

even to those

who seek to

destroy her.

 

She walks.

She walks constantly.

She walks and light shines

in turn

on all lands, waters,

creatures, and people

of the Earth.

Element Girls

Dear readers,

I have just published a book, Element Girls: The Lost Goddess. Four friends discover the powers of Fire, Water, Earth and Air in a quest that takes them to Hawaii, where legends come to life. This adventure is a girl-power, friendship and magic-driven story for preteens, young teens, and the teen-at-heart.

Thank you for reading this far. Now, as is more usual on this blog, a poem- I’ve been reflecting on the water element.

Each love,
each sea turtle
strolling aquatic
his end of the Earth,

each drifting sea star,

open I hold
each love
with my own
star arms,

I welcome
all the vast
ocean into
my heart

so her secrets
and my secrets
bleed into
each other

and we become
the same
fluid love.

 

Arrival

It was a long journey
just to get back
where I started

but the circle
was not without
a point.

A thousand times
I stepped
a thousand times
my feet kissed
the Earth

and she kissed
me back
in rain,

growing the
flower
of my heart

until I
only
knew
love.

I Lay Down

I lay down until
I was mostly lichen,
a bare branch,
the bark decayed.

I lay still longer
and I became dirt,
a mushroom digging
its roots through me.

I was bound,
unmoving

until I was
raining

pouring into
the ocean
and I became

undertow.

Drowned in the
taste of
salt,
no color or smell

until the tides changed
and I rode up
on a white horse

and I saw
golden sun
blue waves
and the green
of the shore.

Ah if I knew
this was my fate
I would not have been
afraid to die.

I was inspired by Mary Oliver’s poems- many of her poems- especially ‘Sleeping in the Forest‘. My poem is only a small telling in the face of her gorgeous writing, but I thought it was worth mentioning the inspiration.

Taste of Earth

I don’t like sweet things.

I want to taste the earth
in what I take in.

Sugar dresses up
bitter,
a constant smile
belying fangs

or like cotton candy,
all air
spun high
leaving me
solo.

Orcas charming,
playful

– then
Bam!

I’m bitten clean through.

They say I’m too cynical
but maybe I just believe
in your scowl, sour

’cause I see all the flowers
blooming in a glorious sunrise

when you spring a smile.

Yeah, you mean it.
I can taste the earth in you.