Daily Archives: February 2, 2009

Hat Wiktory!

I have finally — finally! — finished Bodhifox‘s hat. It sat alone and feeling unloved for two weeks. I finished the second earflap at Ceri’s house on Saturday (to where I gratefully escaped from my House of Sick Persons, feeling temporarily better myself: I did my hair! I put makeup on! I left the house! When you’re sick you feel like this will never happen again, so it was a big deal.) I’d have done the i-cord and tassel there too and been finished two days earlier, but I discovered that I hadn’t brought along the tiny remaining ball of bronze yarn. (Argh!)

So this morning, the first thing I did after checking e-mail was to look up the instructions how to knit an i-cord (how beautifully simple, I may knit nothing but i-cords when I need to relax), then make the tassel, and attach the betasselled i-cord to the hat. Et viola (as Fox himself would say)! One Jayne Cobb style hat, done in Ravenclaw colours!

Here it is, perched on my metronome and stuffed with a tote bag, looking slightly wonky:

I’d wanted to line it for warmth, but it’s late enough in winter that I’m just going to send it as-is and let him decide if it needs lining. So now I will pack it up and get it out to the post office in the next couple of days.

Happy Imbolc, Fox!

Imbolc Poetry Web 2009!

Every year on February 2 a web of poetry winds its way through the Internet in honour of Brighid, the Celtic goddess associated with inspiration and poets. This year’s invitation is here, reproduced on blogs and journals across the world; the original blogger who began the annual tradition says of it, “Why? Some poetry is warming. It cracks the ice in the heart of the Earth to remind her that spring is just around the corner. Or … if you live south of the equator, choose poetry to cool the heart of the Earth so as to remind her fall is coming.” The blog that first introduced me to the poetry web and reminds me of it annually is Pandora’s Ephemera Ephemerae.

Brid is the goddess to whom I am sworn, and that’s probably not a surprise for those who know how much music, writing, and art mean to me. I figured she would be much too obvious and so I looked everywhere else when starting on my spiritual path, until I realised that Brid was bashing me on the head with the proverbial Divine clue by four. I love participating in this poetry web every year. The idea of poems, pictures in words that capture something emotional that prose handles very differently, twining throughout the Internet enchants me.

This is my poetry offering this year.

    It was a hard thing to undo this knot.
    The rainbow shines but only in the thought
    Of him that looks. Yet not in that alone,
    For who makes rainbows by invention?
    And many standing round a waterfall
    See one bow each, yet not the same to all,
    But each a hand’s breadth further than the next.
    The sun on falling waters writes the text
    Which yet is in the eye or in the thought.
    It was a hard thing to undo this knot.

    ~1862, Gerard Manley Hopkins
    “It was a hard thing to undo this knot”

Do you have a poem you’d like to share? A favourite? Something that speaks to your soul right now for some reason? Or perhaps something you’ve written yourself? Take the invitation and spread it far and wide, with joy. For the web of poetry to be connected in cyberspace as well as the world and our hearts, all I ask is that you link back to this post and to the original invitation to help others find it. If you post a poem, leave a comment here with a link to it (if you can, yes, I know there are issues with the comment box not being available off and on), and leave a comment with a link to it at the other poetry posts you read today, too, in order to help weave the web. Enjoy exploring the poetry by following the links you find.

Have a blessed and healing Imbolc, Gentle Readers. The flame in our hearts burns steadily against the coldness of the world. Every poem, every new word set down lights another candle against the darkness.