The Forging

[bnewman]

Several goddesses have seen me through my struggle with bipolar disorder and the integration of my bipolar aspects — first of all Persephone, with Her own seasonal cycle of ups and downs; but equally Brigid, Irish goddess of hearth and forge, fire and water, poetry and healing. As the goddess of the hearth, She teaches me to manage the fire in my head, building it up to cook or heat or light the home, banking it to rest.

As goddess of the forge, however, She had something else to teach me, more difficult and more dangerous: to make it stronger, a smith passes a workpiece repeatedly through the heat of fire and the cold of water. My passage through the Year of Madness — and much hard and deliberate work, both practical and spiritual, both during and after — has made me stronger, indeed made me whole in a way that I wasn't before.

It's not for anyone to lay the story of "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" on someone else without their consent. This is me claiming it, freely (although She also had some say in the matter), for myself.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

 

listen to this song
 

/ Am - / - - / G -E / - - /

 

Once I suffered seven months of mirth and madness

There followed seven more of mortal fear and sadness

And when the dust had settled and the clouds had cleared

I begged the gods to tell me what was up that year

 

I take responsibility, the Smith responded

It seemed that certain parts of you were poorly bonded

To bind up all your layers to hold an edge that's true

Practically required you be forged anew

 

But now you've been through fire and you've been through water

And you've come out wiser and you've come out stronger

And if I hammered harder than I might have meant

Take heart in knowing that from now you won't be bent

 

To know the tool I've made of you, the Smith continued

You must trust in both the fire and the water in you

Your soul will keep a sharpness that can't be ignored

And you've always been a mightier pen than a sword

 

A pen that's schooled in spelling and adept in grammar

Needs a nib that's been made harder by the maker's hammer

And hammering's an unforgiving kind of grace

But that's the final forging that you'll have to face

 

Because you've been through fire and you've been through water

And you've come out wiser and you've come out stronger

That challenge wasn't one that anyone would choose

But now you're finished forging and prepared to use

 

You're comfortable to grip and you're precisely pointed

To enter on the work for which you've been anointed

You've been dipped in oil, now you'll be dipped in ink

To write the rhymes that right the wrongs and make folks think

 

And now that you've been forged, and we've cleaned up the mess

Your soul will hold up even better under daily stress

Because the work will bring some struggles that you can't escape

But now you'll bend a little bit, then spring right back to shape

 

Because you've been through fire and you've been through water

And you've come out wiser and you've come out stronger

Prepared to play your part and be the Poet's pen

And you shouldn't have to face a year like that again!

Comments

[crystalpyramid]

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