Sicily Entries

I am in the process of typing up my journal entries from Sicily. Descriptions of the countryside, the people, the cities, and so forth. It’s been a while since I’ve kept a travel journal, and so the first entries are a little rusty.

However, they begin on March 10, and continue from there. Currently, the entries for March 10 and the first two-thirds of March 11 are done. I will post from now on as each day’s entry is completed.

If you do decide to go back and read, please leave a comment on them. I’d really like not so much feedback, as acknowledgement that typing up longhand entries of a vacation is a useful way for me to spend my time.

Hymn For the Feast of All Heras

Feast of All Heras
(March 9)

Hail, great Hera, queen of Heaven and Earth,
daughter of Rhea, white-armed wife of Zeus.
You are protector of marriage and birth,
knotting the cord and cutting babies loose,
lacing the fingers of husband and wife.
Hephaestus, lord of the forge, is your son.
Your crown he wrought with poppies and feathers,
crowned pomegranate staff for happy life.
Four yoked peacocks draw your chariot on.
Your shield hangs over mothers and daughters.

Graciously guard both hearth and marriage bed;
keep gate and garden prosperous and fair.
Fill each table with honest daily bread.
Teach household tongues to speak with tender care.
For wedded bliss begins with hard labor,
in honest words spoken, heard and believed;
and jealousy begins in roving eyes.
Lord Zeus sought safety in every harbor,
and left you, lady, alone and bereaved—
Yet crowned with splendor, beautiful and wise.

Guide us to passion in familiar arms;
bless our beds with silk sheets and open ears.
Though the joy of the new has its own charms,
may love grow stronger with the tide of years
and forgiveness flow like rivers in flood.
For when Zeus ended his wandering ways
then myths ended — but true heroes were born.
Mortals show divine ancstry and blood
whenever spirits meet a lover’s gaze:
they sing like birds on the brightest spring morn.

Apologies for the delay in getting this out. I finished it before I left for Sicily, but didn’t get it typed up until today.

Ides of March Sonnet

Woodlands awaken libertine senses:
Sap springs upward in beech and berry-bush.
Clear water replaces lingering slush.
Chipmunk abandons winter defenses,
and turkey finds gaps in farmers’ fences.
Skunk cabbage rises, green heads in the marsh,
spreading to sunlight though wind remains harsh.
Rabbits and chickens renew their menses,
and sun rises earlier every day,
enlightening the east with salmon glow,
to furrow middle portions of his field.
Now is the hour for casting away,
releasing what is dead, and letting go.
That which remains shall be renewed and healed.

Because of travel and time with my family, I was unable to access the Internet to send this and other poems for several days. Please accept my apologies for the late delivery.

Full Moon Sonnet for March

Hail, Lady Moon, reflected in dark lake,
keeping company with Dioscuri,
who bid sleeping , dreaming earth to awake.
Wind stirs up waters with sudden fury,
and daffodils break out through black soil.
New wrens begin chirping before false dawn,
and robins work at their morning’s toil,
to find and uproot each worm in the lawn.
Few leaves yet grace bare branches overhead,
but aster and mint push up through dry leaves.
Thus life draws comfort and shelter from dead,
moving and changing even as it grieves.
Birds sing hymns at the time of your setting,
chanting praises of winter’s forgetting.

Because of travel and time with my family, I was unable to access the Internet to send this and other poems for several days. Please accept my apologies for the late delivery.