Pagan Poems

by Emma Swailes

'I am Water'

When I swim, I am fluid water becomes an extension of my body Or I become an extension of the water It is pleasantly confusing Healing flotation gently pressing on my skin Holding me like a lover Tender liquid Needing no strength to lift my weight bubbles like silver barbels rise Emerging from my lungs Delicate jellyfish Gliding in a dream space Peaceful blue haze Below the surface of ripples I drift low to the earth In a transparent landscape No longer a land roaming being but An aquatic creature swimming free Or a mighty organism built to withstand the vast ocean tides That are dormant now Bleaching out sounds of reality I re surface to breathe I am water

'Speckled Horse'

I journey into the underworld

To meet my unknown familiar

I contemplate a mighty snake

Or a powerful black panther

Then I see him

A grey speckled horse

With a calm regal face

A coat as smooth as river pebbles

With the pattern of a slick duck egg

Velvet skin lays over lean muscle

fur glints with water droplets

I meet his gaze,

his beautiful features

his firm posture

Hooves grounded to the earth

Ears as sharp as arrowheads

turn to the sound

He turns away from me

Into a cosmic gallop

I watch him leave

'Transformed Life'

Sleeping in the blanket of deep rich soil

all this time

I was suspended in a muted existence

Of something like a life

Bird song on the blue screen above me

Was black and white

I was Cocooned in a shell of

depression that would occasionally

crack to let in the light

I would push my fingers through

and feel the dirt,

perhaps taste the grainy sand,

full of minerals and life

Sun in my eyes dazzled me then

The shell closed up again

The cracks healed themselves,

I wondered

How long have I slept?

Something had changed in me

I need not anymore sleep

I am feeling the healing

I am ready to climb out the deep

I accept the growth from beneath

and above me

also, from within my own soul

A power surge erupted

I emerged with force

Learning the way to be me and

Thrive in my transformed life

I am awake

@es.poetry.4u

'Waves '

feel the waves

quieting the mind

breath in time with the ocean

Salt on lips, hair curls around a face

Watching the wind master the tides

Mighty forces battle for power

Elements of air and water

insignificant but inspired

standing momentarily

In this battle scene

And when it's time to leave

The forces will still rage

Ceaselessly

'The Trees '

In the rain

Grounded and still

Standing firm and free

They do not wonder at life

Beyond their own branches

At the leaves of another

Content with their roots

Barck thickens with age

Not bitterness or spite

They stretch from the earth

To the skies

Breathing in and out

To help humans grow

And when you cut them down

They will die but

You can see

Rings of the years they

Have lived

For us