Aoibhe

I am everything you don’t know about me

I am what you see, what you get and

what you don’t get

I am not a mother, lover, sister

but millions of cells

made from the grandmothers

who walked in moontime

across mountains barefoot

fondling the land that flickers

in my eyes now and then

I am a word of warrior name

sung into songlines, bloodlines, storylines

more than my myth

and less than you assume

I can be a pinch of sun that arrest you,

or the unrest of leafy trees,

waiting for the wind to knock me bare

and unfold the season of in between

I am everything you think you know and

nothing at all.

-In Irish mythology Aoibhe(pronounced Efa) was an Irish warrior princess who trained in Scotland with the famous Scáthach. She fought and lost to Cu Chulainn. She bore his son who he later killed.

About the Poet:  Aoife Reilly lives in a wooden cabin in the countryside on the shores of Lough Corrib in Galway on the west coast of Ireland. Aoife grew up in a rural area in the midlands called Laois. She has been dabbling in poetry since she was 10. Over the last few years, nature connection through the lodges, moontime teachings and a love of her land has felt its expression through poems. Aoife started coming to the lodges 9 years ago and its been a sustaining feature in her life ever since.

• Aoibhe