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.