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In the countryside, with a creek flowing through our property, and woods all around, dragonflies and other woodland creatures were a gift to me as a child.  Winged ones continue to bring inspiration.   Around the world, dragonflies often symbolize transformation with their iridescent wings and graceful flight. They appear in haiku and stories, on Zuni pottery and Diné necklaces.   Order Ordonata, suborder Anisoptera, they are important insects known as messengers between the worlds, at times appearing as ancestral spirits, inviting us to take time for reflection.

I’m grateful that an interview with me on Dragonfly appeared on KXRW a month ago  as I spoke about poetry and inspiration just before my solar return.  https://kxrw.fm/dragonfly-creativity-w-poet-gwendolyn-morgan-10-27-21/

The last quarter of the lunar cycle is a time of reflection before the Sagittarius New Moon, Solar Eclipse.  Leah Whitehorse notes: “Align yourself to what is important and let your light shine.”  https://www.leahwhitehorse.com/

“Full moons cast light into the shadow, illuminating what’s been in the dark, and what we need to resolve in order to move forward…. “

– Stephanie Austin

https://www.ecoastrology.com

“Reimagining the possible, charting the way for change…” 

The Autumn – Winter 2021 issue of The Wayfarer arrived the mail today, and I’m grateful to have two poems included as one of the Homebound poets in the magazine. https://thewayfarer.homeboundpublications.com/

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Autumn brings release of leaves, poems, paintings,  a time for a return to creative acts.  Along with the Sun trine to Saturn, we  have a Venus-Nepture trine (Scorpio-Pisces).  

“This is also a wonderful creative influence as Venus represents beauty, harmony and aesthetics and Neptune is imagination and the arts. … (a time) to tap into these energies by painting, taking photos, dancing….”  — Leah Whitehorse, https://www.leahwhitehorse.com

Again, grateful to Moss for including my poem “Blend, clay, coffee” in their Volume No. 6 which had a delay in release to this month https://mosslit.com/

Also, grateful to Syracuse Cultural Workers for including las abejas son nuestras amigas, a small mixed media painting I created in memory of my father,  in their 2022 Women Artists Datebook

Lammas is a seasonal turning point in the wheel of the year, mid-point between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox.  Two months back-to-back with Aquarius Full Moons, now Leo Sun and soon another New Moon.

This summer, I remember Francis Weller sharing that our work “is to carry grief in one hand and gratitude in the other and to be stretched large by them.” 

The Wild Edge of Sorrow (Berkeley, North Atlantic Books, 2015).  https://www.francisweller.net/

May we share our grief, our gratitude and our work together, supporting one another in the midst of lunar shifts, cosmological shifts, global upheaval.

With gratitude to Moss for including my poem “Blend, clay, coffee” in Volume 6, released  this month August 2021 https://mosslit.com/

This Morning

“This morning the doe speaks to her young

outside the window.

I do not know what is said but listen,

their love is great as ours…”

            – Linda Hogan

                        The Radiant Lives of Animals

(Boston, Beacon Press, 2020), p.83

“What do the birds of prey have to tell you?

Pause feel the wind in your tail feathers

Red-tailed Hawk carries your morning prayers …”

Gwendolyn Morgan from “Diurnal Raptors,” Before The Sun Rises, Homebound Publications, 2019. https://homeboundpublications.com/before-the-sun-rises-by-gwendolyn-morgan/

From unexpected snow for the Lunar New Year, Year of the Ox to Valentine’s Day to late February, each day is a gift. We prepare for Spring Migration, greening, blossoms.

“Creating worlds, we choose one word over another: cherry blossom or plum blossom, eagle whistle or kestrel, stratus or nimbostratus, spells or incantations – seed syllables of the luminous auric field.  She asks: What emotion will you release so you may choose another?”

from “Yellow Cedar” in Snowy Owls, Egrets & Unexpected Graces https://homeboundpublications.com/snowy-owls-egrets-and-unexpected-graces-by-gwendolyn-morgan/

Epiphany signifies illumination, a sudden intuitive perception, a moment of revelation. In the midst of an on-going global pandemic and much chaos, may we allow the earth to illuminate our path. Within the foliage of our west coast rain forests, we hear the sweet song of the Varied Thrush, feel the rain on our skin, watch the deer forage, find mushrooms beneath fern fronds, and remember we are connected to the earth.

With much gratitude to Esther Vincent Xueming, Editor-in-chief and Founder and The Tiger Moth Review for their inclusion of my poem

She (Who) Gathers Mushrooms in Issue No. 5 https://www.thetigermothreview.com/

https://www.thetigermothreview.com/blog/she-who-gathers-mushrooms

May we remember to continue to speak up for peace and justice in a troubled time…

https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2021/01/08/natives-respond-police-capitol/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YESDaily_20210109&utm_content=YESDaily_20210109+CID_7cbed9625389b21e31e35f7640e5cc2e&utm_source=CM&utm_term=Read%20the%20full%20story

Sunrise, New Moon in Scorpio

“We wake; we wake the day,

the light rising in us like sun –

our breath a prayer brushing

against the feather in our hands….”

— Gail Tremblay, Onondaga, Mi’Kmaq,

from Indian Singing in the 20^th Century America

http://- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/gail-tremblay

Wishing you a Happy Diwali!  Eagle, Sandhill Cranes, and Trumpeter Swans flew overhead around sunrise every day this week.  As we enter into this season of gratitude and light, may be listen to all the beauty around us as we give thanks for the gifts we have received in this life.   May we honor our ancestors, teachers, compañeros, friends and family along the journey.   May we honor the Sandhill Cranes, the White Pelicans, the Trumpeter Swans, the geese and migratory birds that gather along our creek banks during this extended migratory time.  May we honor the winged ones, the deer and all the woodland animals that cross our path.  May we honor the mosses, plants, flowers, trees and stone peoples. May we give thanks for the celestials, the Moon and Sun and Stars, the celebrations of light around us.  May we honor this earth, our home.