Thursday Poem - Candlemas\ Groundhog Day\ Imbolc

Out of the sun, the snow surprises.
Thin wash of white squalling across the field.

Candlemas, Pope Sergius proclaimed,
will celebrate the Purification of the Virgin..

Unclean from mothering, as any woman,
Mary must be brought to ceremony.

Let her come forth for churching
Let her submit her grace and power.

Broken straw and strong young grass alike
the brush of snow erases.

Groundhog Day. In such an uproar of hope,
this pale little fellow emerges.

Mistaking the messenger for the message,
a crowd of watchers cheers him lustily.

Once it was Imbolc: womb of earth.
A women’s dance around the fertile fire.

Hear the old belly of soil
rumbling with hunger for spring,

It is She, it is still She
whose prophecy surges.

Dolores Stewart Riccio,
from Doors to the Universe
(reprinted here with her kind permission)