Catherine (Kate) O'Shea
An Artist from Macroom, County Cork
I HEAR YOU WALK TO THE SOUND OF A HUNDRED DRUMS
WHILST A THOUSAND LARKS SING AND BREAK IN THE MIDNIGHT AIR
AND I DARE
NOT ASK
WHERE YOU ARE.
I SIT IN THE PROPENSITY OF SILENCE, WHICH ENVELOPS ME LIKE A FOG
AND I THINK OF YOU HAPPY WITH YOUR FRIENDS - AND JAMES AND BRENDAN -
AM I 'DEFENDIN' -- WHERE YOU ARE?
YOUR DEER STEP IS LIGHT OVER THE MOUNTAIN CRAG,
A STAG
BELLOWS IN THE NIGHT --
FOOT ALIGHT.
AND WRITING IN LONDON,
THUNDERIN'
ALONG WITH THE CROWD.
YOU PLOUGHED
YOUR FURROW.
IT'S NOW SO THOROUGH
WE CANNOT ASK WHERE YOU ARE -
AND WE DO NOT KNOW....
THE FOX AHEAD, THE SUN ON THE MOUNTAIN
THAT FOUNTAIN - NOW DRY.
THE TROUT IN THE RIVER...
WHEN YOU LEFT YOUR QUIVER
YOU WERE ALIVE.
BUT I DARE NOT ASK WHERE YOU ARE NOW.
AND HOW IT CAME TO BE I'LL NEVER KNOW.
ALL WE HAVE TO GO ON IS A BRIDGE, A FALL AND YEARS OF ILLNESS.
YOU STRUGGLED AGAINST.
A FENCE.
TO HELP YOU OVER,
THE CLOVER
OF YOUR SOUL WHICH WAS LOST - THEN FOUND.
THEN LOST, THEN FOUND - AGAIN AND AGAIN.
IRELAND HAS HEROES AND IT HAS ARTISTS
AND YOU ARE TRULY ONE OF ITS MISUNDERSTOOD 'SUNS',
THE ONES WHO LEFT AND NEVER CAME BACK
AND WHO GIVE JOY AND INSPIRATION TO OTHERS ELSEWHERE
IN THE EMOTION OF FEELING.
ON CANVAS AND ON PAPER AND IN MUSIC.
YOU **ARE* ALIVE AND NOW I CAN* ASK WHERE YOU ARE TODAY.
TIME WILL PLAY HARMONY WITH YOUR MEMORY
BUT YOU WON'T BE FORGOTTEN, MY BROTHER CURRY.**
**OUR** ARTIST FROM MACROOM, COUNTY CORK --
LATE AND LOVED IN LONDON.
Page(s) 5
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The