As the Sun transits into Capricorn (22 December), I'm inspired to share with you a poem by Judith Thurley that delighted me when I came across it in A Wilder Vein (Two Ravens Press). It's a poem about a joyfully wild and sensuous experience, and the very human desire to share that with 'every child, woman and man'.
Solemn Saturn (ruler of Capricorn) turns into Father Christmas at this time of year; or in this poem into Goatfish Woman. For another feminine view of Capricorn, see last year's post Saturn's Gifts. Meanwhile, here is an extract from 'The Road North' by Judith Thurley in A Wilder Vein (p. 134):
'This is a pure and primal experience: a cold bath, a baptism; a surrendering:
I plunge and swim in water come down
from under ground above me;
belly of Donard and Commendagh.
The April river is melted snow,
clear as light. I yelp with cold,
swim under hanging rhododendron
to the moss-cushioned waterfall.
I circle the green pool.
The world is all water crystal light,
all river mountain sky,
and I am goatfish woman:
horn, hoof and fish's tail.
I climb mountains, clamber upwards:
find what I yearn for in the waters
of a green river pool.
I plunge and swim and sing a prayer
that every child, woman and man
in all the round reaches
of the sighing world
will find a clear green pool
to swim in.'
This is my prayer also!
Notes
Capricorn comes from the Latin caper ('goat') and cornu ('horn') and the Irish mermaid fountain used to illustrate this post might well have been inspired by that, and by the combination of goat and fish that symbolizes this astrological sign. On Skycript, Deborah Houlding writes:
[I]n a creature with the forelimbs of a goat attached to the tail of a fish, the abyss of the ocean is combined with mountainous terrain. This represents a 'cross of matter' between the psyche and its manifestation in the material, drawing the soul out of its collective stupor to confront the challenges of reality and individualism.
A Wilder Vein. Ed. Linda Cracknell. From Two Ravens Press, 2009: An anthology of new literary non-fiction that focuses on the relationship between people and the wild places of Britain and Ireland. This is writing which animates a connection between humanity and the natural world, articulating discoveries and new ways of seeing – writing which is, above all, a meditation on who we are as people in a still-wild world. See more...
[With thanks to Judith Thurley and Two Ravens Press for permission to reproduce this beautiful writing.]
