H RAVEN ROSE
Illustrated vdeo poem written/directed by H Raven Rose
‘Sacred Birthday, Sacred Wales – Pen-Blwydd yn Gysegredig, Cymru Sanctaidd’
Tofu Ink Arts Press, Summer 2021 (pp. 63-64)
South coast of Carmarthenshire,
pass the estuary of the River Tâf, Laugharne,
find the remains of the boy-man who loved the words,
“and death shall have no dominion,” the bard said,
his poetry, my thoughts, as rain,
follows me like an obsessive lover,
into this “very odd town.”
Sad, goldenrod colored St David’s flower,
a yellow face shining in the gloom.
Gleaming, gleaming, gleaming, shining song-blossom.
Traverse the countryside,
terrifying birthday sojourn,
St Martin’s Churchyard,
foolishly lean against, hug and seek healing,
from ancient Yew trees of long life,
the sacred evergreen, ywen.
I die a soul death,
contaminated,
infected,
pathogenic entities,
made filthy by a massive number of darkest energies, demonic beings, spirits of the dead, and the souls of
animals ritually slaughtered during wicked, vile, noxious ceremonies at and under the ancient Yew trees.
I pray for the Yew trees,
those living wood homes of spirits,
for the purification of Yggdrasil.
Inoculated by the iniquitous and long-lived,
illness follows, initiation, shamanic crisis, a spiritual sickness,
a slipstream of venom traversed reality,
from the underworld into the middle world,
when I was foolish—foolish I was—embraced a world tree,
in a courtyard of corrosive evil.
Yet a triquetra of blessings follows.
First, a gift of semi-divine personages in animal form.
Once living spirits,
the souls of animals slaughtered ritually at the trees,
purified with journey work,
healed of their suffering,
are sent to the mystical dimension.
Three animal totems endure:
European badger, red fox, and white-faced sheep remain, carrying powerful medicine.
Second, a gift of novel aural faculty,
the trees, the weald, the timberland sing.
I hear the trees, the blessed, joyful, exquisite forest,
and all of reality singing buzz-humming,
head-spinning joy,
burst into tears,
the woodland purr vibrates love-life.
Third, the ability to see an animal spirit,
look at a photo,
see its Soul face, just like a human face.
See a picture of a stag,
feral IIs and ICs scream and cry out,
the horror of having eaten animals previously,
the stag looks like/is experienced just as a human man, with all of the wisdom, beauty, personality, and
humanity of a human being,
horrible knowledge, beautiful.
I cry, pray for the creature souls, eaten in this and any other lifetime.
The animals are just like people; to eat them is a form of cannibalism.
Strange, miraculous, horrible,
Sacred Birthday, Sacred Wales,
Solar logos/Angel of the Sun,
Llywelyn now speaks to me daily.
Now to escape the Lower Worlds,
Annwfyn, very deep,
ande-dubnos, underworld,
to purify,
be reborn,
sanctification for months,
hyssop, Cedarwood oil, shamanic ritual,
now soul mending in the middle world,
wishing Tallyessin was by my side,
disperse the realm of evil into mist,
,סטרא אחרא ,renounce the Sitra Achra
forever decline to contract with/renounce the “Other Side,”
dematerialize ande-dubnos, under,
embrace holiness only, forever.
To honor living totems,
I make a spirit animal altar purchase
tiny creatures of felt:
black and white striped badger, mochyn daear, or earth pig, Meles meles,
the red fox, llwynog coch, Vulpes vulpes,
the white Welsh Mountain sheep, Defaid Mynydd Cymreig, Cambrica Mountain ovium,
beautiful, sacred animal medicine,
an endowment of execrable illness and pain,
three gifts are given,
Happy Birthday 2019,
Sacred Birthday, Sacred Wales.
Video Poem Credits: Music Night Vigil Composed by Kevin MacLeod ((incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3./). Welsh voice-over talent Tomos Davies. Cinematography of the poem location, Laugharne, south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales, UK, by Andrew Gronow. Additional Wales forest cinematography provided by Dave Shaw | Dave’s Walks (youtube.com/channel/UCX6CKT9IKip2nKB26HgVjwQ).
Pen-Blwydd yn Gysegredig, Cymru Sanctaidd & Video Link
