Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
I listen to quite a lot of music. Not much of it feels rooted or even connected to Earthly life. I'm beginning to wonder if many of our problems stem from an inability to celebrate what is life-affirming. Maybe we need an aesthetic of the hearth and home, of the constant and congenial and communitarian.… Continue reading We Need New Songs…
Common cuckoo (male). National Audubon Society. cuckoo sings out spring changeling in contented nest songs of troth betrayed A poem for 8 April , National Poetry Month, day 8. They say the cuckoo returns in mid-April, its song ushering in the season of growth. I've always found our relationship to this bird to be strange.… Continue reading cuckoo
There was ice on the garden at the beginning of the week. Today, there are snowdrops and crocuses. And honeybees! The bud scales have dropped off the apple trees and the lilacs are beginning to open. I can walk to the mailbox without a coat and I've had the curtains drawn wide all day. I'm… Continue reading The First Flowers of Spring!
I wrote this for another All Poetry image-prompt 'contest'. Apologies to the artist, but I don't know where it comes from except 'Pinterest'. Which is hardly satisfactory as a credit. I don't usually put up the image when there is no tracing it, but in this case it is sort of important to the poem's… Continue reading Sunday Poetry for 27 March
March 25th is Lady Day. This is another Marian holiday which coopted older pagan traditions — in this case the New Year celebrations which fell on 25 March before Julius Caesar shifted the Roman observance to the beginning of January. Lady Day is nine months before December 25th, so you can probably figure out what… Continue reading Lady Day
Vernal Equinox Quiz True or False: The vernal equinox is when spring begins. Not exactly. The beginning of spring depends on where you live, and it is more a cultural phenomenon than a meteorological one. Tradition in Ireland has spring beginning with St Brigid’s Day on 1 February. Spring weather may not happen for months… Continue reading Today is… the equinox?
This year, the Vernal Equinox happens on 20 March at 11:33am. This is, I think, the most nebulous of the solar festivals. Yes, it does mark an actual solar event, but it’s not the one we typically hear about. It’s not much of an event at all. This festival is less about the event than… Continue reading The Season of Renewal
These were a couple things that happened this week, inspired by All Poetry contests. I didn't realize there was a theme until this morning... the maiden the damask rose wraps her wolf heart claret core in clenched milky fist this eternal beauty of ephemeral flesh fierce stiletto will guarding petal passions sends call to the… Continue reading Goddess of Spring
It’s coming round to the time of equinoctial balance. In the north, this means spring. The Sap Moon is waxing and the maples are starting to show some signs of waking. Where I live it is still white and cold, but there are rumors of daffodils not far south and down by the coast. I… Continue reading Balance
March 11th is Penny Loaf Day, though it is also traditional to set the observance to the Sunday closest to 11 March. This is an obscure holiday that I’d like to revive. Because first of all, it involves bread (so, duh, of course!), and second it celebrates generosity that has endured for nearly four centuries.… Continue reading Penny Loaf Day
By My Solitary Hearth 