Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Jack-o-lantern


An outline is cut with a thin sharp knife
by an aching wrist of an old farm wife

Orange and bright, sweet and thick
the flesh is hard and doesn’t slice quick

The top with its stem will make a good lid
so she sets it aside like an impatient kid

Out of the dark scrapes slimy seeds—
pearls for snacking as salty beads

Pierces two eyes, filets a nose
carves a mouth to scoff at foes

Leaves three teeth to fend off ghouls
and the Banshee’s requiem in keens and mewls

Digs out a hole for a candle stub
carries to the porch like a laundry tub

Looks at her head with its bone-white light
windowed and shining toward winter’s night

It’s a charm she casts at this borderland
between light that’s been and the dark at hand


21 comments:

  1. Love the musicality of this, Ruth. Wonderful imagery.

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    1. Thanks, Maureen. It's fun to carve out a poetic jack-o-lantern and easier for me to do than the real kind. :)

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  2. I always enjoy autumn --pumpkins are a perennial favorite.
    I loved your use of rhyme. The last couplet hints beautifully at the mystery and sadness of the turning of the year.
    See below for my attempt some 25 years ago when my children were little.

    October



    The pumpkin patch was small suburban
    the track pure mud
    the celebration muted
    we did not bend and touch the dirt
    have prickled vines tear at our hands
    see insects scatter

    We decorate with stalks we did not sow
    round fruits bedeck the porch
    and lanterns glitter demon-like
    the eyes now watch us
    teeth lop-sided grin

    They know our folly
    pity us
    who did not lie in mud the autumn long
    and feel the first cold wind
    nor watch the moon the night time through
    but came one afternoon
    and paid
    to play at husbandry

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    1. Oh Elizabeth, I love your poetic commentary on picking out pumpkins with your kids. You may not have grown the pumpkins yourself, but your husbandry of your poem is expert!

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  3. This is beautiful, Ruth - a Samhain gourd brimming over with the power of Hecate, the Wise Woman, the Crone. She is on my mind a lot at this time of year.

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    1. Amanda, thank you. I love the delicious lore of this season with rich symbols and signs.

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  4. The rhyme makes this seem very incantatory from the beginning, and certainly by the wonderful close. I have given up the pumpkin rite, like you--so painful to do any more, but also, watching the pumpkin cave and rot got too depressing, though that is it's ordained fate, I suppose. As your last line hints, perhaps because it's one we share.

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    1. Thanks, Hedge. You and I know that now (this time of year, this time of life) is when we go inside and explore the quiet treasures hidden in the dark.

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  5. Well done, Ruth, and I like the way this poem builds to the last couplet about the "borderland between the light that's been and the dark at hand." This reminded me of some of the feelings I recently experienced when crossing through one of my own borderlands, and it's reassuring to know that your carved pumpkin is casting a little charm my way (and I may need more charm than usual as this monster storm, Sandy, approaches my frond door).

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    1. Thank you, George. Going back to old traditions and mythologies that permeate these modern practices is enriching. I really love the rhythm of the Celtic year with attentions to the seasons, for the ways it feeds my inner life. I forget it sometimes, until holidays like this.

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    2. I meant to also say, BE SAFE against Sandy!

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  6. Ah, yes that's it—I have a front door made of palm fronds, which is going to present some problems as winter arrives. :)

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    1. Sorta like the beautiful thatched roof in Chipping Campden? :)

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  7. How wonderful Ruth! Every couplet touches me and builds up to that last...Everything is about the light...

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    1. GailO, thank you for reading and for understanding that this is about the light throughout. It was my meditation!

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  8. I agree with the others. This is "incantatory" as hedgewitch says--the playful rhythm contrasting with "the dark at hand." (The dark is always at hand.) Just like this season, when the play-acting and candy grabbing of children hides the deeper meanings of ancient rites.
    Thank you, Ruth.

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    1. DS, I wonder if when people talk about "the good ole days" they are pointing at times when people were connected, really connected with the changes in the earth's seasons, with its harvests and plantings. It seems easier to connect with the soul when we are moving at a pace that reflects that rhythm. But of course it was not easier for them (or for those in similar circumstances in these modern times), it was about survival. Thank you, my friend.

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  9. After seeing all the images of pumpkins with James (et al), this just makes me smile, dear sister! :)

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    1. Boots, yes, it was special to explore the pumpkin patch with James after writing this poem. :)

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  10. Love this, Ruth — yes, there's something incantatory, and ancient, and witchy about it. Tremendous.

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    1. Thanks, Robert! I enjoyed getting into the spell of rhyme again. I guess Halloween is a good time for it.

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All responses are welcome.