Hretha Eorthan Modor - Heavily based on Hertha by Algernon Charles Swinburne

I am that which began, out of me the years roll,
Out of me God and man, I am equal and whole.
Before ever land was, before ever the sea,
Or soft hair of the grass, or fair limbs of the tree.

The fresh fruit of my branches, thy soul was in me,
Out of me man and woman, and wild-beast I set free.
First life on my sources, first drifted and swam,
Out of me are the forces, that save it or damn.

I the mouth that is kissed, and the breath in the kiss,
The seeker, the sought, the soul and the body that is.
I am that thing which blesses, my spirit elate,
That which caresses, with hands uncreate.

My limbs that measure, the length of thy fate,
I am thou whom thou seekest, I give thee thy trait.
I the grain and the furrow, the plough-cloven clod,
The ploughshare drawn thorough, the germ and the sod.

The deed and the doer, the seed and the sower,
Hast thou communed, in spirit as the food grower?
Hast thou known how, I fashioned thee,
Or given the thee thine fire, that impassioned thee.

Canst thou say in thine heart, thou hast seen with thine eyes,
What is here, dost thou know it? what was ancient and wise.
Mother, not maker, born, and not made,
Though her children forsake her, allured or afraid.

In the spring-coloured hours, when my mind was as May's,
There brake forth of me flowers, by centuries of days.
I bid you but be, I have need not of prayer,
I have need of you free, as your mouths are mine air.

Thy life-blood and breath, the life-tree am I,
Green leaves of thy labour, of sweat and cry.
I am in thee to save thee, give thou as I gave thee,
As my soul in thee saith, was it hard to be free?
Not as servant to lord, nor as master to slave,
Shalt thou give thee to me, as to thee I gave.

Andrew Rea January 2025