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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. 

“Listen to the howl of our spiritual

brother, the wolf, for how it goes with

him, so it goes for the natural world.”

— Oren R. Lyon,  Traditional Circle of Elders

We live in a time when our brothers and sisters are being shot,

when are sacred lands are desecrated.

May we lift up our voices for the natural world.

May we lift up our voices for peace and justice, equity and inclusion…

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/endangered-species-act-protections-stripped-gray-wolves-2020-10-29/

All the warm nights
sleep in moonlight

keep letting it
go into you

do this
all your life

do this
you will shine outward
in old age

the moon will think
you are
the moon

Jacob Nibenegenesabe,_a poem from The Wishing Bone Cycle: Narrative Poems from the Swampy Cree, trans. Howard Norman (1972) http://ankn.uaf.edu/

“Western Bluebirds, American Robins,” is a poem I wrote for the virtual 2020 Peace & Justice Fair in Vancouver, Southwest Washington. https://vancouverpeaceandjusticefair.org/fair-day/

With gratitude to New Verse News, you’ll see the posting of the poem on their site along with the link to the recording from the Peace & Justice Fair this month. https://newversenews.blogspot.com/2020/09/western-bluebirds-american-robins.html

In the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we find ourselves in climate crisis. In the Pacific Northwest our skies are thick with smoke and grief. The air quality index is hazardous at 427. We wait for bird song in the mornings again.

May we be ready to start anew this New Moon. “it’s time for a fresh start….. the New Moon is also square to the Nodes suggesting that we are learning an important message for this time….. the Sun’s Square to the Nodes and trine to Saturn remind us that we must take responsibility…. we can’t wait and hope everything unfolds as it should…. We’ve got to walk the talk…” Leah Whitehorse. https://www.leahwhitehorse.com/category/astrology-forecasts/

With gratitude to TheNewVerse.News for publishing a poem today that emerged from a virtual Willamette Writers Resilience workshop with Claudia F. Saleeby Savage.   The New Verse News presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.

See Saturday, August 8, 2020 6:00 AM: https://newversenews.blogspot.com/

Activist Janaya Khan, explores equity and inclusion, learning from penguins. https://www.colorlines.com/articles/animated-video-explains-what-social-movements-can-learn-penguins

https://www.ecotheo.org/two-poems-by-gwendolyn-morgan/

Grateful to EcoTheo Review : ENLIVENING CONVERSATIONS AND COMMITMENTS AROUND ECOLOGY, SPIRITUALITY, AND ART.
Two of my poems on the website, and one included in Summer 2020 issue.

“According to the Mayan galactic calendar,” Stephanie Austin writes, “July 25th is The Day out of Time, marking the end of a yearly cycle and the beginning of a new one. Similar to a new moon and a new year, this is an excellent time to reflect on how far we have come, to express our gratitude for what we have, and to set new intentions.”

These days bears have been visiting in my dreams. I have seen bears in the wild in Alaska, the Teton & Beartooth Wilderness areas, and on the Yakima Indian Reservation. Brown Bears, Grizzly Bear, and Black Bears. The most recent was when we heard snuffling in some thickets, and a young bear emerged with black berry juice on it’s chin.

Now I have a couple of bear paintings that emerged this summer inspired by a line up of hand sewn teddy bears that my father created in his retirement. My little bear painting accompanied by one of my father’s hand sewn Teddy Bears may be found in the The CAVE gallery Art in the time of quarantine…. bears honoring my father and all those who have crossed over.

https://artatthecave.square.site/product/osito-con-flores-by-gwendolyn-morgan/374?cs=true

Bears show up in the West for me on the medicine wheel, a place of mid-life, late summer to autumnal time.    A deep time of honoring, listening, taking in salmon, black berries and honey for healing & sustenance in the midst of global trauma.  May we find time to care for ourselves as we care for the world.

https://www.ecoastrology.com/

“’Where there is sorrow,’ wrote Oscar Wilde, ‘there is holy ground.’…  [grief] enables us to walk in this world with its realities of life and death, how it shakes us and breaks us open to depths of soul we could not imagine. Grief offers a wild alchemy that transmutes suffering into fertile ground.” — Francis Weller

Francis Weller’s book The Wild Edge of Sorrow is on my studio bookshelf, the spine slightly sticking out of the line of books.    I am grateful to have known Francis Weller as a friend, colleague and mentor for nearly a decade now. https://www.francisweller.net/ As a poet and writer, this early winter through spring has been one of witnessing and accompanying others in the incredible journey of grief and loss.   Of listening to the deepest places, which is the path of poetry.

Happy news in the midst of grief: Before the Sun Rises is a Nautilus Silver award winner in poetry —  announced publicly this week: http://nautilusbookawards.com/2019-silver-winners/

https://homeboundpublications.com/before-the-sun-rises-by-gwendolyn-morgan/i