POEM: CIRCLE OF THE SOUL
by contemplativeinquiry
A third poet from the collection ‘Moon Poets: Six Pagan poets’ published by Moon Books and edited by Trevor Greenfield. Tiffany Chaney is a poet and artist residing in North Carolina. Her poetry collection Between Blue and Grey won the 2013 Mother Vine Festival Award for Best in poetry. Tiffany can be found on http://www.tiffanychaney.com/
The collection as a whole also includes work by Lorna Smithers, Robin Herne, Romany Rivers, Martin Pallot and Beverley Price.
Circle of the Soul
Wake,
wake the witness,
silent Sulis
of the pond.
Pretend the nameless
are named.
Pretend the formless
are framed.
Wake,
wake the witness.
Wait,
until it is your turn
of the wheel.
Satiate
the self with
the making of souls,
until having played
pretend you can fall
asleep again.
Wake, and witness,
so we may recall.
What is this poem trying to tell the reader? Thanks
Hello Madison
I put the post up because for me it offers a contemplation of birthing and rebirthing. I have read it in the light of my midwinter experience: that’s were it has met me.
I don’t know what Tiffany had in mind when she wrote it and can’t speak for her – her blog reference is included in my post and you could connect with her about it, if curious enough. From my own reading I guessed that she is speaking from a cosmology in which there is (and therefore we are, or partake in) an underlying universal witness consciousness, and that we cycle through existences with various degrees of awareness of this underlying reality: the poem also seems to be suggesting that the awakening of one is in some sense the awakening of all.
However I don’t know that. What I stay with, personally, is more a sense of wonder at the mystery, experienced as a dance of change and shifting awareness, where our only anchor is the possibility of wakeful witnessing.
Blessings of the Season,
James