"A Charm for a Person Living With an Illness or Pain" by Jennifer Parsons

 

A Charm for a Person Living With an Illness or Pain

Fiery Brighid, shaper of stars,
Bear your hammer down upon this one’s suffering.
Turn your breath, glowing with poetry, upon their body
Let flaring pain recede like the glow of metal in the forge
Let the softest of your healing words rend pain into ash and sparks
Which, scattered upon the night, glow and are no more.
Let strength reside where pain once lived.

Merciful Brighid, soft-handed
Pour your healing out upon this one
Sweet to the mouth and cooling to the throat as well-water
Let cracks of pain ease and mend together, leaving suppleness
Bear them up with your smooth and soothing hands, 
As the earth bears up the deepest of wells,
Hurt and wear and damage shall run through your fingers,
Leaving relief and resolve and peace floating about them.

Glorious Brighid, woman of the sídhe
The barest glimpse of your beauty haunts the poet
Stirs fire into their blood, overflows their mouths with song
But now it will silence a riot of suffering, in both body and mind
The discord of pain will be brought to fit as rocks in a cairn,
Solid joy, rest, and gratitude that will last summers upon winters upon summers again.

If you accept this, let give you a roof in the rain, a line out of the turbulent river’s current, a hearth to warm you, let it be a wave to drown your enemies.

If you do not accept it, let it melt and only its beauty remain, as the pink and gold of the dawn does into day.

Note: First posted on Tumblr.

Image: "Mother's Love" by Sandy Kumar on Unsplash.

 

Celebrating Brigit - A Gathering of Friends (Book Launch of A Brigit of Ireland Devotional - Sun Among Stars)

To my complete surprise, I've just discovered that I completely forgot to post this video of my book launch. I was inspired by the way Geraldine Moorkens Byrne (two below me, long blonde hair) organised her book launch. Rather than having something very dry, or having the spotlight 100% on the author, it became a community event. I stole the idea and consequently had a wonderful hour and a bit of Brigit readings and song, from a slew of wonderful folk. So if you like to put faces or voices to your creative Brigit offerings, this video will help you with that.

From the original Facebook post (we launched via Zoom and Facebook Live simultaneously):

That was a joyful gathering, this launch of A Brigit of Ireland Devotional - Sun Among Stars. Great thanks to those who read or sang, great thanks to Clélie Rich for not only hosting this and dealing with tech issues I didn't even know existed, but for being the editor of my book, and creating an arc for the poems to follow.

Thank you to everyone for coming today, with hearts open and ears at the ready.

Big hugs and Brigit's blessings!

A Brigit of Ireland Devotional - Sun Among Stars:Book launch with Mael Brigde

"What She Speaks When I Tend Her Flame" by Erin Aurelia

 

What She Speaks When I Tend Her Flame

Erin Aurelia

I transform, she says:

the raw meat into food
the raw thoughts into poetry
the raw materials into arts and crafts
the raw ore into weapons and tools
the raw plants into healing draughts

in your heart, distress to peace

in your mind, worry to reassurance

in your body, death into life, then life into growth

in your life, suffering into power

I transform, by the grace of the flame

She said, you too can embody transformation:
from chaos to order

from complacency to vigilance
from disease to healing
from loneliness to togetherness
from otherworlds to thisworld
from outside to in
from self to others
like a gift

 

gifting is gracing

gift yourself, gift another, and then another
receive in grace, give in grace,
become grace

and then, we
become the Flame,
her flame in this world

 

so shine on:
for her, for you, for all

 

 

 

 

 

Image: "Juvenile bird resting on human hand" by Razvan Narcis Ticu in Războieni, Romania. Image from Unsplash.

"Brigid of the Flame" a Song by Elaine Ní Chiardha

BRIGID OF THE FLAME

by Elaine Ní Chiardha

 

Brigid of the flame, oh holy, holy name

Brigid of the holy well,

the source that brings us home again

 

Brigid of the hearth welcomes the stranger

Into her heart, always with love

Brigid of the forge, worker of alchemy

Turns lead into gold and darkness to light

 

Brigid of the healing well, mantle of care

Cast your love over us with every prayer

Brigid of wisdom, deep in your waters

Guide us on our journey, each step further

 

 

 

 

 

 SoundCloud Recording: https://soundcloud.com/singingtheland/brigid-of-the-flame

YouTube: "Brigid of the Flame on Tara" https://youtu.be/bJVIy--Hf90

Image: Screenshot from "Brigid of the Flame on Tara" on YouTube.

"Prayer for the Dead" by Mael Brigde

 

Prayer for the Dead

 

dear Brigit

I lay my loved one down

a last time

 

he is three days dead

we have wailed and wept

we have sung and laughed

we have given thanks

we have cried out in anger

 

we have given thanks

 

bless my loved one on his journey

let his coracle be light and leaping

on the waves

 

salmon his companions

and the great whales

to guide him to his home

 

 

Image: "Victor James Arnott, July 2021" by his sister, Mael Brigde.

SoundCloud: This poem is sung here. I no longer pronounce Brigit's name as I have in this song. I explain why I now say "Bridget" here, in "Part the Second" which you will find if you click on Read More.

"Keening" by Daniela Simina

 

Keening,

 

Her gift for posterity,

the undying gift of Bride the Banfile,

power of word endowing

the pain and agony

with immortality.

Inheritance she left for

those to come.

The inheritance of spirit

passed on beyond blood.

Spear struck Ruadan

and without his blood spilled

that deep and powerful voice,

Her voice,

would never had risen.

A mother's grief birthed lamentation,

sacred union of word and sound

wedded by pain to never part again.

Him, left dead, her left alive,

her left to live forever in the heart of each of us

knowingly or unknowingly,

each time someone is keening.

Her gift for posterity,

the undying gift of Bride the Banfile:

the visceral yell erupting from

the soul sliced open,

the soul of a mother

cradling her dead child,

and nevertheless

make that a gift,

a step into immortality.

 

 

 Image: Self Portrait of mother crying for son, by Claudia Wolff on Unsplash

 

“Feast of St. Brigid - February 1st” by Paddy McCormack

 

“Feast of St. Brigid - February 1^st”

Oh dear St. Brigid hear our call,
And guard our native isle,
In olden days you spread the light
Of love o’er the soil,
Your mission full of ardent love,
With pleadings did not fall,
And ever shall thy memory live,
As Mary of the Gael. 

How oft you prayed with fervent hope
To save our native land,
The fire of Faith you kindled here,
By a heavenly breeze was fanned,
Thy earthly life our guiding star,
A beacon of light to all
Fond patroness of Erin’s Isle,
You heard the plaintive call. 

Tho’ years have flown O Glorious Saint,
Since you trod the Emerald Isle,
The hills and pleasant valleys,
Seem acalling all the while.
Come dwell again O Brigid true.
Amidst the scenes so fair,
Where first thy virtues flourished
From thy Convent at Kildare. 

The Irish race O faithful Queen,
Shall ever breathe thy name,
With Patrick’s aid Apostle true,
Our land shall rise to fame.
And when all earthly things shall end,
We pray our trials are o’er,
To meet our Glorious Irish Saint,
Yes meet to part no more.
                   
                                        

 

 

Note: “Poem by Paddy McCormack of Kildare Town dedicated to St. Brigid, to commemorate St. Brigid's Day, 1st February. The McCormack family have long been in business in Kildare Town and Paddy McCormack, who was well known for his poems and songs throughout Ireland and the US, is buried in Lackagh Cemetery.” Leinster Leader, 2 February 1941.

Previously published in ‘The Lily of Erin; Saint Brigid,’ by Rev. P. A. Sharkey (New York; 1921), pp. 65-66.

From Leinster Leader, 2 February 1941, republished Grey Abbey Conservation Project, 30 January 2009.

 

Image: Mary of the Gael, uncredited.