A Terrible Beauty

 

He’ll leave to take his Harvard postgraduate,

this harvest, see perhaps one last time,

straw bales gathered in from green fields,
birds swooping over heathered mountains,
the sun high in the blue sky.

 

This land is beautiful but I feel

no connection to it, he laments and sings
the lyrics of Fields of Athenry.
we had dreams and songs to sing.
Where once we watched the small free birds fly

His Trinity degree, has earned
him two jobs, one on a Centra shop till,
the other as a removal man.
now we deal mainly with evictions,
he mourns.

Children of the construction boom,
Other Dublin friends fear they’ll never work
again, one quotes poetry.
Ireland has changed utterly, changed utterly,
a terrible beauty is born.

Reviews

[arbitrary jane]

evictions, indeed.

it is always bewildering to me how i can be so yearn-fully nostalgic for things i have never had. this is brilliant. i can stand with you in the fields that aren't, whipped by the wind blowing down from the mountains, backed by blue; and feel the burden of them. of all the things we've lost.

[GTVile]

That was very professionally written. You have captured the sentiment of a nation powerfully and mystically. Excellent.

[Lily Mae]

This is an absolute beauty and has within it the magic of the land and life so perfectly.. :) x

[fireblossom]

You show the ancient heart of her dressed in tattered cloths of survival. As always your life is poured out in your poetry. Wonderful construction and tone. Your use of quoted lyrics, a quote from the removal man and excerpted poetry adds a classic feeling. Well done.

[Chris Smith Welshpoetcs]

This poem has moved me my friend, I was over in Ireland last week and the beauty of the land overwhemed me and learnt of the history. You are a true poet.

[Ken Simm.]

For some reason I thought of John Fowles here. This has a wholistic strength and an almost line by line strength also. I can pick out lines that would stand on their own as well as collect to the whole. A lovely, lovely write with a sharp edge.

[Siddhartha]

Oh, pain suffuses each word here. And Ireland. Oh Ireland. The land of poets, pubs, music and I-don't-give-a-damn revolutionaries. It has changed utterly indeed. The boom that heralded a few years of prosperity and now there is nothing. You have written a vivid account of one of the most beautiful country that has been given a devastating deal by cruel time.

[W.k.kortas]

The Yeats reference is perfect; I've always thought he loved Ireland and hated Irishmen, and it seems that love-hate dichotomy remains. This is perhaps the most lyrical of your work that I've read.

[Neva Flores Smith - Cha..]

Your writing is lovely, soft and elegant but yet speaks of reality........very nice!

[Ed Hart]

the world is given to us in the form that it comes, each day...no fault, no blame...the world (and all the critters in it) moves under our feet, taking no account of our frown...it is a great pleasure for me to watch you lend your accent to things