IRISH MYTHOLOGY WIP FRAGMENTS*

Women in woad

Shaking undressed breasts

Leading the warriors

Down Irish roads

Banshee-ing through the air

To cause enemies fear

O, to be with you

When war was for defense

Multi-married Maeve

“She Who Intoxicates”

Queen to Eochaid

Demanding a dowry paid

By a trinity of promises:

A husband who would be without

Fear, meanness and jealousy

Maeve, brave survivor of

Rape, war, and her own soul-sucking envy

Powerful woman or perhaps a goddess

Embodying the Sacred Marriage

Guaranteeing fertility

In a viridescent land

*Inspired by the work of Heather Awen

PLEASE SEE HER WORDPRESS SITE:

https://heatherawen.wordpress.com/pen-pals-political-pagan-lgbtq/

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Woad, ekmpowershop3

10 comments

    1. I think part of your confusion is caused by me 🙂 They are two separate fragments of a longer poem, work-in-progress (WIP). The poem until “when war was defense” is about the early Irish who were always under attack. The women were warriors in that they dyed their breasts and bodies in blue woad and would scream (I call it “banshee-ing”) to unnerve the enemy. The men marched behind them with their weapons. Then I move into Maeve, one of the Irish queens, and have played around with information about her. I posted Heather Awen’s website because she is working on a Pagan women in prison book and asked me to try writing an invocation. I’m more comfortable writing poetry so that was my beginning “sketch” of it. Hope that clarifies a bit and feel free to ask anything. Thanks!

      Liked by 2 people

  5. Thanks, Daisy! “Viridescent” reminds me of “iridescent” and that reminds me of the iridescent pigeons in Philadelphia that I miss. Here in Florida, there are only brown doves but they’re fun, too…

    Liked by 2 people

Comments are closed.