Samhain ~ Halloween ~ Hallowmass ~ The Night of the Dead

 

 A poem from years ago, revised, cf.  HERE.

Now that the young trick-or-treaters have left,
white candles flicker in the dark silence.
The border between life and death is thin
tonight.  Cats of years past visit till dawn.
 
The littlest, Red, comes first and then Wicca,
Pierette, Miracle, and Sabrina.  They stay awhile.
While they purr, I sense people who have left
this plane walking in and out of my mind.
 
I hold each for a long minute, and more
for my dear friend Nancy who would enjoy
watching a film ~ Cat People, maybe, or
Bell, Book and Candle ~ if she were here.
 
The films play one after another as
we reminisce about decades past
gathering with women in bonfire light, 
drumming, dancing, blessing, and howling
 
Those revelers scattered over this world
and the next one.  Some returned to childhood
faiths, and some like me became convinced
of Christianity.  Jesus shows up.
 
I myself am Jewish, he reminds me.
I’m willing to be Christian, but I’m still
wary of paganism ~ though nothing
indigenous is foreign to me. 
 
My eyes are closed now, and I’m contained in,
enveloped by environment: the warm
and shadowed room and the scent of sage grass
the sure knowledge of trees and homes outside.
 
This thin time is full of elemental
messages that reaffirm my calling
to teach and word-smith, but not debate ~ only
witness and testify and remember.
 
Don’t lie.  To thine own self be true.  I smile. 
Sometimes Jesus sounds so much like Shakespeare
that I recall the King James Bible dates from
exactly the same years.  I love the sound.
 
And now it’s time to awaken, blow out
the candles, and come home from traditions
present because I made room for them in
my life, made room for Light and for Darkness.
 
In this thin time, we embrace a wealth of
accumulated experience, we
remind ourselves to increase positives
and decrease negatives.  We hug the earth.

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© 2019 Susan L. Chast