Síocháin Domhain*

When the forest called to her longing, 
she answered -- for its comfort, 
  not hers.
And after she fell,
the damp grass yielded to her.

Maybe she lay 
     for months or minutes or hours.
Who knows?
Because suddenly
                time was like the flowers
that flourished between her fingers
and the vines that tangled
   and twined in her hair.

She had never known comfort 
   like the moss that grew around her.
She had never known music
   like the mourning doves who sang to her.
She had never known radiance
   like the sunlight that streamed on to her.
She had never known sorrow
   like the rain that fell on her.
She had never known hunger
   like the foxes who knew her taste.
She had never known love 
   like the soil that composted her.
She had never known peace
   like the Earth that received her.

And when she was found,
  all the words 
of love and life and loss
she offered from her heart 
became our poems too.

*Síocháin domhain (pronounced she-a-hon dowan) is the Irish phrase for “deep peace”.

This poem was written to honour the memory of Meghan Marohn, poet, teacher, witch, activist and friend (1979-2022). Meghan went missing in the woods in March, 2022 and her body was not found until the following September. May she rest in deep peace.

Image used with permission: Surround by Barbara Brown, from her series DESIRE FOR ARCADIA: Field Notes from an Art Practice. Barbara’s art is photo-based and explores the intersection of place and identity through natural materials and human activity as a visual meditation in and about the landscape. Her work deals with memory and the passage of time referencing the growing season and the inevitable decline of all things as observed in the garden. Her work functions as momento mori, a reminder of the inevitability of death as experienced in the cycles of life.