Last Day of Winter

Last Day of Winter

Strands of music breeze thin ice
as the land shrugs a fragile freeze
on the last day of winter two thousand nine
as once again the Völva sings her haunting lyre
in a past-life language old and stark
foretelling the days of end to come
when all the gods and Time lie dead
during that Moment . . .
not a single note is becoming sung
at the concert of universal songs
as all await the unwritten music
of the Shira of infinite exponentials
and the tap of the conductor's wand
as one symphony ends and another begins
with all the musicians birthing new notes
as the glittering serpent dances up
from the dark of the hills of the moon.

*Do you still seek to know? And what?

From there come maidens
deep in knowledge
three, from the lake
that lies under the tree.
Uror they called one, "Had to Be" -
the second Verdandi, "Coming to Be" -
they incised a slip of wood -
Skuld the third, "Has to Be."
They laid down the laws
they chose out lives
for mankind's children,
men's destinies.




Notes:
*A refrain of the Völva in the Icelandic "Edda." What follows the refrain is a stanza of the Edda.

The Völva is a woman, usually elderly, who had released herself from the strong family bonds that normally surrounded women in the Old Norse clan society. She travelled the land, usually followed by a retinue of young people, and she was summoned in times of crisis. She had immense authority and she charged well for her services. The Völva referenced here is from the Icelandic "Edda" and is the Seeress who prophecies the cycle of time from creation to ragnarok (the end of the cycle).

The Shira, or Perek Shira, is the song that is sung everyday, individually, by all of creation in some Judaic traditions.