My Hawthorn Bookmark Poem

I wanted something a bit different to put in with my orders rather than a business card. A bookmark seemed a popular choice, so I thought it was an opportunity to add some of my poetry as well as my art.

Hawthorn is significant to me for many reasons, a large one being that the cottage I live in has some lovely hawthorns on the boundary. In general the landscape here is devoid of trees, but there are odd hawthorns. Lone hawthorns are often known as fairy thorns, and it has been considered bad luck to remove them.

Hawthorn has much folklore associated with it, and one of my favourite associations is that it acts as a gateway to the Otherworld. The Otherworld is what's hidden behind the veil, it's the land of magic and spirits. In Hedgewitchery when you "fly the hedge" it's a form of shamanic journeying into the Otherworld.

When I look at the tangled branches of the hawthorns in my garden I can see where it got it's reputation as a gateway to somewhere else. The other side is partly obscured, and rather like looking through a hag stone, peering through the branches gives you a different perspective on what's there. Different perspectives on things you encounter every day are a very good thing.

Whether the Otherworld exists outside of ourselves, or we experience it as part of our own inner world, or even a bit of both, I'll leave that for you to decide. What I would say is don't discount the profound effects it can have by journeying there and experiencing it for yourself.

 

Poetry © E. Curtis 2022