AT
THE
THRESHHOLD
seasonal notes and poems
regularly updated
*
ALADDIN
*
TENDER RELATING
delving in a small circle
*
info@pleasanthouse.com
Pleasant
House 
seasonal notes and poems
Samhain 2006
Nanna Aida Svendsen ©
November first. Samhain. Half way between autumn equinox and winter
solstice. Start of the dark season here in the North
and long considered the first day of winter.
Nature as if in recognition of the day has sent the first small swirling
snowflakes to dance across the land. They scurry about
tossed by a fierce and whirling wind. Time to turn inside at this threshold
and attend to that which, no longer
is appropriate and requires to be let go of, and to that which is is
craving recognition, and requires honoring that we might be better nourished
through the times to come. In support of this I leave you with a picture
of apples from the garden - and a poem
Yours as ever Nanna
Sacrifice
Red apples holding
Onto the tree in the wind
Not wanting to let go
Bounce on the ground
Be bruised, even smashed
Before, if they’re lucky,
Being consumed.
Oh they were made
For this
Designed to be eaten
By the deer
Who will come,
When the world is still,
Lift them from the ground
In their soft lipped mouths
And devour them
The seed however
Cries out
For this strange journey
To be transported
To some fresh and fertile patch
Merge with the earth, crack
And release the small tree
Hidden inside it
For every birth
Some kind of death
Some kind of surrender
Of what went before
Yet to refuse this dying
Is a sacrifice too
Those apples
Still clinging to the tree
When winter comes
May rot away uneaten
And their shriveled seeds
Will fall
Too close to the mother tree
To blossom
Nanna Aida Svendsen
www.pleasanthouse.com
November 1st 2006
