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A POEM TO MY MOTHER

On the evening of the 9th August 2006 My wife Kate and I took a walk along the beach at Seafield near Quilty in County Clare. We were visiting our relations. Kate walked on quickly leaving me to saunter. It was a clear evening and the sun was going down over Mutton Island. The first line of the poem came into my mind. I wrote it down and decided to follow it.

The lines carried on till I got to the fourth and I stopped and I could clearly see my mother in my mind. After this the poem took on a different flow and sentence after sentence came down. The poem took ten minutes to write. When I got to the sun going down, I looked behind me and the moon in all its fullness came up and I saw this as the natural ending.

Afterwards I worked on the lines and began to strengthen them but only succeeded in making a mess. I went back to the original and here it is:

 

She lived among the wild flowers

 

 

She lived among the wild flowers

Where cattle graze

And corncrake rasped the stillness

And by the sea she walked

Where the waves made furrows on her mind

She danced at the crossroads

To the sound of flute and fiddle

And her voice chanted the beauty of her place

Her spirit was free

And like the flocks of goldfinches

Moved with the melody

Her passion was for desolate places

Where alone she was never alone

 

Then one day he came

And she went with him

To an alien place

Into fields of strangers

And there she lived

And there she died

But her soul was always in that hallowed place

Where cuckoo romanced the bog

Calling his name over and over

Where the waves made music on the rocks

And the sun went down over Mutton Island

And the moon came up in full

To serenade the night

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AN OTTER FLOATED UP THE CANAL

An otter floated up the canal.

Its nose parting the water.

Rolled itself into a playful mood

Relaxed into a soft backstroke

Within a second,

Pandemonium,

Waterhens came from everywhere,

Ducks gathered around him,

Shouting and flapping their wings,

He quickly surveyed the scene.

And made a quick turn

Leaving the water in a hurried silence.

Free Otter Alaska photo and picture

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Blackbird singing in Basin Street

Blackbird singing in Basin Street

 

Blackbird singing in Basin Street.

Evening kisses the day

Lamp outside is the setting sun

Light steals the night away

 

All around our little house

That means so much to me

Whispers of a misty evening

Romancing the gentle tree

 

Let us celebrate each moment.

As stars multiply in the sky

And evening melts into timelessness

There is no such word as why

Now I murmur sweet nothingness.

As snowdrops lay in flower

For all I have, I give to you

From now until my final hour.

Common Blackbird singing

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Categorized as Poems
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