THE MEANING OF THE WORD
PAGAN

"PAGANISM ¼ in the broadest sense, includes all
religions related by God, and in a narrow sense,
sense, Except Christianity, Judaism and Moham-
idism.

The term is also equivulent to Polythe-
ism "the belief of many gods" Roman and Greek
mythology.

It is derived from the Latin pague, hence
pagani (i.e. those who country, folk who re-
mained heathen after the cities became Christian!"

Reom THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA
VOLUME XI.

Lei Aloha

To my Mother... who gave to me a sense of earth-beauty
and color and rhythm even before I drew my first, human
breath...

To Elizabeth... my sister... she of the slow, primitive
grace, who entered into many of the early, important allegories
in which she became a part of the strange beauty of tree and
mountain of the Northern Sierra...

To Helen Mathews... rare councellor in the joyous experience of developing the English poem-forms that compliment these prints...

And to Alfred Stieglitz... deep-hearted friend... fierce
but fair critic... and Pillar Of Fire in the Wilderness of the
early daya of Pictorial Photography, here in America and in
England...

May the sun and the wind and the lovely, unspoiled ways
of the earth... bless them and the many others dear to my heart
for the part they have played in my life toward this cross-
section of the flowering of thirty-odd years of search for sim-
ple loviness.

Lei Aloha

To my Mother... who gave to me a sense of earth-beauty
and color and rhythm even before I drew my first human breath...

To Elizabeth... my sister... she of the slow, primitive
grace, who entered into many of the early, important allegories
in which she became a part of the strange beauty of tree and moun-
tain of the Northern Sierra...

And to Alfred Stieglitz...deep-heartred friend... fierce
and fair critic... and Pillar of Fire in the Wilderness of the
early days of Pictorial Photography, here in America and in
England...

May the sun and the wind, and all of the unspoiled ways
of the earth... bless them and the many others dear to my heart
for the part they have played in my life toward this cross-section
of the flowering of thirty-odd years of search for simple
loveliness.

Unseen

What was it stirred the bough?
There was no breath of wind!
Why did the aspena tremble
In the quiet of sunset?

Was it the shadow of trees
That slipped softly
Over the hill
Into the canyon?

Why did the slim, young moon
Shine as of minted silver
And the little, red foxes
Bark from their coverts?

Then I knew...
In the scent of the wild rose
Knew in the delicate perfume
Flooding the trail
That Beauty was passing...
Diana... the lovely and swift
With her lean, gray, phantom hounds.

Deep Woods

I think I heard Pan laugh
But

Did I..?
Or was it happy quail..?

I am sure I saw him in the thicket
Saw his crimson lips
Or was it scarlet currants
On a branch..?

He must have moved
Or was it breezes stirring
Or perhaps a swift-winged bird
Flying through dappled shade..?

I am sure that I heard him laugh
And saw him move
But
Did I..?

AB

Elf-World

Deep in the heart of silences it lies
A little lake below dark, towering peak
And whispering trees where myriad wild things seek
A sanctuary under gracious skies.

Black thunders roll above it's crystal deep
And song of hail and wind and lightning flare
Stoop to it's beauty ... and the flooding air
Shimmers it's surface out of dreaming sleep.

Perhaps my feet shall never tread again
Beloved trails marked high against the sun
Nor this wild, pagan heart, miss a beat
At elfin cry of bird ... or sound of rain...
Or watch long shadows trailing tree and stone
Into the cool of night ,.. after the heat.

ATB

Echo

One silent dusk in the long, gone years
Close by the campfire's ruddy glow
With only the muffled flute of an owl
And the quick, wide sweep of a whispering bat...
I called a wild, chromatic scale
Into the dark...
Called to the sky...
Called in a voice full-pitched and keen
To waken an echo for comradeship...

A miracle sang in the crystal night...
Seven echoes answered my call..!

The first came back from across the gorge...
Rang from a peak with its crown of stars
Then tossed it into a steep ravine
Where it laughed again from another crest
The two calls blending as ripples melt
Each to the other in widening rings
On the limpid surface of quiet pools
When raindrops fall.

Then another canon caught the sound
To share again the joyous song
With the summits and valleys down the range
Till the vibrance was like a seraph choir
Of delicate music floating away.

I wonder how far my small voice sang
On the wings of the echoes that mountain night..?
I wonder whether the canons rang
On another star in the fading light..?

Anne Brigman

Earth-Lover

Quivering with wordless need I come
To pillow my head on your quiet breast...
What Lover can ever ask less or more
Than that his woman shall give him rest..?
Dear Earth..!

My body longs for the touch of you...
Longs for your power and tender grace
Throats for the kiss that a man can know
From the lips of the well-beloved face.

What Lover can ever ask less or more
Than that his woman shall give him rest ...
O lift him to heights that the sun-gods know...
On the deep-laid sacrament of her breast...
Dear Earth..!

Anne Brigman

Travail

The dulling silences that hurt the heart
Grow tender with the passing of the years
And though their memories make my wild blood start
There is but love where once flowed bitter tears.

Sad mortal clinging to a dream
Of evanescent stuff as frail as mist ...
As transient as the last, white, lingering beam
That holds the first star in the quiet west.

There are no trails to those far, shining days ...
Fruit cannot turn and be a bud again ...
The resurrection of a dreaming seed
Shall come ... out of the dark and rain.

Anne Brigman

Elegie

Out of the south wet mists are trailing
Their weeping-rains on the ocean's face
And the wind and the little gray waves are wailing
With the cry of the gulls and the daylight failing.

My heart is weary with too much crying
I stand alone, there is no trace
Of those I loved ... the day is dying ...
Gray birds in the dusk are flying, flying.

A. B.

Full Moon

The pale Moon moves above the Ocean's breast
Drawing the tides with faithful, lifting hands
From dreaming shores to shores in other lands
In endless, steadyytoll from east to west.

The pale Moon moves alone nor knows of rest...
No starry host around her presence swing
As whirl the suns round Jupiter... who sing
The triumph of their heavenly zest.

The pale Moon moves in silence... lest
Her tyrant, Earth... become aware that she
But seeks full sight of ONE,.. her god... and he
The Sun, fulfills... one night... her endlessquest.

A.B.

Foam

Endless, arid beaches
Watered by ocean's tears
Where no flowers bloom
At the spent-wave's edge
Through all these thousand years.

Only flowers of foam
Blown from the breaker's spray ...
A moment's shimmer ...
Gone in a breath...
Leaving the long beach, gray ...

Gray as the wings of plovers
As they keen their lonely way
Over the flowers ...
The flowers of foam
Into the dying day.