To Demeter
by Michael Hornum, 1997
Hail to You, O Demeter, Mother of all, many-named Goddess,
Nurturing giver of prosperity, laden with bright summer fruits.
You provide, with Your holy daughter, lovely Persephone, growth to all that springs from the earth.
You delight in the black soil, and its creeping, slithering denizens.
You are present in the sown seed, in the ripened grain, and in the meal and flour.
You satisfy our bodily hungers with Your pearl-colored barley and dark brown wheat,
Likewise, You end our souls’ starvation with Your eternally nourishing spiritual seed,
The sacred laws to revere parents, honor Gods with fruits, and not harm animals.
In Your love for Your devotees, Your serpent-drawn chariot
Carries You from high Olympos to the Valley of Eleusis,
Where You are the torch-bearer, who lights the path of initiation into the deepest of mysteries.
