About this guest blog by C. M. Wild:
Even when it is not Beltane season, Wild’s following poesy is a worthy read because of its timeless themes: struggle, tragedy, hope, freedom, urgent needs, frustration, lack of confidence, and the spirit to win and grow despite all.
Beltane, also known as May Day, is a Pagan holiday that falls on May 1. Beltane is a celebration of spring time, vitality, and passion for life. And with that:
Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
We’re going down!
The aviator in the clouds
The captain at sea
The hotshots overtaken by flames
The ER team
And still the two fools in the invisible boat row on.
It’s May! It’s May!
The lusty month of May!
That lovely month when ev’ryone goes
Blissfully astray!
May Day.
Workers of the world unite.
You have nothing to lose but your chains.
May I? May we? Might you?
Mighty oak. Little acorn.
Little acorn, dear one,
You do not need permission to sprout.
You are not waiting for someone to bless your dreams of being an oak tree.
You lie in wait only for the alignment of your life force with the force of all life.
When it is time, you will sprout and you will not be an oak tree yet, no not really and not by far.
You will be two small leaves and one deep questing root.
You will go, here I am!
Here I am! What now!
You and life will answer together.
C. M. Wild is the pseudonym of a biophiliac who lives near a western coast and once said, “I forget at my peril that my soul lives outside.”
The poem is a brilliant juxtaposition of Wild’s original writing with that of others. The result is a trickster weave, creating a fast paced sense of passion and urgency that carried me along joyfully, so I really wanted to publish it. Here are Wild’s attributions:
Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
Mayday, the international audio distress call, originated in the 1920s with English aviators searching for a signal as clear and unique as the dot-dot-dot-dash-dash-dash-dot-dot-dot of SOS, and who liked that it sounded a bit like the French “M’aidez” – “Help me!”
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/mayday-meaning-origin
It’s May! It’s May! The lusty month of May!
Opening verse from “Lusty Month of May,” in the 1960 Broadway musical Camelot. Queen Guenevere leads her court into the spring fields to celebrate the pagan holiday. https://www.allmusicals.com/lyrics/camelot/lustymonthofmay.htm
the two fools in the invisible boat
From a story by Clancy Imislund, which Francesca De Grandis told me with Clancy’s permission.
