Poetry of Nature | Midwinter | Geoff Oelsner

This letter is one of a monthly series available to Poetry of Nature subscribers.

For full access to the Poetry of Nature letters please subscribe

to the Letters Circle on the membership page.

Previous Poetry of Nature Letters

Dear PON Friends,

The Vernal Equinox arrives on Thursday, March 20 at 5:01 AM Eastern time.

The light is returning, though we may know some more grey days along the way.

“If we will the future effectively it will be because the guidance and the powers of the Earth have been communicated to us, not because we have determined the future of the earth simply with some rational faculty.”

~ Thomas Berry

Peace, guidance and communion with the powers of the Gaia can be found at sacred sites, places of pilgrimage, caves and natural sanctuaries all over the world. Numinous places— some renowned, some known only to a few, some near where you live or in your own backyard.

I like to visit sacred sites and to reflect upon them later on. Sometimes I write songs as a way of revisiting and loving them. The below song was begun in winter 2005 at the Hill of Tara in Ireland. I think the place seeded the song in me. I finally went into the studio and recorded a performance of it two months ago after coming back to it many times over the past 20 years.

Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote a series of poems in the voice of a wild wise old woman named Crazy Jane. In his poem “Crazy Jane on God” you’ll find the refrain “All things remain in God.”

The Goddess Maeve was worshipped at Tara, and there I encountered the Sacred in the form of a maiden, a girl about seven years old, so you’ll find a more feminine focus in the below chorus. Here are lyrics, and my performance of the song:

Winter Hymn at Tara

1. Winter silence on the land, heedless of cold I go in a weaving wind.

On the royal Hill of Tara, honoring the Goddess in abidance with the age long

stream of pilgrims and the ancient bones of Irish Queens and Kings.

CHORUS: All things remain in Her (4x)

2. Came here by a narrow way, steering through the fields below in a sweeping

wind to the center of the Celtic compass, encompassing the countryside

in view in all directions and the winding lines of ancient roads and stone.

CHORUS

3. Storms from the Atlantic Sea lash the shores and wash the cliffs and green the

land. Peace keeps its hold here on these hills where the sky remembers cliffs

where the winnowing winds have been.

CHORUS

4. Clearest eyes I saw today, I was beheaded by her sudden light before I met

her maiden face. Passing fast on the steep footpath curving through the

snowfall and the glow below the virgin snow on the ritual hill.

CHORUS

5. Weft of winter on the land, heedless of snow I go in a weaving wind.

Dusk embraces silence, summoning faint traces of the prayers and cheers

and ancient chants of the lingering lives within.

CHORUS: repeat 4x

Winter silence on the land, heedless of snow I go, in a living wind.

There’s Light at the center of it, but that’s admittedly a mighty wintery song to pour into your ears only days before the spring equinox! May it move you to reflect on and maybe write poems or hymns to places that you hold especially dear, whether they be near or far away, whether in summer, fall, winter or spring.

May we nurture our Awareness of the sacredness of every place on earth! May this spring bring us unexpected blessings.

Please Touch the Earth with Love,

Geoff Oelsner

“In the cherry blossom’s shade there’s no such thing as a stranger.”

~ Kobayashi Issa