POEM: RAPT FORM
FIRE upon Night the way flashing
Cove within Earth the seed receiving
South into North of us –
Eagle upon mountain and the light ascending
The Bowl of the daily dark descending
Stars beyond the shore of us
The Centre stays and the pattern fixes
The Centre moves and the diagram mixes
For many and more of us.
The Eye shines as the cast is shining
The Bowl gathers darkness as the shade is spreading
The Pentagram weaves its tent overheading
The stars and the Polestar turning and twining
Until the rotating of day.
O day and night O night of time
[the weft upon the warp of rhyme}
I backward step to the abyss
Where Form ends and Nothing is –
Where Nothing ends and All-Thing is.
Ross Nichols Prophet Priest and King: The Poetry of Ross Nichols Lewes: The Oak Tree Press, 2001 (Edited and introduced by Jay Ramsay)
“Ross Nichols, who was a contemporary of Eliot, and rated highly by many including Edwin Muir, was Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) until his sudden and unexpected death in 1975. An accomplished prose writer, essayist, editor and water colourist who exhibited at the Royal Academy, we can now see him as one of the ‘Apocalypse poets’ of the 1940’s As Chief of the Order from 1964, his contribution was substantial, re-introducing into modern Druid practice the Winter Solstice Festival and the four Celtic Fire Festivals, which he led at London and in Glastonbury.”(Book blurb)
For information about OBOD see http://www.druidry.org/
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