“December Collect” by Rhett Watts
I whistle and drone like blue embers.
Breathe in fire smoke,
breathe out a sound stream.
Spread ashes on a nest of spent wood
as kinswomen, hearth-keepers,
fires to smolder through the night.
The last moon lights the dark,
tree shadows thrown over bright snowfield
as winter wraps her cloak around the year.
Giver of air and flame, I would kindle healing
of slights, of deeper wounds close as skin.
Tend my small fire.
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Rhett Watts Artist Statement:
I am a poet, a visual artist, an activist dreamer who meditates, mediates, and is interested in transformation of the Self and society. Drawn to Celtic spirituality, I am the only woman in my line to spend time in Ireland from the U.S. (a return) in a few generations.
My writing mediates worlds for me, as does my art. The human and animal, the spiritual and physical, the psycho-emotional and economic worlds as well as the dream time. I earned an MFA in Writing and trained with Amherst Artists & Writers in my 50s to follow my writing path after a long hiatus having left San Francisco State in the 1970s where I was to study with Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Long story.
