A Refusal to Mourn

A Refusal to Mourn

1Never until the mankind making

2Bird beast and flower

3Fathering and all humbling darkness

4Tells with silence the last light breaking

5And the still hour

6Is come of the sea tumbling in harness

7And I must enter again the round

8Zion of the water bead

9And the synagogue of the ear of corn

10Shall I let pray the shadow of a sound

11Or sow my salt seed

12In the least valley of sackcloth to mourn

13The majesty and burning of the child's death.

14I shall not murder

15The mankind of her going with a grave truth

16Nor blaspheme down the stations of the breath

17With any further

18Elegy of innocence and youth.

19Deep with the first dead lies London's daughter,

20Robed in the long friends,

21The grains beyond age, the dark veins of her mother,

22Secret by the unmourning water

23Of the riding Thames.

24After the first death, there is no other.

Dylan Thomas

Ithaka

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope you have a good 2013!

Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

C.P. Cavafy

Carillon Issue 34

 

 

My poem The Fisher King appears in the latest issue of Carillon Magazine which is edited by Graham Rippon.  Carillon is based in South Yorkshire.  A single copy costs 6 euro or 15 euro for an annual subscription http://www.carillonmag.org.uk

 

 

Jack Frost

 

Hi blog friend.  I've been a bit out of the loop lately but dropping in tonight for a cup of tea.  Above is the cover of a wonderful children's story I got for the kids in work.  In the story Jack Frost comes to play with a boy whom he warns not to mention anything warm or the spell of his existence will be broken.  Of course in the end the boy finds a snowdrop and says to Jack that spring must be coming.  Jack Frost disappears into the wind whispering "See you next winter!"

 

I'm just completing a group project on developing an induction pack for a student.  Next I'm getting my teeth into an essay on nature versus nurture, genes and environment.  This should be very stimulating as it delves into psychology, sociology, philosophy, science, all sorts really.  Here I am where I never imagined I would be. 

 

I thought of an idea for a children's story.  I must try to write a story at the weekend.  Chat again soon.

 

R.I.P Tommy Murray

I was shocked to hear of the death of Tommy Murray on Saturday. I came to know him to talk to through Boyne Berries Magazine and through The Boyne Readings and Open Mic. Tommy had been a featured reader at this year's May reading. I last spoke to him at the Boyne Berries 12 launch. He asked for a copy of my chapbook. I liked him. I can hear him reading from his poem "Van Winkle's Return" included in his poetry collection "Swimming with Dolphins" (Lapwing, 2012):

Look at me
Blear-eyed, grubby
As dishevelled
As a swallow in a sandstorm
Reeking of sloe gin and juniper
Hair, a hurricane of
Grizzled grey and auburn
Time trailing in my wake

I attended Tommy's removal in Trim church tonight. It's a beautiful church really. It's a cold, dark November night. The stars are twinkling. It's Guy Fawkes Night.

Condolences to his family, friends and fellow writers in The Meath Writers' Circle.

Tommy Murray was pictured below with Paddy Smith, chairman of Boyne Writers' Group.

Bookmarks

I have a lot of things to read at the moment, lots to interest me. I am lucky and lucky I have these two lovely bookmarks to keep me on track. Thanks to Honor Duff I have a copy of Mary Lavin's "In a Cafe" to read. I found a copy of "Tales from Bective Bridge" in the John Paul II Library in Maynooth.

The bookmarks pictured below were produced for the Fleadh Cheoil na hEireann in Cavan with the Cavan/Meath LitLab. I think both poets capture something essential in a few short lines.

Last Wednesday Open Mic in The Twisted Pepper

I attended the Halloween Last Wednesday Open Mic in The Twisted Pepper on Middle Abbey Street last night.  I read three poems relating to Halloween and one from my poetry chapbook Drawn to the Light.  There were many excellent readers taking part.  I met Evan Costigan, Phil Lynch and Eamonn Lynskey.  Oran Ryan, Sarah Lundberg and Ross Hathaway of Seven Towers Agency were present.  Bob Shapeshaft read some poems of his own and one by Blathnaid Nolan called "Question" from a book edited by Dermot Bolger which I need to look for.

Seven Towers are delighted to announce the launch of Oran Ryan’s Novel ‘One Inch Punch’ on the 15^th November at 7 pm. at the Irish Writers Centre.

The novel will be launched by Senator David Norris.