Proper or Im. It’s May!

Tomorrow Is Beltane. We Made It.

Getting Ready for Beltane Poetry Blogging

May Day

~ Phillis Levin

I’ve decided to waste my life again,
Like I used to: get drunk on
The light in the leaves, find a wall
Against which something can happen,

Whatever may have happened
Long ago—let a bullet hole echoing
The will of an executioner, a crevice
In which a love note was hidden,

Be a cell where a struggling tendril
Utters a few spare syllables at dawn.
I’ve decided to waste my life
In a new way, to forget whoever

Touched a hair on my head, because
It doesn’t matter what came to pass,
Only that it passed, because we repeat
Ourselves, we repeat ourselves.

I’ve decided to walk a long way
Out of the way, to allow something
Dreaded to waken for no good reason,
Let it go without saying,

Let it go as it will to the place
It will go without saying: a wall
Against which a body was pressed
For no good reason, other than this.

Picture found here.

Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains PotPourri

* It’s been a cool Spring here in the magical MidAtlantic. It was sunny for our Beltane celebration, but still cool enough that the fire felt good. Shortly after we finished up, the rain came and put out the fire. It rained all night and, by morning, everything was that indescribable shade of emerald that simply bellows, “Alive!” Things change so quickly in Spring. Literata has a great discussion at her blog about Beltane, desire, relationship, and change.

* My latest article — on magical ethics, and, yes, I do have some — is out in the current issue of Witches & Pagans. You can subscribe and buy back issues here.

* Julian Meade writes:

Today I was plowing faithfully through a horticultural tome when I came to a chapter which began thus, “If you would have a really successful garden, it behooves you –”
The hell it does. My garden is one place in the world where I am not beehoved.

~ from The Unbeehoved Gardener in The Writer in the Garden, edited by Jane Garmey.

I love that. We all need at least one place, either a garden or a room of our own, where we are not even the least little bit beehoved. Where’s your unbeehoven spot?

* Today is supposed to be Pagan Coming Out Day. I know that this isn’t going to make me popular, but, here goes: I’m all for Pagan Coming Out Day and for Pagans coming out on any day — except.

Except that for some people, it’s still not safe. People do still lose their jobs (and medical benefits, etc.), their clients, their children, their homes, etc. when they come out as Pagans.

I admit to getting a bit chaffed by people, often professional Pagans who don’t have “day jobs,” and/or children, who self-righteously announce how easy it is for them to be out and how they’ve done it for years. (I’m glad for them and I hope that someday, due, in part to their efforts, being Pagan won’t be any more remarkable than being Jewish, or Hindu, or Catholic, or generic Christian.) It’s just that there’s a whiff of condescension about those pronouncements and a lack of understanding of what other Pagans have to deal with. (In some cases, there’s even a bit of unacknowledged privilege: people without children can often be unaware of what parents face; urban Pagans can be fail to understand what it’s like to live in the rural South.) And, I admit that it makes me even a bit more out-of-sorts when those same folks conduct their latest “please donate for my medical expenses” or “please contribute to my travel fees for a festival” campaign. Yes, we all need help sometimes and we should all help each other as much as we can. But some of us have funds to donate because we have day jobs that require us to stay in the Broom Closet while you’re busy being an “out” Pagan. I’m willing to honor your role and the trail that you’ve blazed; in return, I’d like you to honor my path and my contributions. For anyone coming out today, I’m sending you bright blessings and a wish for acceptance.

* Here’s a poem for you:

You May Leave a Memory, Or You Can be Feted by Crows

~ Dick Allen

Three years, Huang Gongwang
worked on his famous handscroll,
Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.

As he put successive applications of ink to paper
over the “one burst of creation,” his original design,
it is said he often sang like a tree frog
and danced on his old bare feet.

One day, he adds one hemp fiber stroke,
the next a moss dot.

What patience he had,
like a cat who comes back season after season to a mole’s tunnel.

Honors may go to others.
Riches may go to others.
Huang Gongwang has one great job to do.

And he sings like a tree frog,
and he dances on old bare feet.

That’s how I want to live, to write, to garden, to be.

* What’s the best change that you’ve made in your life since Samhein?

Picture found here.

It’s May

For Beltane

hat tip: Jan

It’s Just the Old Gods Getting Older

Beltane Blogging

Spent all day in the garden, and, then, preparing for tomorrow’s Beltane celebration.

“What potent blood hath modest May.”
~ Ralph W. Emerson

I remind myself at least once a month or so that it is the work of a priestess to prepare a place for ritual.

I am blessed; may it be so for you.

Picture by the blogger; if you copy, please link back.

Beltane’s Coming

Don’t Forget to Wash Your Face in the Dew