After “Rhiannon” by Stevie Nicks
Rhiannon: goddess of the moon, of birds, of horses,
mother to tuneful remedies. She is clothed in a golden light.
In a forest on a white horse, trees part in her presence—
a pathway to her songbirds harmonizing to the rhythm of healing.
She was young when she was stripped of the right to her desires,
when she was promised in marriage by her father
to a man of false honor who ruled the otherworld:
a repellent man of green hunger and wolfish eye.
But she reclaimed herself, found love in a man of mortal blood
and sacrificed her childhood home for a crown in Dyfed.
Her rule is gentle, starved of violence and nourished by compassion
for those who carry their misfortunes on wings wilting from hunched shoulders.
But her reign is questioned by those who scold her inability
to meet the expectations of womanhood: a woman must have a touch
to cure the whole world,
to cure the holes in a wounded womb.
Yet, through her yearning to lead life outside of herself,
she finds, in her arms, a son that she rocks to sleep
on nights when the moon is full and holds a shield of light around them.
It is only for her to wake one morning, with her body
smeared in the blood of a hound,
and false accusations declaring her responsible:
she mourns over the disappearance of her son.
Rhiannon howled her innocence, but was forced to submit
to the weight of a horse’s collar, to the weight of strangers
she carried to and from the castle gates.
Seven years of suffering: each season newly fraying her raw skin.
Seven years of courage that painted the goddess with dignity
as she found her breath while being strangled by the corruption
that had been undone on her.
It took seven years for her son to appear at the castle gate,
wild-eyed with justice. And the goddess, back on her throne,
gathered her loved ones and furnished her heart with forgiveness.
Rhiannon: goddess of the moon, of birds, of horses,
mother to tuneful remedies—remind us of our wholeness.
Remind us—even when we are entirely engulfed in darkness—
of the importance of endurance
of how to reclaim an identity
after suffering under the hands of the wicked.
Rhiannon: within us breeds patience,
though the pain of injustice gnaws at our beings,
until truth restores balance in the universe.
Rhiannon, the loyal goddess,
whose songbirds cure at soul-level,
shows us the power we have within ourselves to heal.
Through our faith in her, she ends our suffering.
She reunites us with our divided selves.
Alessia Di Cesare is a self-proclaimed poet based in Canada, and an undergraduate student studying English Literature at the University of Ottawa. In 2014, she received a Silver Key for her poetry submission in the Scholastic’s Art & Writing Awards, as well as an Honourable Mention in the OECTA Young Author’s Awards. Her work can be found in literary magazines such as The Ottawa Arts Review, The Rising Phoenix Review, in the first volume of the “Prose.” Anthologies, and on her personal blog, http://www.featherumbrellas.tumblr.com.
