You had to have
been there to know such joy,
fear intermingled, my limbs
tingling: ancient, mute.

Each woman wise and wonderful, warm and wicked with wonder in their hearts and in their souls, winding their way to this moment, from all different points on this planet, the magic of convergence, in time and space.

The earth, the water, the fire, the air,
Returns, returns, returns, returns…

Let the ash turn to gold now, Mother,
For the children of the future.

I’ll take it, the tree seems to say, a new slick leafunfurling like a fist to an open palm, I’ll take it all.

The well rising without sound,
the spring on a hillside,
the plowshare brimming through deep ground
everywhere in the field—

You gleam as you lie back

breathing like something

taken from water,a sea creature, except

for your two human legs

which tremble

and open

i am running into a new year
and the old years blow back
like a wind

so this is the sound of you

here and now whether or not

anyone hears it