Beltane - Narsilion

Have you ever stood in the April wood and called the new year in?

While the phantoms of three thousand years fly as the dead leaves spin?

There’s a snap in the grass behind your feet and a tap upon your shoulder

And the thin wind crawls along your neck ---

It’s just the old gods getting older

And the kestral drops like a fall of shot and the red cloud hanging high ---

come --- a Beltane

Have you ever loved a lover of the old elastic truth?

And doted on the daughter in the ministry of youth?

Thrust your head between the breasts of the fertile innocent

And taken up the cause of love, for the sake of argument

Or while the kisses drop like a fall of shot from soft lips in the rain ---

come --- a Beltane

Happy old new year to you and yours

The sun’s up for one more day, to be sure

Play it out gladly, for your card’s marked again

Have you walked around your parks and towns so knife-edged orderly?

While the fires are burned on the hills upturned in far-off wild country

And felt the chill on your window sill as the green man comes around

With his walking cane of sweet hazel --- brings it crashing down

Sends your knuckles white as the thin stick bites

Well, it’s just your groaning pains

Come --- a Beltane