De Rerum Regina

by Aidan Kelly

How remember you Madonna dove?
How reflower your wing maid hair?
Who dance the letters of your hand?
Who sing the numbers of your name?

Where gone your unsounded cymbals?
Who ride your were-turn beasts?
What woman serve you reincarnate?
What man dare relie on her?

Who tend the phases of your eyes?
Who reseed the spiral of your trees?
Returns you that Sothic wheel?
I feel you reeling in the slack.

Amusing to terror, she
Is rock of incarnate sea.
Whether there be step or still
It please man to call his, will
Her signates come and go,
Whether man please or know.

Silbury Hill

by Aidan Kelly

The day is a glass castle.
Under my civilized skin
The seasonal beats turn
Fitfully; they dream of waking
Into the nightmare of my blood.

All spears are broken, all zones unwound.
The thorn has not flowered for centuries.
There are women bearing swords and candles,
There are women weeping in the night,
But the waters will not flow
While the king lies on the shelf.
In the mountain Merlin screams,
But cannot wake from Arthur's dreams:
The nightmare multiplying of the self.

The tides of twenty thousand years
Wrinkle my eyes, whiten my hair.
I remember weeds and bone
Hung against the howling moon,
The dove descending to the stone--
But every elevator noon
Descends me to Inferno Street
To mark how every man I meet
Quakes at the young girl's braless bust
With unadulterated lust.

Then open, mountain!
And Orpheus, our pentacle,
Ride forth! Lead the beasts
By their ears in the making dance;
Free the waters, sing into place
The stones that Merlin sails
From Erinland for Uther Ben
To canonize the lines that tend
The phases of Her eyes, that tell
The sun and moon to rise,
Go blind, turn red.

On every path, on every trail,
A knight is seeking his own Grail.
And still
The Great King sleeps beneath the hill.
Not even Pharaoh's bones have such a bed.

The Lord of the Dance
by Aidan Kelly

When She danced on the waters, and the wind was Her horn,
The Lady laughed, and everything was born,
And when She lit the sun, and the light gave him birth,
The Lord of the Dance then appeared on the Earth.

(Chorus) Dance, Dance, wherever you may be,
For I am the Lord of the Dance , said he.
I live in you if you live in me,
And I lead you all in the dance, you see.

I dance in the circle when the flames leap up high;
I dance in fire, and I never, never die.
I dance in the waves on the bright summer sea,
For I am the Lord of the waves' mystery. (Chorus)

I sleep in the kernel, and I dance in the rain;
I dance in wind and through the waving grain,
And when you cut me down, I care nothing for the pain:
In the spring I'm the Lord of the Dance once again. (Chorus)

I dance at the Sabbat when you dance out the spell;
I dance and sing that everyone be well,
And when the dancing's over, do not think I am gone:
To live is to dance; so I dance on and on. (Chorus)

Five Canticles of Wisdom

by Aidan Kelly

In the beginning, there is no beginning:
There is only the Goddess, and Her name
Is Everything-All-the-Same, and Fullness
I
When Her name is Wandering Wide,
She danced on the waters.
Before She turned upon the wind,
The stars are Her daughters.

She turns upon the elements
A dance of celebration
That to watery nothing gives
A name and habitation.

Her dancing turned upon the wind;
The wind snake winds about Her,
And this is how it all begins:
In dancing, and in laughter.
II
When Her name is Snake, She danced,
And when Her name was Dove, She lays
A silver egg to rule the night,
A golden egg to rule the day.

From the golden egg is born
The maker of all wealth,
Love, who will not let us lie;
and from the silver egg, Herself.

Love is the only god She knows:
He feeds upon the heather
To fill all space with honey cells;
His name is, The Revealer.

III
Beneath the sacred tree She stands
Where the sacred serpent brings
The sacred apple, that Her hand
Will offer to the sacred king

Gifted, he falls beneath Her gaze.
The dark god kneels, to plunge the knife.
His heart is pierced; the bright god dies.
His dance unwinds him into life.
IV
When Her name is Brine and Tears,
The king usurps Her sovranty.
Squatting on Her throne, he shouts,
"Death is a necessity!"

When Her name is Memory,
Her voices are a choir;
They stir the cup of music,
Of poetry and fire.

Before the cave of Memory,
Order, Night, and Justice dance,
Where Flowing bangs Her brazen drum
To prove, "Necessity is chance."
V
When Her name is Mystery,
She brews the cup that sings,
"All who drink shall be reborn;
All shall have the prize of kings."

She stands before, She stands beside:
The Maiden has become the guide.
The spiral dance, the egg of life,
Replace the apple and the knife.

Bushes burn because my mind is fire.
The Queen Bee reigns; I am Her hive.
As words make honey of my breath,
I make the world, to be alive.

Yet She hunts with Her silver knife;
Yet She swells in the ebb and flood;
Yet She keens in the golden leaves:
The Triple Goddess in bone and blood.

The Marriage Song of Moon and Sun

by Aidan Kelly

I am the white and somber wench,
Knife of the hunter,
New of the moon.
I climb the hill of the changing halves
And burn in leaves of the verging trees.
Leap of the shadow,
Flash of the arrow,
Crimson and silver I reap and weave.

I am the gold and amber man,
Sired by the sun,
Born of the moon.
I slay the Gorgon for my shield
And take the musing Moon to wife.
Sword of the father,
Wand of the mother,
Sunwise and whirling I ride the sea.

I am the green and secret wife,
Fire of the wedding,
Bells of the sea.
I wind the round of the breeding moon,
O furrow the earth beneath my knees!
Blue of the harpers,
Gold of the pipers,
Threefold and singing I plow the seed.

I am the iron and scarlet man,
Blow of the hammer,
Cry of the steel.
I riddle the secrets of the trees
and lead the dance of the harvest moon.
Forge of the mother,
Spark of the maker,
Fourfold and lightning in every nerve.

I am the black and comely bitch,
Pipes of the crescent,
Beats of the Earth.
I stir the fire of the howling night
and bless the cup of the fertile seas
Gongs of the dancers,
Flames of the banners,
Sunwise in silence I clear and sow.

I am the black and violet man,
Branch of renewal,
Words of the owl.
I guide the track of the spiral dance
Across the sky and under the waves.
Mask of the hero
Reversed in a mirror,
I am the reaper who stays to sow.