Where Have You Gone, Great Goddess?
and Other Poems
by
Travis King
Smashwords e-book edition
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This book is dedicated to the Goddess, Mother of the World and caretaker of all that exists within it. When we destroy this Earth, we destroy our own Spirit, which is bound up with Her. Let each person whom these poems touch strive to make the world a better place to live, by performing each action with kindness and love toward the Self, the Other, and the Supreme Being, however one views It.
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE
The majority of the text of this collection is copyright © 2005 Travis King. It was originally published in print format in May 2005 under the jurisdiction of the copyright laws of the United States. As of December 2007, it is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License, viewable at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
The author’s introduction to this electronic edition is copyright © 2009 Travis King and is also released under the above Creative Commons license.
The cover photo provided with the Smashwords e-book edition is © 2005 Travis King. All rights reserved. The author hereby grants permission to others to use the photo only as an accompaniment to derivatives of this collection, along with the proper copyright notice.
The poem “Welcome, Summer” was first published in Open Ways, Beltane 2005.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Author’s Introduction to the Smashwords E-book Edition
1. GODDESS
2. The Sea Her Womb
3. And the Horned God Dances
4. A Brief Ode to Spring
5. Derelicta
6. The Twilight of the Evening
7. An Elementary Lesson
8. Alone in the Field
9. Welcome, Summer
10. The Cross Where Nobody Died
11. This Summer Night
12. Light from the Sun
13. A Sunny Day
14. VIA ET VERITAS ET LUX
15. The Four Elements
16. Day and Night
17. Autumn’s Dawn
18. The Season I Love Best
19. Leavetaking
20. Dark Waters
21. Storms
22. Goddess Moon
23. Welcome, Winter
24. Missing Winter
25. Where Have You Gone, Great Goddess?
About the Author
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Author’s Introduction to the Smashwords E-Book Edition
Greetings, readers!
In May 2005, I self published a limited edition chapbook entitled Where Have You Gone, Great Goddess? and Other Poems of Nature and the Spirit—in essence, the same book before you now. This electronic edition contains the same 25 poems found in that print edition, albeit formatted slightly differently due to the current limitations presented by electronic publishing.
I had high hopes for the 100 copies of the printed chapbook, but sales were meager. I ended up giving away numerous copies to friends or as promotional material, and I never turned a profit. This is unfortunate, since my plans were to donate half of the net profits to local charities. As I write this, it is February 2009; I still have some copies of the chapbook available and would love to share them with the world, so if you enjoyed this electronic version and would like to have your very own printed staplebound copy, complete with original formatting, then please feel free to contact me at the email provided on my Smashwords profile page, and we’ll work out a deal.
Even if you don’t want a hard copy, I hope you enjoyed this e-book and will continue to read more of my work in the future.
Sincerely,
Travis King
Now...on to the poetry!
(For those reading on an iPhone or similar small handheld device, it is recommended that you do so in landscape format, as some of these poems contain relatively long lines of verse.)
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GODDESS
Giver of life in the light and bringer of death in the darkness;
One being with many aspects: maiden, mother, crone,
Dark lady; muse and inspiration, shatterer of dreams;
Dread mistress of all that is: plant, animal, and person,
Earth, sea, and sky; friend and lover; temptress; captor;
Subject of epics and odes; object of eternal devotion—
She is woman, the Goddess incarnate.
The Sea Her Womb