MYTH*ING LINKS
An Annotated & Illustrated Collection of Worldwide Links to Mythologies,
Fairy Tales & Folklore, Sacred Arts & Sacred Traditions
by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.

GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS:
THE NEAR EAST
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NOTE:
THIS POETRY HAS BEEN RE-PRINTED BY MYTH*ING LINKS
WITH THE KIND PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR
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World Holder
Sculpture © Barbara Gardner and used with her kind permission

Lilith Remembered

By Kathy Robles

Once I hated you.

You patriarchs
with your systems of cruelty.
You and your sky gods
who abhorred
      Earth
and her children.
You suppressed our rituals,
you demonized our blood….
The very blood
     which
        brought
          you
to this sweet Earth
and gave you
the body you’ve used
     to rape us
     to beat us
     to keep us prisoners
           in the marriage of our worlds.

I wondered:

How could you do this to us ~
 your Mothers, your Sisters,
 your Daughters, your Lovers?
How could you
 keep us veiled
 mutilate our bodies
 silence us….
I remember the slaughter
 in Jericho
(a “dedication” to your sky god)
 in Europe
(an “exorcism” of your devil)

Millions dead
for the theft of our land.
A holocaust
     silent
        mute
           unrecognized…..

Oh - I hated you!
    A hatred alive,
        and - oh, so dangerous…..

Now, I am remembering
 that Time is cyclical.
The Moon shows me
 how cycles work
from crescent to full to dark
 and back again
  and again
   and again…..

I sigh ~
 Perhaps this last cycle
      had to be??
 Was this the dark part
  of the cycle?
If so……tell me this:
 Were you conscious
   during the horror?
 Or was your job
      so achingly painful
  that you covered it
        with
   Anger?
An anger so strong
that it kept
 your brute strength
         vital
Because, surely
we of the Age of Mothers
would find a way
 to fight back
 to protect our children ~
you, being one of them.

Can it be true
 that your destruction
  of the Mother
was part of the cycle?
One which is
  now
coming to an end
giving way to
 yet
    another
   cycle
Where we ~
 You and I ~
participate together
 but
this time
not as children
   nor as Mother to her Son/Lover
     nor as Father to his Daughter/Wife
 but
together as adults
trying to understand
 this
    new
      cycle….

I once said:
 Never again!!
My hatred so great
for you, my destroyer.
You seemed ~
 and, oh, sometimes still do ~
to enjoy your role as
 dominator.

But ~ I remember

The cycle is changing
you cannot stop it
 anymore
    than
               I
             could
               thousands of years
   ago…..

Now ~
Aware again
      of cyclical
 time
I stand on the edge
      of this new crescent
And hold out
      my hands
     to you…….

Who once I hated.

 Ka’imi, Full Moon, Aries/April 1995
Weekend of Passover and Easter

 

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Text and Design:
Page design copyright 2002 by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.
Created 30 July 2002, 3am.
Nedstated & Launched 2 August 2002, 1pm.

Poetry © Kathy Robles
Sculpture ©  Barbara Gardner
All rights reserved