Editor's Note:
Thoughts and Poems on Ritual

by Mary Davis

Editor's Notes: Recently, attending a small gathering to meditate and to celebrate the visit to Atlanta from Asia of my friend's son and daughter-in-law, we also celebrated the new life in the group --- the little boy who will be born in several months to this wonderful young couple and who will be my friend's first grandchild. Another member of the group brought a bright green stuffed frog for the soon to be born little one, and she wrote the following words to him. She included a brand - new poem by an area poet.and then later, she sent me the origins of the poem. With the permission of both authors they are reprinted here. Lucky Baby!

WELCOME SMALL WET PERSON
by Katharine Hartwig Dahl

Mostly pinky, full of goo, it's been a long, strange trip and you should know, it doesn't change. As a symbol of someone's determination to have you stay, I have been assigned as your official GUARD-FROG. I know you hoped for a dinosaur. Well, they got the color.Actually, I'm a symbol of hope but personally, I encourage you to abandon hope before it's another piece of baggage like "Choice" and "Free-will."

There's a lot of confusion here, kid, and you are going to love it. As a teacher once told me."There is no end to work." The trick is to make it a "game." See, it's all four letter words here. Keep it "Easy."
Don't make it "Hard" on your "Self."
"Play, Sing, Love, Jump, Love, Read, Love, Writ, Lern, Love, Beee Hapy, don't Wory" & some other F's.

So here's the deal. You kinda got the scoop on going with the "flow" to "Be Here Now." Don't forget it, just "ride Baby ride," you will be "okay." Look at me! I sit, solid on the ground. But Babe, when the "time" is right, I do "Leap" into the air and I do Fall-l-l. Allow the "wind" if it comes to your sail. Remember, I am with you always. One more thing for now, from Franklin Abbott, in case you come to wonder:

WHY WE PRAY
by Franklin Abbott

If your luck goes bad
get a witch to give you
a bath
get a shaman to cook
your supper
get a high priestess
to do your hair
get a siren to sing you
a lullaby
all ritual is illogical
and impractical
but when it works
the absurd
becomes
the sublime *

Then, Katharine adds,

And so it is,
Your Frog Forever, KHD, 2007

* With the permission to print, came the following story/commentary about the poem from the poet, Franklin Abbott (August 2007):

When I travel to see my friends Alejandro and Alex
in central Venezuela it isn't long before Alex
gives me a ritual cleansing bath.
Alex is a brujo or witch who works with nature spirits.
I am bathed under the huge mamones tree in their back garden. Alex
concocts my bathing solutions from various ingredients as common as
vinegar and as rare as an herb from some remote valley.
the process can take several hours and culminates
when Alex draws magical designs in gunpowder around me
and then ignites them.
poof pow be gone! And whatever cosmic crud
I had accumulated in my aura is dispersed.
For me the most sacred place in the home is the kitchen.
True magic can be made on the altar of the stove.
The four elements of earth, air, fire and water all commingle
and their alchemy produces the sweet and salty tastes
we all swoon over.
The High Priestess is one of the archetypal figures of the
Major Arcana of the Tarot. Her power is the power
of Great Mystery.
In her spare time she rearranges the galaxies.
The Sirens were mythical beings who lured sailors
to their doom with their ethereal haunting songs.
We use their name for the sounds made by ambulances and police cars.
We also bestow the title on those voices
whose songs make us weak in the knees.

Return to the Mythic Passages Menu

Subscribe to the Mythic Passages e-zine