Scarlet Poppieswords by Alice C. Henderson |
I learned this song--which is sung before every meal at the Wise Woman Center--from a German woman, leading me to the first of the two wrong assumptions I made about it. One, that it is a German song; it is not. And two, that it means what it seems to say; it does not. "Scarlet poppies" are menstrual blood. This song honors women's menstrual blood as being as important as the sun and the rain in helping the grain to grow and in nourishing us all.
~ Green Blessings, Susun Weed
The silver rain, the shining sun,
the fields where scarlet poppies run,
and all the ripples of the wheat,
are in the bread that I do eat.
So when I sit for every meal,
with thankful heart I always feel,
that I am eating rain and sun,
and fields where scarlet poppies run.