2 poetry
from 'The Haw Lantern' (Seamus Heaney)
'The wintry haw is burning out of season,
crab of the thorn, a small light for small people,
wanting no more from them than that they keep
the wick of self-respect from dying out,
not having to blind them with illumination...'
– because the hawthorn is a magical tree, a sacred tree, and iconic here on Dartmoor. This year, despite the failure of the apple crop, the haw berries hang the trees like ruby fairy-lights, thick and warming. (Also I think I might be learning at last not to burn quite so fiercely myself, or insist on blinding people with my own take on illumination. Becoming quieter, and probably easier company for it...) And:
3 the hawthorn tree
because it is an unsurpassed and completely safe medicine for the heart; the berries and leaves are regulators and normalisers of blood pressure and the heartbeat, either way round; and they also strengthen the heart muscle. Yep, it's one of the herbal tinctures I'm taking...
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