(Poem) Red Oak Prayer by Sara Wright

Photo by Sara Wright

All Hallows 2020

Guardians…  Cranes, Lizard who drinks from both fire and water and has a passionflower tail (with “buds and balls” – wow both genders – ‘he’ used to be male. Great Bear, Awi Usdi

Red Oak

you were a

patient seedling

who waited years for

a green door to open

 beyond a cobalt sky.

The fallen pine

offered you ‘the way.’

At last you shine!

Bittersweet orange

and scarlet,

oversized leaves

tenaciously holding on

when most others

 are withering away.

 Light winds,

 gifts of rain,

maple leaves

and scented needles 

compost your future.

Deep roots meet with

Pine People

Your friends I’m told,

fusing mycorrhizal threads

into complex patterns

that stretch across

the forest floor,

 All search for minerals:

nitrogen, phosphorous,

precious water too.

Nourished, you thrive.

Not even insect

damaged leaves

can still your will to live.

I feel you

singing a love song

to the sun.

Eat all the light

you need during

this golden autumn

  • before winter

slows your blood

and you fall asleep.

Dreaming Our Future.

 I hug you

with hungry eyes

wondering who

planted your seed.

Was it cached by

Squirrel or Jay?

From acorn to tree –

From DNA to Form.

Horizontal Gene Transfer?

Grow straight

and tall.

Leaf out, unfurl

 pointed fingers.

 Deep verdant green is

  summer shade.

Come fall

the Oak Fields of Yore

will strengthen each limb

prepare you to sleep,

 nurturing and protecting

the Wise Wo/Man

you already are.

Working Notes/Prayer:

I turn towards the steadfast oaks in my deepest distress. 

May I stand tall, stay with unwelcome betrayals, deep loneliness, a monster at the helm, insanity, murders, wars, bow again and again to ‘what is’. Like the druids and wise women healers who came before them, may I find refuge and strength within your groves, gain further perspective, and never forget how grateful I am to be alive and living among so many wise beings – both plant and animal and those invisible ones who inhabit the spaces in between.

This year comes to an end in human induced chaos and communal exile – cultural realities that are inescapable unless virtual reality has stolen the human soul. With a madman’s insanity, the word ‘future’ loses meaning. Or creates terror of monumental proportions… We have lost so many animals, trees, roots, and people to death, indifference, dishonesty, cruelty, or starvation of one kind or the other. Our precious planet screams and still we refuse to listen…. Fires and Floods – Killers abound.  Too many with guns. Our Greed has gone viral like Covid 19, killing millions, and now there is no turning back. It is spiking in Maine (first time since spring – now it’s a real threat here) and the rest of the country.

Some of us have stayed awake through this holocaust, but I am one who must force herself to climb into each day with a resolve that is slowly eroding, collapsing a floor that once held me secure. I am sinking into mold, fog bound, marshy oblivion… So I cry out for the comfort of trees who bend love over bare branches, listening for the Messenger who clasps his heart around my dreams.

In Greek mythology we uncover a totally different story. Oak trees were associated with thunder and lightening. The tree was sacred to Zeus and the gods of the sky most of which were war gods. Curiously, Oaks often survive being hit by lightening.

I can’t help wonder if the oak tree that I am growing inside might be able to withstand being hit by lightening?

With a full moon dimming the stars in the sky I cry out to the Great Bear:

What will the Hunter’s Full Moon reveal?

COYOTES HOWL NIGHT OF 10/30 – full moon 9 am tomorrow… trickster’s reign begins…

Water Blessing (1): Release: shame that I need so much help now to the fire

Water Blessing(2) : Blessing of the House – 4 corners…

House, self – health of my BODY, animals, friends.

Breathing and Prayer

(1) Prayer that the floors of our house will hold…that we will be safe… that my body will manage the mold – somehow. That our bodies like the house body will get the help we need…

(2) Prayer that I might become the oak who can withstand fire and lightening strikes…whose strength will help me deal with the future .

(3) a prayer for RAIN…

(4) a fervent prayer to stay emotionally attached – emotionally to a few people to help with loneliness…

Giving thanks for surviving this year, for every act of courage I have mustered to live with the hole that permeates body and soul as well as my house. A hole and rotting timbers. Honoring myself. Giving thanks for trees, for finding “home” after four years of desert wandering… giving thanks for appreciating each breath I take inside and out. For seeing and hearing Sandhill cranes! And at this 11th hour I give thanks for Marcus and Mark – the Son and his Father who have come into my life – a slender but tough and honest thread of hope that now interrupts my fear…

(Meet Mago Contributor) Sara Wright


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