For Endurance

On Yesod she b'Netzach

 

the dazzling order of all things 

           Aviva Zornberg

     for Eibhlin

 

Dear Eibhlin,

I want to tell you

that on Mothers day

I saw ten swans on 

the Millers Falls River  

bills deep in water 

feeding from the concealed

in concert and company

and thought of you 

and your birthday note from Dublin

carried by light over talamh  and sliabh

from your life tending  replenishing the soil 

    of your ancestors 

from within the hidden core of the cairn

    where the faces of the Cailleach and Bridget 

    offer their names as teachings

and from where I sit 

on the steps of my home

listening to cardinal  chickadee  wren

sing their songs of our belonging

of being born this morning

through flower and just emerging oak leaf

as we reach across the great waters

breathing the ancient letters 

diving for silver fish

in this dazzling order

of all things.

 

 

Notes:

Translations of Gaelic words:

talamh (talev)  means land 

sliab (shlee-ivh means mountain

cairn is a mound of stones place on graves to honor the dead.  As in the Jewish tradition when visiting the cairn, a stone is added.

Bridget, in her form as maiden and mother and Cailleach compose the 3 faced aspect of the Divine Feminine in Irish tradition