A Poem for November

My poem November Roots appeared in Quarryman Five published April past. The literary journal of UCC is currently looking for submissions to issue Six.

November Roots had its origin in that Edna O'Brien quote "In a way winter is the real spring, the time when the inner things happen, the resurge of nature." When November arrives I also always think of Frost's My November Guest, "My sorrow, when she's here with me/ Thinks these dark days of autumn rain/Are beautiful as days can be..."

This is also a poem for anyone out stargazing.

November Roots

Leaving the town, the church bell grown 

to a dull clang wrings out eleven o’clock.

Into mid-November I am walking,

a countryside grown sparse,

though in fact it is dying

and I wonder at what point

is the scales tipped

from one to the other?

How almost vernal the day

becomes in the height of the afternoon

sun stretching its greatest yawn

before setting, the night a shadow

gracing the day time land,

the white and pale blue sky,

marking the bare branches, so smooth

stripped outrageously for the buds of new year.

A silence has fallen on the woods,

the hunter’s gunshot resounds,

the pheasant is startled, the dog unsure.

The moon appears, a fat thumb print

and the stars a trail of breadcrumbs

to the deepest night, an all covering

canopy of midnight pricked with silver.

What if the whole of space

is a river of time and the stars

the sunlight bouncing off its ripples

and currents, dark water, deep space?

I feel closest then to my ancestors,

minutiae of the universe,

hypnotised, rooted to the spot, eyes gazing

upwards, entranced by the heavens

but a thing of gravity. My mantra:

I am of the earth, I am of the earth,

I am of the earth, I am of the earth…

Orla Fay

21st Francis Ledwidge Poetry Award

Delighted to have a poem Highly Commended here. Well done to all on the list.

The Burial of Alice de Fir

The Burial of Alice de Fir published again in Meath Writers' Circle 5th Annual Magazine, an old poem that's a fave for some.

Meath Writers' Circle 5th Annual Magazine Launch

It was a very enjoyable evening in Trim Castle Hotel for this launch yesterday. I captured some video footage and took a couple of photos. Congratulations to Frank Murphy, editor, and to Willie Hodgins who acted as compere for the event.

Frank Murphy One Man, Senator Edward M. Kennedy

 Michael Farry reads Stained Glass St. Patrick's Trim

James Linnane reads The Thinking

Willie Hodgins and Frank Murphy in pensive mood

Launch of Meath Writers' Circle 5th Annual Magazine

 

Frank Murphy

The 5th Annual Magazine of Meath Writers' Circle will be launched on Thursday next, 7th November at 7.30 pm in Trim Castle Hotel. The launch will be performed by Frances Tallon of The Meath County Library Service. The magazine is edited by Frank Murphy. I have a small piece included. It is sure to be an entertaining night.

Recently I was highly commended for poetry in The Jonathan Swift Creative Writing Awards, Saggart, Co. Dublin. I was also pleased to have my Bailieborough Poetry Prize shortlisted poem included in the October issue of the Honest Ulsterman.