A friend had to remind me that yesterday was Hecate's Eve. As a crone I love Hecate,her dogs and crossroads, her ways and means, her lantern light. I wrote several poems back in 2016 when I was participating in Joana Colbert Powell's 30 Days of Hecate e-course. It was a wonderful way to stay sane in what was a momentous year for me - getting married, turning 60, my croning ceremony.

And just prior to that croning ceremony I wasin Knaresborough, Yorkshire at Mother Shipton's Cave. It was there I realised that, along with Biddy Early, that she was one of my croning confirmation sponsors. She lived in a cave in the King's Woods and prophesied. She is an Anglophone Hecate made flesh. Here cave is really very, very, woo-woo!

 

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The poem below is revised, but there really is a Three Ways Inn, a straight and narrow lane, a road with five points to turn, Seven Sisters birch and a friend who, with her two labrador dogs, makes a cameo appearance. Such is the reality of rural Ireland. We even have a cross roads that is three ways.

 

The Landlady of the Three Ways Inn

Which when wending your way

includes a turning for Five Points
(Really! Truthfully!)


It’s just after the straight and narrow lane

where Morag walks her two black Labs
and there is a turn to the bog

with the Seven Sisters birch tree
(Really! Truthfully!)

The Landlady of the Three Ways Inn
knows when to call time for last orders.
She's the one who turns the lights out
after the cleaning staff leave.
She's the one with the keys for lock up
and to receive her guests for a Lock In eve.
(Really! Truthfully!)

Hungover or no, choose.
I offer you three, five, seven ways
all of them prime.
This is no trick. Just take your pick.
Choose because there is always choice.

I offer you three, five, seven ways.
(Really! Truthfully!)


The Landlady of the Three Ways Inn
Always knows the time
as any good landlady of a local should.
Also the where and when, frequently
too, the how and the should,

but like any good businesswoman
she stays shtum . .It isn't right to insult
customers' intelligence.


(Really! Truthfully!)

Copyright © Bee Smith 2016, 2018