Rachel Pollack Incants Her Way 

Through the Green Door of Death

A Shining Tribe Cento

 

I swim in the evening 

I rest in the sunshine

I talk with the serpents

I know all the secrets

I walk like a singer 

through the forest of souls

 

Breathe through the grass

Shout through the eyes

The screech of the owl 

In the heart of the tree

In the hum of the earth

I hear the voices of stars

 

I listen to voices, one face to another 

First slowly, then faster, stories for change

Beauty like thunder 

That breaks in my dreams

First slowly

Then faster

 

I open my arms

I shimmer with laughter

Drink rain

In the morning

We talk in the twilight

Sun splashes between us

 

Waters of memory

Waters of vision

They gather round me

To sing my way through

 

I shout from the windows

I build homes for my neighbors

Joy in their bricks 

Pearls to the wind

 

In the time before time

I shout joy in the rock

I stare at the children

I throw the old stones

 

Teeth are mountains, fingers forests

Eyes are the oceans of life

My dead mud body 

Burns with light

 

I take hold of my brothers

I give voice to my sisters

They open their mouths 

For the juice of the stars

 

I dance with lovers

I sing for the children

 

Emerge, emerge the dark hidden healers

Power from secrets, visions from stone

I travel to the world of the radiant Spirits

See this power in myself

See the film of rainwater on a child’s face

We know what we know

 

I dance with lovers

I sing for the children

 

I whistle in cellars

I call to the children

They dance in the lightning

They float on the water

They follow directions 

From the birds in their dreams

 

The roar of wings

The ice chain shattered 

I go down, I go down

Sing guidance for swimmers

I cast the great circle

I teach all the children

 

I know all the stories 

I shimmer with laughter

Shine with the morning!

Sing louder than light! 

Prayers of clear stone

Of feathers from birds

 

I talk with the serpents 

I know all the secrets 

I greet you from the edge

Of hello and goodbye

And I come dancing, dancing, dancing

beauty like thunder that breaks in my dreams

 

I open my arms 

I shimmer with laughter

Wonder of wonders, mermaids and boats

Tell stories of sleepers, travelers in hope

I give way to voices

Invite their soft beaks

 

I wear gold, I sing whispers

Lullabies to my lovers

They listen in silence

And begin once again

Their beauty like thunder

That brakes in my dreams

 

This is the gift more precious than any

The fountain of love

I sleep in its light

I drink food from the stars

Patterns of wisdom, traces of sorrow

Soft touch of the Gods in the whisper of stones

 

My soul’s vision pierces 

The past and the future

I know all the stories 

I shimmer with laughter

 

Finished Memorial Day, 5/29/23

A Temperance-Tradition Day (05+29+20+23=14/5)

 

Note –

On each of the 49 days following Rachel Pollack’s death I pulled a Shining Tribe card and wrote down two lines from that card’s section. All but 2 sets of lines came from Rachel’s poems that start the write up.  The lines “Prayers of clear stone / Of feathers from birds” are from Joy Harjo’s poem We Must Call a Meeting that Rachel uses as the poem to introduce the 8 of Birds.

On the 50th day, I wove the lines together into this cento, a poem composed entirely of lines by other poets as a way to honor them and their work. It’s an old form, dated from the third or fourth century. Cento is Italian from 100 and that is the traditional length. There are other rules but I didn’t use them to create the poem. 

To get lines 99 and 100, I consciously decided to invoke the World card and give The Shining Woman the last say. Having made that choice I decided that Rachel was speaking throughout the poem and I went through and changed almost all pronouns and possessives to I and my.  I might have dropped a few possessives or articles and I did not always use the original line breaks, but the words here are Rachel’s, not my own.

I broke the lines into stanzas in places that I thought created containers of meaning. Some of them individually and in smaller sets could be mini-centos on their own.

There were some repeating cards (noted below) but I was struck by the variety of cards and how the meaning of the lines flowed naturally into each other. No element nor Arcana predominate; they all mix together. I like to think  of this as showing us Rachel’s dynamic shapeshifting out of Life into Death and through that still speaking to us and sharing her wisdom.

Here are the cards:

1. Death
2. High Priestess
3. 6 of Trees
4. 8 of Rivers
5. 9 of Trees
6. 9 of Stones
7. 2 of Stones
8. Speaker of Birds
9. 2 of Stones
10. Shining Woman
11. Temperance
12. 2 of Trees
13. Ace of Rivers
14. 7 of Stones
15. Awakening 
16. 10 of Rivers
17. Knower of Stones
18. Justice
19. Gift of Stones
20. 5 of Birds
21. Knower of Rivers
22. Place of Trees
23. Empress
24. 5 of Stones
25. Emperor
26. Knower of Trees
27. Empress
28. Devil
29. Lovers
30. Place of Birds
31. 8 of Stones
32. 5 of Rivers
33. Tradition
34. Shining Woman
35. 7 of Trees
36. 8 of Birds
37. High Priestess
38. 10 of Rivers
39. Speaker of Birds
40. Shining Woman
41. 7 of Rivers
42. 6 of Birds
43. 6 of Rivers
44. 7 of Birds
45. Speaker of Birds
46. Gift of Rivers
47. Ace of Trees
48. 6 of Stones
49. Ace of Birds
50. Shining Woman

 

Here are the repeats/patterns I see (what did I miss?): 

High Priestess – 2x 

2 of Stones – 2x

Shining Woman – 3x from random draws and the last time consciously chosen for a total of 4x

Empress – 2x

Speaker of Birds – 2x

 

I love how the Lovers follows the Devil

 

The 6s from all elements appear along with the Lovers as just mentioned so there is a lot of love flowing from this cento.