CAAKE Winter Residency – December reflections PART 3 KERRI NÍ DOCHARTAIGH
The Turning of the Circle; The Lore of the Line.
There is a line
that knows
neither ending
nor beginning.
I will take ye there, in the still, soft turning.
I will take you there as the circle turns,
as the winter makes ready;
as the moment for deep change
lands on grey concrete;
feather-trace.
(what trace may we leave here in this place? what bring we here, what bring we here; WHAT BRING WE HERE?)
white for all that we know and do
not do/for all that we have lost/
for all of the LOSS LOSS LOSS
white for the birds and all that
they have taught us/for all that
we have given/for all of the GIFTS
GIFTS GIFTS
white for the past and the place
that we have left behind; for all
that we left behind us like a line
made of ghost tracks and still, soft
echoes.
G H O S T L I N E
lost bird
A line that halved and divided,
that ran alongside
the trauma and the ache
– deep inside the bones of us
– the bones of the place;
what to do with all the bones,
as white as old man’s beard
– on the circle of this darkling winter?
(make a moon of them, make a moon of them)
MAKE A MOON FROM THESE BROKEN, BRILLIANT BONES
reflections like thunder or like the wren, like the past and like all that we will never quite know; like the depths and like the place the birds come down from – full of healing light – peach and as changing as the wind.
WE ARE HERE, AND WE ARE MAKING A CIRCLE.
we are making a circle from a line
we are making a line from a circle
WE ARE LETTING THE LAND
HOLD US CLOSE;
where the circle and the line
meet themselves,
in a still, soft place.
Though it may be a line you see, it is a circle that holds you close, that brings your eyes
up from the darkness; into the gold – into the gold; into the bright gold light.
when was the last time you wept?
when was the last time you laughed?
you are safe here.
you are safe here.
YOU ARE SAFE.
you belong here.
you belong here.
YOU BELONG.
even in the depths of loss, a stillness will seek you out.
(it may come in the form of decay or of death – of plastic remnants of a life once lived –
of fragments and broken parts of a past that is only now making room for light)
MAKING ROOM FOR LIGHT AND FOR THE SILENCE THAT COMES WITH HEALING.
you will always know the way,
you will always know the way,
YOU WILL ALWAYS KNOW.
YOU ARE THE CIRCLE
YOU ARE THE LINE
You are the turning,
on the darkest night;
in the place that made you.