In a message dated 11/18/01 10:04:39 AM, [log in to unmask] writes:

<<                    Iris  [I like the assonance in Iris and rises]


she rises upright, sheds

night like raven feathers

to become another,

light-engorged, turns     [like light-engorged - can feel its saturation]

through sky, strong palms

the earth, pushing arcwise

against the grey gravity     [like the alliteration here]

into that fiery corona,

vast ring of burning palps,

sea-anemone tentacling

the oceanic clouds.


flying so, in solitary

ceremony, she opens

to the taloned sun, belly

clawed, opens to release

the mystery. yaa, life  [don't understand yaa etc. up to ceaselessly  : -(
 ]

like liver, torn, tawsed,

devoured ceaselessly.


whatever god, goddesses,

rise, ride that road beneath,

between trees barked

like snakes, whatever comes,

goes on that highway,

she heralds, guides

with rainbow gestures,  [love all the g alliteration in these lines]

gravid, she greets

every day and births colour,

distance, calving knowledge

into the blur and cluster

of dreams, unfurls that

simple glory daily. habit husks

her beauty, lids my sight
[I like this last line; I can feel her beautiy on my eyelids, closed because
of her instense light]

kol tuv, Ryfkah


only the birdborne orison

sometimes stops my steps,

pearls my lips in wonder

and. I, mothered, murmurless,

now only for a moment,

worship at the shining shrine

of she who rises upright

shedding night like

raven feathers.


                      grasshopper >>