The Taliesin Soliloquies: Grain of Wheat

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Listen

amongst glistening ears of wheat,

hear my tiny heartbeat,

a mouse’s feet.

Hiding on this threshing floor

from Ceridwen’s impeccable wrath.

I have been hot-blooded and cold,

scale and feather and fur –

many skins have I shed

to escape the crooked one’s fury.

Will the chase never end?

 

Stillness now is my best friend.

 

Hide in plain sight,

one of the crowd.

A poet’s fate I would fight,

give me mundanity,

run-of-the-mill respite.

Yet, I am Henwen’s tears –

with my body bread can bake,

beer can brew.

 

Transformations never end,

only you.

 

Soul-winnow on life’s threshing floor,

strip away the husks

until only the quintessence remains,

the divine spark, let out the light,

with the Uncreated One,

reunite. Relief in release from this body, this burden of being individual,

separate from the source.

 

Why struggle any longer?

 

At this ultimate threshold

I shall yield.

This field of potential will be my fire.

 

Come, dark crone,

pluck me from the dust –

take the bones of my being,

crush me to ash-flour

in the mill of time.

 

 

Copyright © Kevan Manwaring 2017

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From ‘The Taliesin Soliloquies’, originally published in The Way of Awen: journey of a bard, O Books 2010; to be included in the forthcoming Silver Branch: bardic poems by Kevan Manwaring, Awen, 2017 https://www.awenpublications.co.uk/