I am the child of Poetry 

   In the "Colloquy of the Two Sages" from the Book of Leinster there is a bit of verse that many people have found inspirational. The entire text is a dialog between a young poet and a senior poet over who should sit in the Poet's Seat of a particular kingdom, as the person who held that seat has died. Naturally, there's more to the story than that, but that should give you some context if you weren't familiar with the text.

The passage that I refer to is where the younger man, Néde, son of the dead poet, responds to the older, higher ranking poet, Ferchertne, who has asked him whose child he is. 

As with most of the Irish manuscript texts, which were copied out in Christian monastic scriptoriums by monks and abbots at the behest of men of wealth and power, the central figures of this text are male. But I have spent some time with the words and their meanings, relating them to my own experiences and practice and I have adapted a version for my own use, and I include some of the meaning found in a gloss of the main text. 

But first, let me tell you why I love this.

My Druidry centers learning, and a love of learning. As I write this I am interrupting my own process of putting together part of a lecture on Botany for Druids, which combines my awe and reverence for the sciences of life with my sense of the sacred and my religious commitment to teaching and sharing knowledge. I am enraptured as I pull in bits and pieces of information on how chloroplasts changed the world and the earliest mosses are still here with us. I am astonished and delighted at how many people have devoted their lives to the pursuit of strands of knowledge that we can gobble up in a second or a semester and be enriched for the rest of our own lives. 

And, as the manuscripts attest, the love and pursuit of knowledge is the rightful inheritance of a Druid. Even into the Christian era the so-called learned class found a high place in Gaelic society. The abbot credited with the creation of the Book of Leinster was called "...a man of learning (fer léiginn) of the high-king of Leth Moga...and the chief scholar (prímsenchaid) of Leinster." Respect for learning is deeply rooted in Irish culture. 

In the pre-Christian era, this learning was held in poetry. It would be hard to overestimate the meaning and value of "poetry" to native Irish culture. It was law, prophesy, medicine, inheritance, truth, wisdom and so much more. It isn't "poetry" it is "Poetry." Capital P. 

And so I worked with the verse, exploring it and interrogating it until I felt I could tweak it, just a little, just a tiny bit, so that I could recite it from my heart. Really, the changes are minimal, though, to a purist, they might be shocking. These little changes lift the words out of the original context and make them something, when spoken, that is no longer a part of the original story. They are a reminder to me of my love of Poetry. Capital P. 

I am the child of Poetry,

Poetry child of Scrutiny,

Scrutiny child of Meditation,

Meditation child of Lore,

Lore child of Enquiry,

Enquiry child of Investigation,

Investigation child of Great-Knowledge,

Great-Knowledge child of Great-Sense,

Great-Sense child of Understanding,

Understanding child of Wisdom,

Wisdom, child of the three gods of Poetry

    Brian and Iuchar and Úar, sons of Brigit

    Brigit the woman-poet, daughter of the Great Dagda

    The Dagda, the descendant of all arts, that is an heir who has all art.

And you, O my senior, whose child are you?

Adapted from: Imcallam in da Thurad / The Colloquy of the Two Sages, Book of Leinster

http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/colloquy.html

Peace of the mountains to you,

Paulie Rainbow