The Golden Year
Shannon Graves
Oak Tree Moon
The twins entwine their limbs
in the circle of fruiting trees
as the sun rises, as the earth splits open
the land is blessed and renewed.
Holly Tree Moon
The stallion bears him through the village,
the people strain to touch his feet
and hair as he dismounts to kiss
the women who wail for their wombs to fill.
Hazel Tree Moon
He goes among the men. No women dare watch.
They touch and laugh, hand to staff,
they feed the soil and each other’s hungers,
and learn the nature of the turning year.
Grapevine Moon
He is slain in silence. No more is said.
He travels to the dark place and returns,
his wife greets him, bleeding as he bleeds,
their joining is a spell of frith.
Ivy Moon
They are newlyweds always, trembling fingers
that wipe honey on each other’s lips,
their love sees beauty in the turning leaves
and surrenders to the autumn forest.
Reed Moon
The Harvest King, he sits enthroned
surrounded by the baskets of bounty,
fruit and nuts and rune-marked loaves
that gleam beneath the twig-struck moon.
Elder Tree Moon
His father’s son, he passes him
as they trade places on the wintering shore.
With miller and beekeeper, with wife and friend
he moves the household to the Elven lands.
Birch Tree Moon
The elves feast him in their halls
as his lady keeps her counsel at home
under quilts of old dreams stitched together
he is drunk on faery ale, she opens her arms to him.
Rowan Tree Moon
In the land of glamours he holds court
his tooth-gift, the watchdog of Odin.
He lays with faery maids and laughs
their glamour does not touch him.
Ash Tree Moon
They part with tears, he turns to go
back to Asgard’s halls, she goes home
to giant’s lands where cold her garden grows.
Crows carry their love-notes, each to each.
Alder Tree Moon
He walks his sister’s realm
as she walks their homeland’s fields
in returning spring, he feasts with gods
of sky and cloud, and all love him.
Hawthorn Tree Month
Thorns prick deep as he yearns for his love
but still he drowns his sorrow in mead
goes to councils of the mighty ones
and pleads for peace among warriors.
Willow Tree Month
The summer days are gaining hours
as he takes ship at his father’s Asgard hall
to see his green homeland once again
to death, to love, to all that moves the worlds.
Artwork by NessieValkyria.