by Rachael Clyne

At Makrigalos - clear water
    all the way
wave shadows criss-cross
        the sand below as
              little fishes
     dart by ankles
 and we six women
     danced sang our way
through Crete
   retracing
          the Goddess peoples
    
At                                           Knossos                       
snakes                                 still hiss
 Her presence                   in the
  crimson                     throne-room                  
     flanked by             gryphons
                Her place of
                   epiphany.
                     In the
            tholos tombs
   of Phourni, Achladia
we grieved
for the ancient ones
    and on my knees
           threw dust over
        my head  to our
            drum-throb.
       Deep into the earth
    we went
   hand over hand
        we sisters
  clambered   
down
 
             down
and
   down the vast womb
caves of  
        Scotinou
             and Dicti.

                     Under
            the full moon we
       danced by water’s edge
   blessed each other’s cupped
faces with seawater and pure love
gathered    fragment    shards    of     
 ourselves at Vasiliki and Mohlos
  and on Myrtos’ hilltop barefoot
     on its   purple stones    we
           sang  to the sacred  
                mountains.          

              Vultures
          wheeled above and
      goat-bells tinkled
   as we nestled into
the gnarled bosom of
  five thousand years of living being
     the great olive tree at Kavousi
          old lady gently dozing

  Then that final day at Zakros
      palace temple we re-membered ourselves 
             my feet trod the same marble step to the
                shrine rooms where once I’d placed offerings
            my chest welled with the longing of it,
        that arrival from Egypt
   aeons ago
into the little harbour
  sails full
     of anticipation for
             the learning that awaited me there.
        This time bashful Caroline
    with her dowsing rod
did the remembering for us
   how we’d each lived, studied or
         died there.
       
                   Reunited
                 in Goddess
           She teased our hearts
                     open
           and we re-membered
      for She is here everywhere
                Blessed be!

©Rachael Clyne, 2009

You can see and hear Rachael read this poem on our media page! You can also see a larger version of Rachael's Throne Room painting here .