Skorda's Seaside Taverna: halcyon days

Skopelos and Virgin

-by Skorda

Swallow that campari moon
when first you see it
across the water,
rising round and new above the mountain.
Open your mouth and swallow
while youth holds its roundness near,
and you are running fearless in the dark.
Hold it inside, it is still warm
and you will need its light,
there, inside you.

Down the road of time, somewhere
after you’ve aged, traveled,
Explored, discovered.
And the dust around your doorway
has been pounded hard and smooth under your feet.
When you find yourself growing weary and bored,
when your eyes see only ruins,
and your heart is empty.
You may believe, in your exhaustion,
that this is truth, at last.
That the mystery has unraveled,
leaving no wilderness to explore or tame.
All secrets have been shared,
the frontier has dissolved.
Know then, with these thoughts,
you have been swallowed.

The warm belly of the beast
comforts with confining darkness
and lulls with rhythmic sounds
Murmuring to you,
Curl up and sleep,
just go to sleep.

Shake your head,
stretch your legs,
do not sleep now.

Remember what you know.
You swallowed the moon,
you hold it inside you.
Not as a magpie hoarding shiny things,
or wearing the moon for beauty
or bartering the moon for wealth.
You swallowed the moon for this moment.
When you will walk to the water’s edge,
open your mouth, release the moon
and let its light build you a pathway
across the wine dark sea.
©Skorda 2008

Friday, December 26, 2008

halcyon days

Herbert James Draper, "Halcyone"

From "Love Myths"

Ceyx, the king of Thessaly, was the son of Lucifer, the light bringer, the star that brings in the day. His wife, Alcyone, was the daughter of Aeolus, the King of the Winds. They were a faithful and devoted couple and never separated. Nevertheless, there came a time when Ceyx decided that he must leave her and make a long journey across the sea to consult an oracle. Alcyone was hysterical with grief and worry. She had grown up in the palace of the King of the Winds and knew very well what often happened to ships at sea. When she was that he was firm in his determination to make this trip, she begged to be allowed to go with him, "I can endure whatever comes to us together." Yet, although Ceyx loved Alcyone as much as she loved him, he would not allow it. So he sailed alone.

That night a great storm broke. The crew was terrified, but Ceyx was happy and at peace, knowing that his beloved Alcyone was safe on shore. The boat sank and all were drowned. As the waters closed over Ceyx, the word "Alcyone" was on his lips. Time passed, and Alcyone waited patiently for Ceyx's return. She prayed nightly to Hera (Juno) to safeguard her beloved husband, and the goddess was touched by her earnest prayers for a man already dead. She sent Morpheus, son of the old god of sleep to visit Alcyone in a dream. Morpheus assumed the shape of the drowned Ceyx. He said to Alcyone, "Poor wife, look, your husband is here. Do you know me, or is my face changed in death? I am dead, Alcyone. Your name was on my lips when the waters overwhelmed me. There is no hope for me any more. But give me your tears; let me not go down into the shadowy world unwept." Alcyone stretched out to touch her husband and cried aloud, "Wait for me; I will go with you," and her own vice woke her up. Alcyone knew her husband was dead. "I will not try to live." When the sun rose, Alcyone went to the shore of the sea; as she stared out over the water she saw something in the distance floating ashore. As it got closer she saw it was a body. She ran down to it. It was the body of her husband Ceyx. She ran through the surf, splashing, and crying, "Husband, dearest!" But, oh wonder, instead of sinking into the waves she was flying or riding the waves. The gods took pity on the couple and turned them into to special sea birds. Every winter there is a week when the sea is perfectly calm. These are the days when Alcyone, the gannet bird, broods over her nest floating on the sea. Ceyx, the kingfisher, a bright colored, crest headed bird, is nearby. And these days of perfect peace are named after her, Alcyone, or more commonly, Halcyon days.