Description
geomantic, a. and n.
(dʒiːəʊˈmæntɪk)
A. adj. Belonging to geomancy – (Greek: γεωμαντεία, “earth divination”) – a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand.
B. n. A geomancer. Obs.
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Comprising eighty-one poems of nine 9-syllable lines, Paula Meehan’s extraordinary new collection is both a controlled experiment with the challenge of form and, at once, a free meditation on the nature of memory, community, love and poetry itself. The linked but not strictly sequential poems act like tarot cards or i ching hexagrams, providing moments of clarity and insight during “the long night’s journey into day”. “The craft,” as one poem observes of a glider riding a thermal,“is lighter than the learning”. In that sense Geomantic is a significant new departure and a major achievement.
The Moons
Moons like petals adrift on the stream:
night moon and day moon, moon in eclipse,
slender new moon in the winter sky,
and full harvest moon — a golden ball;
moon of my first breath, my mother’s death,
grandfather moon, my father’s frail boat,
moon of my lost child, my sister’s fall,
moon of my belovèd’s waking dream,
moons of my life adrift on the stream.