To a Cuckoo at Coolanlough
For Peter Fallon
“Driving the perfect length of Ireland,
Like a worn fold in a newspaper,
All my deep, country feelings
Wished I could have hypnotized myself
into going back for the cherry-market
at Borris-in-Ossory.
But all I could think of was the fountain
Where Shelly wrote his ‘Ode to the west Wind’
Nesting like a train-fever or combing jacket
Over the town.
A child will only sleep so long, and I wonder
If he is an artist, or have the six
Muscles round his eye forgotten colour,
And look it up, that Saturn-red, wild smudging,
In a dream-book ?
And I wonder, after the three-minute
News, if you remember
The bits of road that I do ?”
from : On Ballycastle Beach, Medbh Mc Guckian, Gallery Books, 1988/1995.
In Memory of David Marcus who died today, editor, translator,
writer and Friend of Irish literature
Chris Murray 