Sheela’s Spring prayer for the Earth and people of Ukraine
Her prayer is made from what is all life, ordinary, every day,
closest to the ground.
Her headdress is not weeds but folk flowers
who break through Winter first.
and smile us back to life.
Of course she has woven in Witch hazel and pussy willow,
wild daffodils, dog violets, primroses
and dandelions who restore the soil for us.
Of course her clitoris is a sunflower seed
and her heart lorica a sunflower, Ukraine’s national flower,
a special prayer for
the grandmothers and children.
Her earrings are daisies dandling catkins
and her necklace is a string of sweet peas
already sprouting.
Her headband the suffragette colours of white, green and purple.
Beside her snowdrops lightly carry the smell of wild heather honey.
They have released their heads to swing freely like miniature lanterns.
In the warm sunshine a slow worm, belly on the Earth
is slithering around the base of the first bluebell.
There is wild garlic, wood vetch and nettles for the first big panful.
At Sheela’s moist entrance
a candle is lit for perpetual hope.
A frog has grasped its mate under the arms,
they have been in the throes of froggy passion for three weeks !
Blackbird embodiment of feisty intent is watching, waiting
for just the right moment
to carry Sheela’s message
and prayer of natural love
into the world. It has to be said in new growth
but if it could be words
it would be this:
Power to kill, enslave, destroy and dominate is nothing
born of a desecrated soul and vacated centre.
Potency to create and share
from the heart of the Earth
is everything
Everything.