Monday, July 12, 2010

Tuesday Poem

This is a blog post from last July
(and the green hillside you can see
in the photo at the top of my blog
is the hill in the poem):

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

12 comments:

  1. I absolutely love this poem - your evocation of that unmatchable, unheralded happiness that sometimes captures your heart and mind, and makes you feel blessed. Which indeed, in those moments, you are.

    Thank you!
    Belinda

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  2. Ireland or New Zealand: such moments happen. Thanks for sharing it, I enjoyed it immensely
    Harvey

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  3. this poem transports me to the place, the time, your glad heart. The painting is beautiful!

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  4. This is magical. Such a light and blithe poem - perfect reading for a winter's day such as we are experiencing here in Dunedin, NZ. Thanks so much and congrats on its publication.

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  5. Tara, glad you liked the "painting" -- it's a photo that I've been messing with in photoshop. This weekend some mighty big lights went on in the old noggin about how to manipulate images in a particular way, something I've been digging at for at least a year and a half.

    lillyanne -- "unheralded happiness" is exactly what it was. Blessed, yes, and with gratitude!

    harvey, I love how we are able, as humans, to connect online, regardless of our position on the earth's surface.

    Kay -- I'm counting on you to send it back my way when the seasons turn!

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  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  7. I love this poem--and also the way the theme of bird poems is emerging in the Tuesday poems posted today.

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  8. And the best part is, it's true.

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  9. oh, well done! the irish love their poets, you know. they woudln't publish you if you weren't brilliant.

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  10. Wonderful! And congratulations!!!!

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  11. I am late in my comments here - but oh, T Clear this is marvellous -

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  12. weather latest: reverted to type, just as my in-laws are coming! wet wet wet

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