2008

Omey Island

Lying in the hollow

the church hides, on flowers

amongst rabbit burrows 

a human bone exposed

Horses express the power

of ancients, as people

strain and pay, toy

guns express the mood

The tide a reminder of

transience

a lost boat form Cork

 

The Island 

Collecting cowries like gems on the

golden beach, the spit separates the island

out across the nectar of the sea to a

land obsessed with its distance

People isolated and invaded offer

painted stones, in a museum of memory

King Conought stops the tide,

childhood games take on the universe

A tense freedom of difference, tax-less cars

and planning oddities ignore Cromwell’s fort

time is not ours as we loose ourselves,

Kings of the castle for millennia

Searching for treasure under the Dolman

the carnivorous bog clams another victim,

as sundew waits amongst sphagnum

ready to create and dress another wound

Youth creates heroic fantasies of scaling

the world, escaping to higher realms

knowledge becomes the hero of age

knowing you were always there

The island centers our focus

placing us in the cosmos, as dust

collects in the wind and the jetty

disappears under the sea

 

The Lake 

 

The lake like a kidney

cleaning the world

lies hidden in the hollow

yearning to become a bog

Hummocks erupting at

its edge encroach with

their own desires

while lily’s lie

Hiding beneath the

goats beard, ready to

suck you in, a minefield

of pools await

The Mountain

 

The trees are not blowing in the wind or washed by the rain

they are floating in the currents of the tide

moving in and out hundreds of feet above our heads

rich, green seaweed swaying in murky heights

Clouds cling to the peeks of waves made of rock

like ciphers clinging to the belief in their importance

when they are no more than a passing shadow

to conservatism, millions of years old

Aspirations of grandeur rolling down their sides

like waterfalls crashing in a cave

fears built and acted out while we sleep

senses filling the gap to a fragile reality

A mindless game of power and control

exerted by the weakest, leaving us breathless

subtlety lost in an endless soup

we are our hero’s traveling into the sunset

Emotions like rain, a desire created and impossible

the dysfunction of existence acted out

in a cesspit of jealousy - lost in the mountains

a storm threatening and mesmeric locks us in

The castle is merely half a wall and yet it holds

the promontory, seeking attention

disappointment palpable before you reach the top

delusions running away with the wind

Sink your millions into neglect,

guilt etched stones expose the skeleton

through a skin of bog the race is on

charming the other side of chance