Scribing words to call the music in your soul
Old Cailleach’s bite blustery cold,
Her cloak shimmering frosted snow,
A shivering welcome hiding spring
Home warms the soul.
© 2023, Maggie Grimes
The painting is of Brandon Hill, Co Kilkenny. I have to say the cottage is my creation but I wanted a warm haven from the snow and cold of December and January. MJG
Summer’s pyre
Flaming against a crystal sky
Winds whirling
Feeding, scattering
Dying flames
Of promise,
Cailleach’s cloak
Of brief splendor
Woven from summer’s bounty
Death’s bright herald
To welcome winter’s sleep
By glorious revel.
© 2022, Maggie Grimes
The painting was inspired by a photos of Foley’s Bridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. MJG
Little springtime
Are Nature’s blessings
That brush aside
Winter’s tousled hair
Clearing her wild eyes,
Brief, bright moments
Of stolen sweetness
And cherished warmth
While harsh winter rests
Her frigid labors,
Such stillness calls
The battered spirits
From their struggles
To bask reveling
In warm caresses,
Little springtimes
Are Nature’s blessings
Intimacies
When Earth delights
In shivering pleasure.
© 2021 Maggie Grimes
The first of February is celebrated as Imbolc, the beginning of spring. Although Brighid, Dagda’s daughter is bright and eager for fresh beginnings, frigid Cailleach doesn’t let go easily. Still, early blooms peep through the snow, eager for life. MJG
Implacable in her hunger
The Old Woman tightens her coils,
Nature smothered
To whispered pleas ,
Hypnotic power in her gaze
The Old Woman paralyzes,
Nature entrapped
By sunless time,
Arrogant, pitiless power
The Old Woman consumes,
Nature restrained
A new spring waits.
© 2020 Maggie Grimes
Cailleach is the winter goddess, often seen as a crone, older than time. Hers is the primal power of destruction which leads to renewal. One must endure the storms of winter to find spring. MJG.
The Old One stirs
Stretching from her sleep,
Her blanket warm
And autumn hued,
Yawning she rises
Blinking her bright eyes
Sleep fading,
Washing her vivid blanket
She scrubs and rinses
In the gurgling spring,
Whitely shimmering
She spreds her blanket in the sun,
Her eyes twinkle
As she smiles,
Her purpose calls
Her journey to begin,
Removing old and worn,
Giving needed respite
To the land,
Preparing earth
For fecund spring,
To plant afresh
You first must reap,
To awaken healed
You first must sleep,
The new replaces old,
Her eyes warm
Ageless and wise.
© 2019 Maggie Grimes
Cailleach is the winter goddess, the crone, the old hag. She is a power of destruction and renewal. It is difficult sometimes to find hope in the middle of an icy storm, but spring comes only after winter. It is worth the wait. MJG.
celtic singer 