2nd Annual (silent) Poetry Reading

I'm sitting snug under a blanket, two cats and a dog, on a bitter cold winter morning. Outside there is ice on the sidewalks and on the cars, there are snowflakes falling.

But today I am concentrating on warmth ...on Imbolc ...Oimelc ...the Feast of Bride.

Imbolc means "well waters" - it celebrates the melting of the snow and ice.

Oimelc means "ewe's milk" - it celebrates the oncoming of lambs (as should all knitters!)

This Feast of the Bride honors the celtic goddess Brigid (or Bride, or Brigandu, or Brigitania), who by any reckoning was a goddess of hope and warmth.

Brigid, the 'Fire of the Hearth', was the goddess of fertility, family, childbirth and healing.

Brigid, the '"Fire of the Forge', a patroness of the crafts, and a goddess who was concerned with justice and law and order.

Brigid, the 'Fire of Inspiration', was the muse of poetry, song history and the protector of all cultural learning.

The Feast in her honor reminds us to be patient through the remaining winter days, there is hope ahead. There is warmth ahead. There is love ahead.

My own honoring is a prayer of hope, warmth, and love.

I will spend the day putting together afghan squares knit and crocheted a few weeks ago for various local charities. And as I do so, I will keep this poem close to my heart, and strong in my thoughts.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection:
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is lead forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action--
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

--Rabindranath Tagore