(how’s that Oxford comma for ye’?)
I mentioned earlier that I intend to occasionally redirect ye’ fine folks to writing of others that I think really ought to be read. The Wild Hunt doesn’t do the Pagan Voices spotlight anymore, and so there’s all sorts of stuff not getting highlighted for the vast majority of us who’ve no time to scroll through the internet to find interesting things that other people are saying and doing.
So, here ye’ go. More to follow, maybe even weekly?
Sara Sadie
This stuff’s awesome. A Pagan-ish poet meets Wayland the Smith and suddenly, well–you know how this goes, right?
From her first piece:
No, you know that’s not it. I want a goblet made of bone.
But where on earth will I find something like that? We’re at Sears. I see a white coffee mug and pick it up.
It’s $3.49, on sale, mass produced. This is Sears. Put it down.
I look sideways at him. You’re not going to be a cheap date, are you.
You have no idea.
She’s only posted two pieces thus far, and I’m waiting with the same anticipation for her next with which I anticipate a new Patricia McKillip or Ursula K. Le Guin book…except they write like every few years now, and she’s (hopefully) gonna be more frequent.
Lorna Smithers
Another poet. There aren’t enough poets. Granted, if I had my way, there’d be so many poets that there’d be no one to do any sort of work at all, which is actually part of my insidious anarcho-gay-pagan-bardic agenda. We could all write poetry about what it was like to work for others for no good reason whatsoever.
And speaking of work, her poem Workhouse is fantastic:
Picking off nameless black shapes,
tossing naked between rough blankets,
the endless scratching of disembodied hands
keeps me awake.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I can only sleep
in the day to the trance of needlework,
when dexterous fingers scoured to the bone
lift jugs of skilly not quite warm enough to drink.~
Some days I sit in peace amongst dog graves,
little headstones overgrown with daffodils.I am listening for the dead wagon,
trapped amongst harmless lunatics,
howling at the moon.
So, yeah. There ye’ go. More to follow. Write and be well!
Rhyd Wildermuth 
Thanks for linking up to my poem. I enjoyed the Sara Sadie piece, particularly the combination of poetry quotations and prose. I think poetry’s important within paganism because it provides a language for expressing / conveying experiences that can’t be captured in prose.
I’ve only recently found your blog. It’s alwayd great to find others working with the old Welsh gods in a modern context- I’ve enjoyed your first three pieces on Arianrhod and will be returning to read the others soon.
You’re welcome! I’ve been subscribed to your feed for a while now, and so I get poetry in my inbox, which is absurdly fun. 🙂
Do you know of any groups of Welsh polytheist/reconstructionists/etc? It’s awfully hard to find others of us! Most Americans are either Irish or Gaulish, if their doing stuff related to the celtic gods.
These are excellent sites for info for Brythonic polytheism / reconstructionism. However unfortunately, the forum at Caer Feddwyd is no longer active. Many of the members are now part of The Druid Network.
http://www.dunbrython.org/
http://www.caerfeddwyd.co.uk/
I’d also recommend this blog and some of the other sites linked to it: http://gorsedd-arberth.blogspot.co.uk/ Its author, Greg Hill, is an excellent poet and source of knowledge on Brythonic polytheism and Faerie lore.
Ah, diolch! That site looks awesome!
Yay Oxford commas! And yay, fellow Le Guin fan! You’ve read Lavinia, right?
Lavinia is fantastic! I had to give away the vast majority of my library (500+ books) when I became nomadic, but Lavinia is the one of hers I chose to keep. : )
I love Lavinia too. Have your read her Always Coming Home?
Speaking of poets! 😛
I have read every single book of hers, starting from Rocannon’s World, except that one. I think I’ve been saving it…
Rhyd–thanks so much! I’m honored, and very happy to be introduced to Lorna Smither’s work as well, which I shall now make a point to seek out. Your writing about Arianrhod is electric. I had to read everything straight through in one sitting.
May poets one day rule the world. : )
Always Coming Home is pretty wonderful 😉