Gender Identity Project...

Some very good things in this...a lot of good information!

When the Cold goes to my Head....

We follow earth’s rune prints,

Into sharp winds teeth

Howling full round

Ice giants breathe…

Stout hearted MacDubh

Four legged brother

Braving white ground cloak

By bitter ice water…

Ghosts of great prows

The dragons in winter

Slip past on swan road,

Great water unending

Hard ice lines burn

Hold Windcloaks full billow,

Leap spirits brighter

Far from lands red with slaughter

Dream open eyes,

Of fell deeds and laughter…

Warm home and house sun,

Wait for brothers returning

Linger we still in snow field

And worldshadow

Wind words chant boldly,

Long ice spears form

Óðinn-blind gifts seek we

From great world tree

Sharp runes voice-cry

From sun’s dark falling

Hear we the word swords,

To our soul shields calling -

"Hige sceal þe heardra,

Heorte þe cenre,

Mod sceal þe mare,

Swa ure mægen lytlað…" *

Cameron

Ok...Where did THAT one come from??? Here's the background...it's the day after Christmas, and we have 4 inches of snow on the ground. Around about 10:00 pm at night, MacDubh (see really cute dog in my pictures to the side...) came and insisted that he wanted to "go walkies" again (typing the words very quietly - he is asleep and i don't want him to hear them!). He'd already been outside once this evening and it was a bit of an appalling experience for a Southerner. We have snow on the ground, icicles hang, and there is a 30 - 40 mph wind screaming down the lake. I do NOT want a computation of wind chill, thank you...the technical term for it was &%$@ COLD! We'd already been out once and WHY he wanted to go out again is beyond me...its not like he has real fur! We had come in from that first trip out into the wind, and I had joked with Wordweaving that I had seen the Viking ship go by on the fjord, trailed by the ice flow with the seals up at the lake. Now the idiot boy asked to go again, and I always take him if he asks.

So I bundled up again, and out we go...if anything it was um...colder. Seriously, we live in a double wide trailer, and the wind was screaming around our humble home hard enough to shake it! So back MacDubh drags me to the lake...where he has to sniff and catalog everything. Didn't have to go to the bathroom either. Hmph! So I am standing there, looking out across the dark water, fancying I could see the sail on the Viking ship, and distant bonfires on the far shore...

And my brain took off. I love alliterative narrative poetry, such as Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon (both Anglo Saxon) and Old Norse Poetry such as the Prose Eda. I haven't always had the best of luck trying to write in that style, even though I adore it, and the above poem started evolving as I stood freezing slowly to the shore of the lake and MacDubh was bounding about, wondering why the squirrels weren't out to play. I informed the dog that we were going in, that all self respecting squirrels were in bed for the night, pried my feet up from their frozen niche in the bracken, and generally aimed the dog (with many course corrections) back to the house.

Once inside and having thawed out enough to be able to think, I started muddling through writing this poem.

The last four lines are from the actual "Battle of Malden, quoted at the end of my poem. I hope that every one enjoys it...and that everybody who also reads this kind of poetry, will be kind and not tear apart, I mean - ahem - critique it too harshly. I did attempt to use "Kennings", the lovely "figures of speech" used in the Nordic poetry...some that I used were actual kennings pulled from reading such poetry - "swan road" for instance means water, and some I made up myself.

Obviously the cold has gone to my head to the detriment of my good sense. But it was fun to write. Hopefully I can continue to improve in this style. Going to crawl in a warm bed now, and thaw out!

*"Will must be the harder, courage the bolder,
spirit must be greater, as our strength lessens…”

Battle of Maldon, 991 C.E.

Christmas Day - SNOW!!! December 25th, 2010

And its still coming down and may reach 4 inches by tomorrow morning! This is special for us...we don't get a White Christmas hardly ever here - we're too far South. So Happy White Christmas to everyone..

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Christmas Eve at Church, December 24th, 2010...

Solstice Gift...

Outside the water on the ground

Is frozen down to stone

I step from warmth into the dark

And hear the deep wind moan

The Solstice Moon lights up the sky

the Dark lies on the Earth

The Great Wheel trembles at the turn

Moving to rebirth

I have seen the Solstice dark

With blood upon the ground

Giving lie to "Peace on Earth"

And no light was there found

I have seen the Solstice heal

Ceasing all my pain

Granting peace and clarity

A sweet carols refrain

And which Truth is now is greater

The violence on the ground?

Or Peace and hope now given

In new memories that I've found?

Change the date's remembrance

Like water into wine

The miracle of renewed life

A harvest on the Vine

Roll Great Wheel and turn

Deep upon the Earth

Bring the change and hope and pain

All bound up in Rebirth

Can we understand whats broken

Until it starts to mend?

No meaning given in our lives

Until we reach our End

In endings are beginnings

In the eternal Wheel of time

The bottom of the great Abyss

Begins to rise and climb

Growing there the Oak tree

Strong in the Solstice Wind

And like those mighty branches

I've learned how to bend.

Cameron 2010

Walking a Pet Peeve...

Ok...here's one of my pet peeves. (lets get it on the leash and take it for a walk...)

INEVITABLY from someone I haven't seen in awhile..."Oh, your...partner...is it Wordweaving? Are you still together?"ARGGGHHH! Wordweaving and I have been together for 7 years, and are half way through year 8. We wear matching rings (that I proposed with). We refer to each other as wife. If I could legally marry her, I'd be at the court house and my church in five and ten minutes respectively - well, maybe a little more than that - there are speed limits and distances involved. But the automatic assumption behind this is that GLBT relationships will not last, and so you are expecting to hear about the tragic break up any minute. *headdeskthud* Not to mention not remembering Wordweaving's name. Is it just me...or is this as clueless as it sounds?

I know not all relationships last. I have had 2 explode in my face with individuals that each the time I expected seriously to spend the rest of my life with. Heterosexual marriages have a freaking half fail rate. I do understand that marriages and relationships are and can be fragile things. But I don't address ANYONE in a relationship right off the bat within five minutes of reconnecting with them with the "Are you still together?" question. And my straight acquaintances do not ask that of their straight friends. It's demeaning and relegates us to not real. Not a real marriage. Not a lasting couple. Not capable of commitment.

The converse of this is "So, how long have you been together?" When patiently told the year amount, a look of awe crosses their face, like "Wow...they haven't broken up yet. They might really last." And of course, how many years do we have to be together before it "legitimizes" the relationship? *sigh*I am not as jumpy about trans questions, because I regularly put myself on the spot for them in college class rooms - have been speaking regularly to classes about transgender issues, and I welcome the questions, even the really personal ones and the clueless ones as an opportunity to educate.

So perhaps I should try to view the above idiocy as a chance to educate. Maybe that would lower my blood pressure.*sigh*

Christians and Pagans...

We are moving towards Winter Solstice (Yule) and Christmas - holy times of year for both Pagans and Christians...and of course the arguments about which came first, who stole what from which and the overlap of the two has always provoked discussion, emotions and reactions, This song is one of the best answers to the situation I have ever heard. So if you are burning your Yule log, or decorating your Tree, or setting up your Manger Scene or all of the above, may happiness and joy be yours...we are all not that far apart in sharing the wonder of the universe we have been given! Peace on earth to all of good will!