Summerland *

by Lady of the Shadows

Enchanted doves gather round.
Hear their sweet and thoughful sound.

They sing together, a melody,
to the mighty old oak tree

standing in the meadow green,
a picture lovely and serene.

Flowers grow around her feet.
Smell their fragrance, oh so sweet.

Behind the tree, hills abound
where the Goddess can be found.

Gaia's children graze and roam
in the grass and under stones.

Old Oak tree, a place for shade,
that she generously made

for each soul to rest his feet
where her children one day meet.

Little deer who wears an arrow
lays beside a fallen sparrow.

Gentle rabbit taken ill
suffer she no longer will.

Oh butterfly, once again,
flutter high - he ascends.

Lonely woman picks a rose
from her husband - love still grows.

Now return to Mother Earth
and await a new day's birth.

Beneath the mighty old oak tree
are their spirits - Blessed be.

Laughing with the gentle wind,
watching life again begin,

dancing as the white doves sing,
warmth and sun, a new day brings.

Underneath the old oak tree,
the sick and weary are set free.

August 1, 2002

(c) Kelli Sposato

*Death is not an end;  it is a stage in the cycle that leads on to rebirth.  After death, the human soul is said to rest in "Summerland", the Land of Eternal Youth, where it is refreshed, grows young, and is made ready to be born again.  Rebirth is not considered to be condemnation to an endless, dreary round of suffering, as in some Eastern religions.  Instead, it is seen as the great gift of the Goddess, who is manifest in the physical world.  Life and the world are not seperate from Godhead; they are immanent divinity.  (Simos [Starhawk] 1989, 41).

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