POEMS TO YOU

by Heide Goettner-Abendroth

translated by Annie Finch

 

Wandering

 

Soft bows full of fir-tops

the near wooded mountains

glisten in light

 

On the path, silver grass and

now and then the sight

of forest-waves blue in blue

 

Ferns by the way and age-old

rock boulders

there above I am under the sky

thinking Peace thinking Love

to You

 

 

Early Fall

 

Roses like fire and above

leaf-clusters growing golden

mist in the morning

and strong sun mid-day

 

Sky over sunflowers

as blue as the last time

and in the night-cold

freezing butterflies –

 

May this not touch You

your Life be long!

 

 

Decades

 

Have we not outlasted

decades

filled with toil  struggle  pain

in such fatal times

together in One Flame

of Love?

 

Full of work  travel  commitment

decades

the light in this world

strengthening through your goodness

and my far-seeing

and has it never made us weary

together in One Love?

 

Therefore

stay with me in life

in evening-blue  in morning-glimmer

in the woods on the mountains

where we have been together

in all times of day

and landscapes of the Soul –

Thou Gaia Art I

the earth quivers wherever I go

in these zones of ripeness,

and sends out gentle visible waves—

 

through all things it vibrates in me,

wherever I happen to be

on the drifting floes—

 

you are the riddle under my feet

the depth in me,  wherever I am

you are everywhere—

 

for Thou Gaia Art I

 

 

Heide Göttner-Abendroth

in: Burleigh Mutén (ed.):

HER WORDS. An Anthology of Poetry about the Great Goddess

Boston & London 1999, Shambhala, p. 204.

YOU GAIA ARE ME

A Magic Journey (America Cycle)

by Heide Goettner-Abendroth
translated by Angelika Gates and Janine Canan

 

YOU are
a continent within me
I within you
a continent
wherever I gaze
a world in the eye
of the GODDESS

 

 

 

The Ocean (The Pacific, Vancouver Island)

born
in sea green mist
among boulders of sea lions
carried on flying spray and pelicans
into the bright coves
sand under my feet
where I begin the path
deep forest of hummingbirds
a fertile promise
and above, snowy peaks
reaching to the light–

 

am I as bountiful

to you from the beginning
as YOU will be to me
in the end?

 

 

 

The Fjords (Vancouver, Coast Range)

on the fjords the lakes
the ice
is breaking
breathing the blue in
and out
in great waves

 

down from luminous
glaciers
my joy comes
as a storm
through giant pines
falling freely
all the way to the sea

 

 

for YOU are the space
that I need
that I searched for
and I found

 

 

The Volcano (St. Helens, Washington)

why
do YOU follow me
when I never called
neither with ashes nor embers?

 

why
explode at me
your flank to the north
into the stratosphere
did you miss my notice?

 

I did not step on you
did not invoke you
not ask for blazing destruction
as a mirror:
I had my strength!

 

 

 

The Geyser (Yellowstone, Wyoming)

I was transformed
from fire to water erupting–
out of a blue funnel
shot into the air
steady rustling and
climbing designs
of steam

 

while the constantly boiling core
drove one jet out of another
rising for minutes
above the edges of forest
of wilderness of the world
in a widening perspective–

 

YOU transformed me
cleansed my anger
which drossy forms and colors
brought up in the outburst
now I am saved:
a gushing spring!

 

GRAND CANYON (Arizona)

how to cross
you inside me
canyon full of pyramids
and temples thrones
of the earth goddess?

 

shall I simply
fly from the rim
down to the colorful
layered heart of the earth
straight to
your innermost core?

 

shall I – this
sunny underworld
wide open in the play
of cloud shadows
this unexpectedly bright
airy depth?

 

so that YOU
in your abyss
will finally carry me
to freedom?

 

 

The Desert (Death Valley, Nevada)

this desert of trial
that barely allows me
to breathe
not to burn up
on loneliness

 

this desert of surrender
to your necessity–
salt-bedded furnace
and iron anvil
transforming me

 

this sandy desert:
YOUR merciless
answer
to my unsparing
question

 

 

 

The Forest (Sequoia, Sierra Nevada)

standing at your feet
you ancient mammoth
red trunks like giants
reaching to heaven
towers of a wild
cathedral

 

I wait to see
whether YOU
from your branches
this daughter-forest high above
will strike me with stars
or whether
will crush me

 

 

The Earthquake (California coast)

the earth trembles
wherever I go
in these regions of ripeness
sending out gently
palpable waves

 

through all things
it vibrates in me
wherever I am
on this shifting earth

 

You are the riddle
under my feet
the chasm inside me
where I am you are
everywhere–

 

for YOU
GAIA
are ME