For the First of May, Our Lady’s Month and
Lá fheile Bealtaine
Queen of the May
O Lady of the White May Crown,
who brings the greening glory,
the sun sparkle upon the waters,
and the great sap surge of ancient trees,
enfold us in your blue mantle sewn of sky,
of Swift and Swallow jewelled,
embroidered with the Blackbird song
of bright beckoning,
that we might sing the song of Summer with you.
O Lady of the purple dawn and evening,
whose brow is crowned with starlight
and rainbows of sudden storms arising,
shine upon us now your thrice reflected light,
lowly, and lunar, and loved by the lost,
who find in you their path, their peace, their way home again.
O Lady of the Summer Lands,
whose passing step
now warms and wakes the seed,
the bloom, the berry upon the bough,
and brings to beast and bird
the burgeoning days of nest and den,
and sweet deep secret places
of nascent newness playing,
where eternity touches time
in the ancient song of making,
for of you life itself chose its bearing place.
Bless us too with birth, with life, with long sunlit days of joy,
that in their serried passing draw us forward 'neath
the Sun you bore within and then,
onward into His wondrous light,
that past and childed summers shine with still within our memories, soul sprung from innocence that only you have kept,
then keep for us as greeting kiss bestowed
upon our final homing into holiday.
