winter's wake: a poem
a woman flashes by...
Winter’s Wake Macy A. An assembly of lodgepole pines holds vigil. The gray sky provides its first Offering of snow. Hushed footsteps follow. A woman flashes by. She strides between the trees. Her midnight blue cloak Brushes the dusted floor, Its velvet hood Stark against the white Antlers that clasp it closed. A murmur arises among the naked branches, màthair màthair màthair. She closes her eyes and leans into Their embrace. Her pale fingers trace The jagged bark, a motherly Touch. She settles among the deer Every night. Each dawn she rises With her staff. Expectant pines and doe eyes watch The obedient sky Release icy crystals. Green moss creeps Back into view. The maiden releases a soft sigh And melts with the snow.
This is a poem I wrote last June in my summer poetry workshop at university. Despite it being the middle of summer, I had a vision in my mind of a woman wandering the winter woods alone. I didn’t know who this woman was, but I knew there was something different about her, a difference that nature itself recognized and honored. After workshopping my poem in class, I realized I needed to know more about this woman in my vision to write the final version of my poem. I began to research different myths and winter goddesses for inspiration and discovered Cailleach, a goddess from Celtic mythology who is associated with winter. In Scotland, she is referred to as Beira, Queen of Winter. Because of her association with winter (and also my love for Scotland), I decided to use Cailleach as inspiration for my poem. I want to clarify that the woman in my poem is not meant to be an exact portrayal of Cailleach but simply influenced by her. I took inspiration from the myths surrounding her to add an “other-worldly” quality to the woman in my poem that I left to each reader to interpret in their own way.
I thought it would be fun to explain the various ways in which the poem is inspired by Cailleach, since I love mythology and have been starting to dive more into Celtic mythology recently. The midnight blue cloak was a personal choice, but the cloak also alludes to Cailleach being “the veiled one.” I chose antlers for the cloak’s clasp since Cailleach is said to wear a cloak adorned with skulls, is the protector of animals, and is linked specifically to wolves and deer. This theme continues in my fourth stanza, where the woman sleeps among the deer, almost as if they are her children. In my poem, the forest itself seems to regard her as its mother. I imagined the bare tree branches stirring in the winter breeze, calling out to the woman in recognition. To allude more directly to the inspiration I took from Celtic mythology, I used the Scottish Gaelic word for “mother” in the third stanza. While I originally imagined nature recognizing this woman in some way, Cailleach’s role as a mother goddess inspired the motherly quality of the woman.
Cailleach is also said to have a magical staff that causes the ground to freeze. I altered this slightly by having the woman use her staff to command snow to fall, as I felt that snow fit better with the soft but haunting atmosphere I was trying to create in my poem.
When I first began imagining this poem, I saw the woman being rather young. Cailleach, however, is an elderly woman. I decided not to clarify the woman’s age but leave it up to the reader to imagine until the very end when I refer to her as a maiden. One of the sources I read said that when Cailleach was unable to bear the dark winter months any longer, she would drink from a well of youth and transform into a beautiful young woman, signaling the start of spring. This is where I leave my poem, with spring’s arrival and the woman’s departure.