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