Great Ships
Great ships like trees in the
back yard, under the star
paths; navigators of the
night. From the top-mast of my
high windows, I observe the
currents, and the
winds I know by their
smell. Tonight it's the
east wind, cold and
uneasy. Lost cats
crouch in the branches.
The yew berries have all
been trampled onto the
ground. My husband is curled up
in his bunk - his shift is the early
mornings. But I am the night watcher.
I call the stars to me and I
name them, each and every one, in
Arabic.
_____________________________
Dorothy Molloy
The Poems of Dorothy Molloy
Faber & Faber 2021
Empathy Class
To demonstrate, the instructor told the group
to try and kiss each other all at the same time.
We tried, but there was no way of telling
if we were making simultaneous contact.
No matter how lovely it felt — our faces
gently knocking — we couldn't be sure
we were all kissing each other. OK. So
you see my point? We had to admit we did.
_______________________
Jack Underwood
A Year in the New Life
Faber & Faber, 2021
Walking the Land
In the days before the auction of the farm
that cold March of 1962,
I led potential buyers through the fields,
showing them the bounds and listening
to their evaluation of the soil.
The good land was to the front of the house:
the Gate Field; Jackson's; the Western Field;
the Stone Field where the standing stone
had been bulldozed into the quarry.
The Cottage Field stretched to the east,
by the lazy-bed ridges of the Well Field
where the dog bounded to greet you,
his hope-filled eyes dazzling.
To the north was the Screen Field and the Furzy Glen
where we had seen long-eared owls
winging mystically through the twilight.
Below the pink spreading hawthorn in Murt's Field
was the Guttery Gap into the Quarry Field
that led to Dominic's Inch where we used to gather
frail mushrooms in the dawn along the river.
But none of these were considerations
that weighed much with the shrewd and thoughtful men
who were pondering a bid for our farmland.
_____________________
Bernard O'Donoghue
The Anchorage
Faber & Faber, 2025
