Seven Demons
Perhaps you do not have to slay
Seven demons with your bare arms
Whilst riding on the back of seven dragons
Snorting fire, careering through the seven canons of hell
Pursued by the seven deadly sins
(though I have nothing against the number seven)
Perhaps you do not need to memorise
The entire Holy book, Koran or Bible,
Backwards, by heart, whilst climbing the seven peaks
Of the highest mountains, barefoot
And without food
To find me
Perhaps I am just waiting
In the soft breath
Of your heart
Beating.
***
Let us grieve for the broken body of our Earth,
For the pillaged devastation of our despair,
Crying out in her agony
Her legs splayed open wide
And all her treasure plundered.
Let us cover our naked bodies
In the ashes of our dead and weeping
Kneel upon this blessed Earth
Sending up a great lament
Imploring her forgiveness.
For this is our body
This is our blood.
Only we have forgotten.
We have forgotten
The Holy Mystery of our lives
The place where prayer
Opens softly in the darkness
Of our bodies humming
With sweetness, the place
Where every cell and fibre of our beings
Is ringing out an Angelus
An Alleluia chorus, an Ave Maria.
Let us remember
The deep well of our belonging
The Holy Mystery of our lives
And let us dream
A new world into being.
Let us dream
A new world Into being.
photo: Bruna Bonino
Siobhan Mac Mahon is an Irish Performance Poet and Playwright resident in Leeds U.K..
Her Poetry performances are passionate, funny, provocative and powerful,
inviting the audience to celebrate a new narrative for the Sacred, incorporating the Divine Feminine and our deep connection to the Earth.
Siobhan writes and performs widely at Festivals, Art centers, Theatres and poetry nights in Ireland, England and Scotland and more recently in Vienna. She was winner of the Ilkley literature Festival Open Mic. 2008 and Sheffield Off the Shelf literature Festival Poet Star 2006.
Siobhan often collaborates with other artists, musicians and writers on projects interweaving word, sound, music and drumming, including Calling Down the Moon, The Mouth of the Cave, Voices of women. And She, Close to the bone.
She is instrumental in promoting and developing performance poetry and was a founder of the long running Wicked Words poetry night in Leeds.
Her play Holding Back premiered at the Wakefield Theatre and Opera House 1996 and Mother’s Day was commissioned for the Chapel Allerton Arts Festival 1999.
She also runs workshops in the community inspiring people to find and trust their own voice through writing and performance.