Ploughman

This is my true ode to Patrick Kavanagh

A ploughman, dabbling

digger of words,

the rhymes of life,

he’d rarely call himself a Poet.

 

A man, thinking to himself,

writes to escape

the unhappiness of his

conventional aches

 

the day-to-day necessities

of filling a belly, raking

hay before autumn’s end

paints the meadows brown.

 

If the critics never

much considered his

simple verses, cared so little

for the everyman

 

way he had of speaking

to the ordinary

course of destiny,

he seemed not to care.

 

I am always shy,

wonder much at those

who boldly declare

their poeticality

 

his sly dig, toss of sod

on the notion of living

off of words.

Twisting the furrows

 

into a measurable line

might satisfy the technicians,

but a real hunger required

a farmer’s education.

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

A man of the land. A hard grafter. I must admit to not knowing his work, but your finely penned tribute here, has whetted my appetite Ken and I will be making a point of checking him out. Thank you for the introduction. Second stanza makes me warm to him already.

Chris

[Ken e Bujold]

you will love PK Chris. While Yeats, Heaney, get the lion's share of acknowledgment, Kavanagh was truly the everyman poet of the Irish. Simple, but so damn moving. I consider The Great Hunger to be in the top ten poems of modern times.

[Chris Shaw]

Thanks for that Ken. Will make a point of checking that one out first:)

[Arundass TP]

Beautiful writing. Interesting line's. Enjoyed reading 🙂

[W. Barrett Munn]

A true ode that echoes the plainspoken and the everyday experience and existence of everyman. Quite an impressive piece of writing.

Winston

[Ken e Bujold]

thanks. this is the 3rd and final in the suite of 3. Waking Yeats, The Gift, and now the Ploughman. my recognition of the 3 irishmen.

[Ken Simm.]

Do we need art in order to live.? At the moment my government, ( I say that in the most loose terms) are cutting back on all the Arts in education because they can't get you jobs. It is my arguement that we do need the arts to live fully and that applies if you are a poet or you plough the fields. I will say however that more often than not you could find the best artists in the fields.

[Ken e Bujold]

so true. though the line about rarely calling himself a poet is direct from PK's own lips. He considered himself primarily a farmer.

[AYVID N]

Dear Ken, indeed, it is often the humblest who come up with the best. Those who labor for a living and not the scholars. Life makes poets out of them and not just a technical knowledge of words. Inspiration was never learned or purchased. So stated this so beautifully, in this worthy tribute.

[Lorry]

I think you hit the nail on the.... Top flat bit of the thingy (Really, someone should come up with a phrase for that)
It is my own personal opinion that anyone who self proclaims their poetentials (poetry and credentials, geddit?) that they are nothing more than a badly dressed hipster who thinks a shop assistant in a coffee store is a fekn genius, and therefore should just go the whole hog and start talking about themself in the third person, so the rest of the world can be shown for the something that rhymes with chunt that they are!
Isn't it up to the readers to determine who what a poet be and not the over headyoucated tosspot who thinks he's not a tosspot? (Handy hint, I have tossed a pot or six in my time)
Poetry isn't a formula that can be figured out in a lab, and for a good reason too. It's what makes so much of it, spoken from the soul in their own unique and individual voice, that maketh the poet.
A handy hint to catch these pretenders out, is to ask them to write a list of their five favourite poets, but then truly stump them by asking them why. Anyone can rhyme off a list of names, but no book tells you why you should like them and you would see through their answer even if it did.
Plus, if you have heard of every poet on that list, then no matter how headyoucated you be, then your poetic licence should be looked at too! 😊

[John the Baptist]

If Kavanagh had only written "Raglan Road," the world would be in his debt.

[Ken e Bujold]

Raglan is a great poem, but the one we truly owe a debt for is The Great Hunger.

thanks for stopping by John

[emmajoygreen]

Such a man is a real man, a thinker who more on and in his mind that places him apart from the over ambitious and overly aware pen-. He is Man first and foremost living life natural, hard and valid. Yours, Ken is to validate and pay such a finely put pome and even more - a genuine gentle tribute..

[Ken e Bujold]

This is the last to the Irish Suite. Waiting Yeats (Yeats) The Gift (Heaney) and Ploughman (Kavanagh) three irish poets who have had an enlarged role in my poetic underpinnings. From Y, the mystical, from H, the power of language, and from P the underpinning of roots and speaking to everyman sensibilities. There are other poets of course: Pound and Eliot for opening eyes to playing outside the conventional rules and Ashbery for the pure fun of how to write to life. But these 3 are all of a time and magical place in my journey

[emmajoygreen]

Will certainly read more of that suite. I originally read Kavanagh thanks to a dear but passed friend. Thank you for reminding me, Ken.

[Ken e Bujold]

i orignially read K because my of my grandmother. She was french canadian but also of irish roots, of which she was particularly fond of, being a wee imp of a woman. anyhow our irish ancestors were Kavanaghs (no relation that i know of) but one day in uni happened upon this lovely little green book (grans fav color of course) of poems by Mr PK. Fate. Had to buy. 40 yrs later, I still read that little green book on a regular basis, sort of like one of my poetic gospels you could say

[emmajoygreen]

Grandmothers and those little green books are the best and often most cherished!

Must sleep now, too late for me. Good dawn to you and yours, sir.

[Ken e Bujold]

happy dreams