Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our
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Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our

Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our Crab Orchard Review Vol. 12, No. 2, our

craborchardreview.siu.edu
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22.03.2013 Views

Melanie Martin Winter Solstice at Newgrange Seventeen minutes of sunlight in this burial mound of stone and turf. We shuffle down a passageway sixty feet long and even in the crisp April air I feel the walls narrow, a breath on my neck. Layered limestone and quartz, corbelled roof and Neolithic spirals, zigzags carved into walls could be maps of the stars, maps of the afterworld or the changing of seasons, an understanding even then that new life follows death. Here is the chamber, three side alcoves, stone basin of granite or sandstone to hold the dead’s remains. Offerings were pendants or polished stone balls, beads made from bone. A votive offered coins and jewels on the mound’s top. No arrow shafts or axes of jadeite, no tools for the afterlife. 144 ◆ Crab Orchard Review

Melanie Martin This passage grave, house for the dead, was a peaceful place of ritual, a link between this and the other world. Dolmen, Welsh for “table,” a slab of limestone laid across two standing stones. Here, the dead could be left for days in open air on these platforms of stone. Remains were gathered, a ritual washing in the River Boyne. This cleansing a symbol for rebirth, so their souls would lift, rise in that beam of sunlight, to leave this world of bones and flesh. Crab Orchard Review ◆ 145

Melanie Martin<br />

This passage grave, house for the dead,<br />

was a peaceful place of ritual, a link<br />

between this and the other world.<br />

Dolmen, Welsh for “table,”<br />

a slab of limestone<br />

laid across two standing stones.<br />

Here, the dead could be left for days<br />

in open air on these platforms of stone.<br />

Remains were gathered,<br />

a ritual washing in the River Boyne.<br />

This cleansing a symbol for rebirth,<br />

so their souls would lift,<br />

rise in that beam of sunlight,<br />

to leave this world of bones and flesh.<br />

<strong>Crab</strong> <strong>Orchard</strong> <strong>Review</strong> ◆ 145

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