Beltane 2008

Neighbors ambling along the path behind the back fence stop to look twice at her abundantly curved, monumental form that resembles an ivy-covered Venus of Willendorf. At six feet tall, she stands on the summit of a hillock at the back of our suburban garden. Very clearly visible from the living room window, she beckons, "Come out and plant something."

During the first part of spring, the vernal birth waters break. The skies open. It rains, it pours, it mists, it drips fertilizing fluids from the heavens, which fructify the fields. The air is damp like a baby's bottom. The land is soaked through, water logged. The mud, like mucous, like after-birth, is seething with the stuff of life.

Hear the sea inhaling bubbles
Pulling sand from dampened shore
Exhaling a sigh
Waves rushing in high
She's scattering shells across the floor

An earth-child hears the mother's voice
A whisper now reminds her soul
The ocean reigns
Memory remains
Child once lay in a sea-filled bowl

I can hear her rush of breath
When silence fills my ears
She lives in me
The mother-sea
I taste her in my tears

On May 16, 2008, Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media will release Prince Caspian, the sequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). Over fifty years after it was conceived, the seven books that comprise The Chronicles of Narnia series continue to captivate audiences worldwide. The books, which are ripe with Christian symbolism, are very different than the movies, which showcase flashy computer animation and action. The popularity of the written stories endures precisely because Narnia can be enjoyed at face value or as a Christian allegory.   While author C.S.