Tuesday, July 21, 2009

My first Irish publication!
Last week I sent a new poem to The Mayo News,
and it appeared in this week's edition.
It can only be viewed online in their digital edition,
which is a pay-per-view operation. So instead,
I've photographed the page of the newpaper:




Unfortunately, because of the layout,
the linebreaks were slaughtered.
Here is the correct version:

Golden Hour

I found a new way up a steep slope,
a rusty gate that opens easily
with a simple untangle of rope.
A quick clamber from sea level
to the thistled ridge, ankle-deep
in grasses whose names I wished I knew.

And all along that ridge, from every direction—
gulls and swallows and starlings
in a shimmering swoop & dive—

I scuttled under barbs, amazed
at the efficiency of the crouch, the roll.
And no rips: not one.

And down I went on the other side,
nearly hip-high now in the meadow,
the rambling field of bracken, thickets of gorse.
I followed no path and left scant trail.

And happiness rippled up in me, plain and unadorned,
the kind of happiness for which there is no accounting.

Looped back to the gabled house
across the tide flats of Clew Bay,
slipping on sea kelp, on carrageen.

And no urgency to know who possesses
the barbed-wire I ducked beneath,
in whose unmown meadow I whistled.


--T. Clear

10 comments:

  1. Have you by chance read much Robert Frost?

    Despite the significant differences here, the poem reminded me in degree of Frost. But then I'm not that poetry educated either.

    Love, C.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Funny, Foxessa, we were just talking about Frost a few days ago. I love his work. I was looking on youtube to see if anyone had recorded a version of "Come In", which we sang back in high school. It was a slightly dissonant arrangement, evoking the mood of the golden hour, as it were. Wonderful and spooky that you picked up on that!
    (I have the sheet music somewhere; one of my sisters swiped it from school.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congratulations! I love the poem. Quite took me with you on the duck and roll, right back to a more nimble decade in my life.

    Very well done, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Congrats! & it is a terrific poem, & it is Frost like in some (good) ways. Great sounds in those lines.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hey congratulations! You're now published on two different continents.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congratulations, T! A very nice piece. You took me there to the field with the barbed wire!

    ReplyDelete
  7. My favorite lines: "And happiness rippled up in me, plain and unadorned,the kind of happiness for which there is no accounting."

    Just love those lines. As well as the images throughout. Great poem!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've not yet ventured to Ireland, T, but I've had many a long walk in England, and your poem took me back to when I've ambled "nearly hip-high now in the meadow..." Aren't we lucky, though? Lovely poem - congratulations on the publication.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sandra, yes we are lucky. And I'm grateful, for every moment. It is all a gift.

    ReplyDelete