Come Rise

Written for the Avebury Gorsedd, and the Equinox, Spring 2017 Can you feel her in the blood The turning tides, the shifting of the skies Or hear her on the wind, or in the cries Of gulls that wheel above the drying mud Come rise... Can you sense her in the urge Of flames that lick the furze and lambs that leap Of sap that rushes sudden from the deep In swirls of sacred water in the surge Come rise... Can you feel her in the stone The ancient fire, the spark of energy The force that flows through river, rock, and tree The movement of the marrow in the bone Come rise... Can you taste her on the lips The heady scents of grass and honey wine Of sun warmed earth and rain on celandine Upon the tongue, upon the fingertips Come rise... Can you feel her in the beat Of wing on air, of drum, of run of deer Or see her colours on the hill appear All blazing bright, alive with pulsing heat Come rise... What are you, man, but water through her hand The winter’s ashes and the summer’s dust A flick of life and then a flare of lust Then back into the earth on which you stand Come rise... Be still, and feel her raw and naked power Come forth as lightening, set the trees alight Set hares to run and horses to take flight Through alder grove and furrowed field in flower Come rise... © Gail Foster 18th March 2017