The purple decree

Naomi and Ruth

The purple decree

“Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die — there will I be buried. May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if even death parts me from you!” 
(Ruth to Naomi, The Book of Ruth 1:16-17)
 
Long years my cousin followed her church,
a true Christian, simple and clear.
Love one another.  Care for the poor.
Heap not up treasures upon this Earth.
Never one to be silent, she posed her good question:
“I am not black, but I marched for civil rights.
I am not a soldier, but I marched to bring them home.
I'm just an old white-haired woman.
Who am I to say that any human love is wrong?”
My cousin asked her questions in Sunday school.
She was asked to refrain.
Then came the purple decree.
In each parishioner’s mailbox, the purple paper
stating homosexuality is a sin.
My cousin gazed unblinking, 
steadfast, as her spiritual home,
her bedrock of belief and support,
fell away from her true center, her Self.
“I quit my church on Friday,” she messaged to me.
“This is NOT MY GOD!”
Now my cousin’s days are lavished
on the church of God’s nature,
days spent with the water, the trees,
the quiet of her thoughts and prayers,
in the places where Love lives.


“Whither thou goest I shall go.” 
(Ruth declaring her love for Naomi, The Book of Ruth 1:16-17) 



Annelinde Metzner
August 30, 2013



The above quote from the Old Testament is from the Book of Ruth, the story of two women, Ruth and Naomi, and their undying love for each other.  In the passage, "Ruth clung to Naomi," (chapter 1 verse 14,) the Hebrew word for "clung to" is the same as the verb describing the feelings of Adam for Eve.   Many couples married in Christian churches have used the above verses, Ruth's declaration of love for Naomi, in their wedding ceremonies.

Naomi and Ruth

Naomi and Ruth

My cousin Mardy

Retreat at Owl's Nest

Owl's Nest

Retreat at Owl’s Nest   
                                   
Sleeping in the forest, I remember:
    how urgently each of these trees grew,
    poplar, maple, oak, green with new life,
    whose trunks now lay patiently
    one upon another
    to make my cabin here.
Sleeping in the forest.

In the grey mist of the morning rain,
    as droplets fall from leaf to leaf
    tapping ratamacues on the long eaves
    of the galvanized roof,
    I feel the power of Black Dome, not far away,
    pulsing energy and strength to us
    throughout the day.
In the grey mist.

As I settle into this cabin,
    silence cradling me like a welcoming shawl,
    silence down the steep grade
    and up onto the ridge,
    silence, the true balm, singing Her healing song;
    the pen comes to my hand, and is welcomed there,
    the impetus springing clear and true from my heart,
and I write.



Annelinde Metzner
Wildacres Retreat
August 6, 2013 


 
Many thanks to Wildacres Conference Center, where I was awarded a week-long artist's retreat to write poetry and compose music.  

  

Morning mist

   

Stone path at Wildacres

Piano where I composed music

Shout!

One of 900 North Carolinians arrested at Moral Mondays in Raleigh

North Carolina, my home of twenty-six years,
exquisite land of magic mountains,
birthplace of openmindedness and love.
Our government is hurting us now.
What will our people do?

Five hundred thousand will go untreated,
without medical care that could have been free.
Those in Raleigh who represent us
thumb their noses at all things Obama.
They reject Federal money for unemployment
so two hundred thousand jobless people will be cut.
What will our people do?

Teachers here in my home state, paid so very low,
are leaving, they are leaving,
or teach in classrooms so crowded,
no learning occurs at all.
What will our people do?

Health clinics are shut down.
Women, juggling too much, too much
to allow another child to be born,
will resort to the back alleys once more.

And our vote! Our right to vote!
Shorten the voting days, multiply the hoops,
allow voting lines to go around the block,
so that one after another, the people of color,
the students, the disenfranchised, the elderly
give up on the vote, their sacred vote,
give up on Democracy and just go home,
as hoped-for in Raleigh, as if following the plan.
What will our people do?

Our government is hurting us now,
killing us really,
and we must not be quiet!
No, do not be quiet!
Shout! Shout! Shout!



Annelinde Metzner
August 2, 2013


Read more about the heartless actions of the NC state government, which will have long-reaching effects on all North Carolinians, but especially the weakest, neediest members of the population.

North Carolinians are reeling from a wide-reaching onslaught of legislation by a state government newly created by ultra right-wing funding of small local elections.
 
The North Carolina NAACP has initiated "Moral Mondays" in Raleigh, which has inspired the largest protest rallies in the nation this year.   Nine hundred brave souls volunteered to undergo arrest for "trespassing" at our State Capitol. 

The movement has expanded from Raleigh to the mountains, where Moral Monday will occur in Asheville,  NC on August 5th at 5 PM in front of the city hall.

Woman arrested in Raleigh at Moral Mondays

Woman arrested in Raleigh at Moral Mondays

Reverend Barber, president of the NC NAACP,  at the NC Capitol Rotunda

Crowd at Moral Mondays

Women for health care in NC

Sign at Moral Mondays

Magdala, Tower

Mary Magdalene by Brother Robert Lentz

Magdala, Tower, queen of my days,

You are not Spirit, not Ether, not Will ‘o the Wisp.

but flesh and blood, a woman like me,

and my teacher.

I see You in burgundy-red, the Blood-Root flower,

the Wake Robin, deep red trillium of the mountains,

the royally curled and woody flower of the Spicebush.

You are so real.

And when You walk on Earth,

the steps of Your beautiful feet are firm.

Priestess, daughter of Isis,

Well-trained in lore and wise,

how I crave the touch of Your oil upon my face.

MM is here!  Mary Magdalene,

here for Her own millennium,

and the voice You bring has no shame in who You are,

who we all are, Woman, strong, deep,

burgundy-red and sexual.

You walk in the power of the Sacred Night,

here to walk wherever You must,

through Love, through Transformation,

unto Union with the Divine.

With Your powerful arms

and Your dark-red hair glinting like amber,

You guide us all through these darkest of days.

Mary Magdalene, You stand grounded

even as we hang in torment,

with Your strong and womanly Priestess arms

ready to carry us through.

Annelinde Metzner

April 17, 2012

Mary Magdalene by El Greco

Mary Magdalene by Carlo Dolci

  

Medieval Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene by Carravaggio

Mary and Jesus stained glass in Scotland

Malala's Birthday Speech

Malala’s Birthday Speech

“In the name of God, the most beneficent, the most merciful...”
          Malala Yousafzai in her birthday address to the UN Youth Assembly, July 9, 2013
 
A pink lacy shawl frames her dark hair and determined face.   She is sixteen!
Confident and convivial, she commands the podium in front of the world’s leaders.
Sixteen!   Malala has survived a gunshot at close range,
on her schoolbus in Pakistan,
a target of the Taliban for speaking her strong mind.
She has survived!

“Respected elders, and my dear brothers and sisters,  Salaam Aleichem.”
 
She fingers her delicate shawl, bequeathed from Benazir Bhutto,
one woman to another, a gift of strength from across time and beyond the veil.

“This time, we women will do it for ourselves.
Thank you to God, for whom we are all equal!
I speak so that those without voice can be heard.”
 
Her mother wipes away tears.
Men in suits stare, making space in their consciousness for Malala,
for this empowered young woman who has enraptured the world.

“Weakness, fear and hopelessness died.
Strength, fervor and courage were born.”
 
The room breaks out in emotion-filled applause.
Imbued with ahimsa, forgiveness and non-violence,
her strength uplifts us all.





Annelinde Metzner
July 18, 2013



Listen and watch as Malala gives her Birthday speech to the UN Youth Assembly.

 

The elders act

Arrested at Moral Monday

Arrested at Moral Monday

Arrested at Moral Monday

NC Citizens amass on the State Capitol lawn

The elders act

She chose the long walk, at age 92,
to the State House in Raleigh to be arrested there.
“Because I’m tired of all this goin’ on,”
she exclaimed, with a pointed look and a twist of her head,
a middle-aged son trailing her walker behind her.
On to the NC State House, where each district
has been bought and paid for by the fat cats
and the masters of greed
who fear for all they have.
Big money paved the way
for tiny town after tiny town in North Carolina
to fall to the one with the millions, the self-appointed Pope,
and our liberal enclaves were horribly gerimandered.
And so, Moral Mondays, where people like us
go to Raleigh at last, to make our voices heard.
The 84-year-old from here in the mountains,
also tired, and valiantly walking:
“I’m here for my conscience, my community and my children.”
In a few short years, this bunch, scared and rich,
has legislated cuts to earned income credit,
Medicaid and unemployment;
cut Pre-K programs, lowered taxes for the rich,
and suppressed voting in every way imaginable.
Following Dr. King and Gandhi, 17 ministers and rabbis heard the call.
The number is now in the thousands, every Monday,
Moral Monday, to bring us back to our senses.

“Do what's right by the poor, do what's right by the sick, do what's right by women, and do what's right by workers,”  says Reverend Barber, the first to meet on that lawn.

When the elders act, beware.



Annelinde Metzner
June 26, 2013






Read and see videos about North Carolina's Moral Mondays at The Nation.


See a report about Mountain protestors traveling to Raleigh. 

Ministers pray at Moral Monday

A NC protestor being arrested

Banner

Purify me

Purify me

Let me be humble in Your presence, Mother,
Your mysteries, my precious Goddess.
Let me be humble.
In Your pristine silence, in Your crystalline sacred energy,
let me bow my head and gather stillness,
gather stillness into my heart,
so that oneness, connection is all I feel.
Let me find You everywhere!
Let me walk beside Your golden manifestations,
as if beside a deep pure lake,
surrounded by silent mountains.
O my Mother, take my breath away!
Purify me now, make me ready, open me.
Leave me expectant, my heart on fire,
knowing You and Your divine energy
lay just around every turn.
Lead me to you, oh my beloved Mother,
lead me beside Your still waters.
Let me await, pure enough to see,
to feel You everywhere
as You lie golden before me.

Annelinde Metzner
Folly Beach
June 10, 2013

Invocation

Cullasaja Falls

Invocation  

Come be with us,  Mother Gaia.
Come be with us and among us.
Do not hover around us like a pale mist.
Do not settle on our shoulders                          
as though You’d fasten wings on us.
Do not dare us to fly.
Instead, grow infinitely slowly, from below.
Come to us through the soles of our feet,
from the souls of our beings.
Come up from ten thousand leagues,
from Your own source, Mother,
from the imagination’s fire, beyond perception.
Come up from Your flaming furnace, vermillion molten lava.
Radiate into our souls cell by cell,
so that walking is a pleasure,
so that leaping is a joy,
so we walk in beauty, connected to You,
returning when we will,
empowered with Your being,
earth made, dust to dust,
loving You, never to part.

Annelinde Metzner
June 28, 1992



From this invocation which I created in order to called forth the presence of Mother Gaia, the spirit of the Earth, I have taken some of the lines as lyrics for a choral piece, "Come Breathe With Us Gaia."   Watch and listen as my medley of three Goddess songs are beautifully performed by Womansong of Asheville at her 25th anniversary in 2012, with wonderful dancing by Shelli Stanback.


These songs and many others are available here on this site.   The songs in print, and including two CD's with the songs in parts, are in my songbook, "Lady of Ten Thousand Names."    Beautiful CD's and DVD's of our concerts are also available.  
       Simply click on the "BUY" tab above to access these items with Paypal.

Community garden

Community garden in Black Mountain NC

Community garden      

Do you love your little patch of Earth?
Does She feel you kiss her warm brown skin as you step?
Every day, do you thank Her for how she feeds you?
Go to the garden, and sink your fingers into Her living soil,
her rich humus full of life, and giver of life.
Plant some plants, plant some seeds!
What is a seed, what is it for your life?
Are there seeds, small sprinkles and dark, firm pods
planted in you, in your mind, in your heart?
Go to the garden, plant and share!
Watch each day for the new surprises She has in store.
Greens and all colors, and all for you to eat!
Grow just enough for yourself, your family,
and give some away.
Give some away until the joy of Her, of our Mother Earth
drips from your fingers like the juice of new grapes,
‘til the joy of Her sparkles in your eyes.
Give this away too, so whomever you meet
feels that energy, the energy of Her,
of Life, of resurgence and rebirth,
of all that returns when we bend just a little,
and plant.

Annelinde Metzner
Community Garden
May 23, 2013

Broccoli

Hoop garden

Herbs at the community garden

Gardeners hard at work

For all of us

Chickweed

For all of us

From our perch beside the little branch
behind boulders and an ancient root sculpture
in the brilliant new green of May,
we sit and see what there is to see.
Lichen of all colors,
flowery and tenacious,
spiderwort, chickweed (yum!)
and mean old poison ivy,
saying “hi” from the rock face
right behind our heads.
Though we are each sixty,
the boulders laugh out loud
at our foolish youth.
Watching and watching, we wonder
who in the woods is watching us?
Straight and low, a pheasant flies,
annoyed by our disruption.
I gaze and gaze, and suddenly there appears
a yellow trillium, the wood’s own gold,
singing her own song in the moist humus,
for nothing, for no one,
for all of us.

Annelinde Metzner
May 4, 2013
Little Pine

Red trillium (Wake Robin)

May apple