Hymn for Artemis of Music
November 22
Glorious Artemis, greetings to you,
the mother of frenzy in every art:
in every age, the deep trance you renew,
and to acolytes a strangeness impart:
a tilt of the head, a gleam in the eye,
and a fierceness in passionate action.
in Bacchic orgy, in mosh pit, on stage,
and in glens where wolves change and witches fly,
none fights rationality’s defection
when logic gives way to hunger and rage.
Anyone can fall prey to your madness,
yet poets and artists are much at risk
for chasm depths and summits of gladness;
musicians, too, love to pull of the mask
and live in the raw of your mythic now,
where every moment calls up holy ache
for essence of artistic creation.
in wildness one feels, but does not know;
one sees without eyes, and dreams when awake—
Outward symbols of inner devotion.
Great Artemis, grant us music’s passion,
both its feral frenzy and its inward trance:
soul-healing achieved through rhythmic motion,
both hands on drum-skin, both feet in the dance,
tongue and lips and lungs united in song.
Sing to us, Artemis, and be our Muse:
Send harmonies that awaken the heart,
and feed its hunger to love and belong
to Earth’s wholeness. For the music we choose
shall unite us — or else drive us apart.
