“Where You Haunt” by Helen Iacovino

“Where You Haunt”

(Written during the Harvest Moon)

by Helen Iacovino

long ago you decide

it had to be worth the journey,

long ago having chosen

what lights to carry with you & where

& what would be the places you would haunt.

you knew where your footsteps should take you,

& you knew what powers to call to you,

& you knew what beings to consider your friends.

now all long the constellations

with a moon by turns hidden & revealed

in a sky of amiable passing clouds,

the world tonight is as it always was –

some creatures living, others dead,

among new trees & old,

among waxing & waning blossoms

as the world approaches

the season of the crone.

now you walk to receive the gifts of this world,

& you live in broad strokes, ever going

forward through forest & shadow

with unknown companions

but on chosen & familiar roads.

by moonlight or lamplight,

it really doesn’t matter,

in darkness the world becomes more real

& shadows define themselves

into their true meaning.

your job is to discern shadow,

to delve into what’s not said,

to ride a wind that’s not there

& to imagine worlds into being.

your job, determined long ago,

is etched into the places that you haunt,

mirrored in your footsteps, outlined

with your breath on the night wind.

you walk, & the gifts come upon you,

you turn towards the darkening sky

& welcome the autumn winds closing in,

welcome the chariots of night.

darkness reveals a certain depth,

& the quiet grows deeper

& looks towards the longest nights,

where you know what the questions are

& how to find the searchlights

& gather the animal helpers

& call to the unbidden wind.

journeys ever beginning, never ending,

never an answer, always going deeper,

but that is the world you chose for yourself,

long ago, as a way to grow old,

ever asking the questions,

never settling on unsettled ground,

nor settling on solid ground,

knowing solid does not exist in this world,

when long ago you decided

it had to be worth the journey.

Helen Iacovino was born in Montreal, lives in Toronto, and has a B.A. in English Literature from McGill University.  Her poetry has appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies, including Canadian Author and Bookman, CV II, Atlantis, and chapbook anthologies published by the Canadian Unitarian Council. Helen’s collection of 25 Tarot poems was published online by North Wind Press, and her poetry blog is at www.heleniacovino.wordpress.com

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