DEMETER
Feelings/Emotions
I felt it all
The rage and anger
The joy
The happiness
The tearing the anguish
And I searched
For the middle ground
The sure path
Between which I felt
And what I did with it
Then I shed the skins
The layers that build up
When feelings aren’t voiced
Aren’t heard
Aren’t acknowledged
By giving my feelings
Their rightful place
I keep myself far
From the intensity
Immensity
Sheer density
And cost
Of emotion
Demeter ( pronounced deh’me-ter ) whose name means “ Doorway of the mysterious femmine.” Was worshiped as the Great Goddess long before the patriarchal Greeks conquered the Goddess-Worshiping peoples of what is now Greece and imposed their Olympian male dominated pantheon. As Great Goddess, Demeter is known for the founding of agriculture, instituting the social order, and for her mystery rites at Eleusis. One fine spring day, Demeter’s daughter Persephone (my mothers name) was captured by Hades, God of the Underworld. Demeter, in her grief and emotional trauma, withdrew her life force from the earth and winter came., Zeus persuaded Hades to return Persephone to Demeter. To trick Persephone into staying with him, for no one could return from the underworld having eaten food of the dead, Hades gave Persephone a pomegranate and she ate six seeds. Therefore she was allowed to return to Demeter for six months of the year. The other six she spends with Hades in the Underworld.
