Some Poems

The name of our new poetry book has been agreed - Strands of Silk.

We hope to launch this exciting fourth publication early August and in the meantime

here are a few more poems . . .

When I peel onions

I cry for the child I was,

playing with chanies

finding late strawberries

and getting in the way

while father saved his onion crop

spread it out to dry.

On Lenten Fridays, onions

made dinner, sautéed in butter

with parsley sauce, potatoes,

pepper, salt, great appetites.

For Easter Day boiled onion skins

dyed our hard-boiled eggs

Rhode Island red and we were eight

around the breakfast table

when the sun danced.

Bernie Kenny

Sorcery in Caheraderry

The home grows from a ring fort

through the clay of Caheraderry

as we fish lines of syllables

from grey Liscannor stone.

Across a marshy field, flag irises

shine through this greener grass

oversee the lift and return

of two coffin stools

legs turned vermicular and

splayed to take the load -

appanages of dignity that lightly

held a master’s weight a month ago.

And like the sorcerer’s apprentice

we witness the breaking of a spell

as coffin stools turn back

into occasional tables.

Carol Boland

She chose the rose

You live in oracle song

arouse the wisdom of sages

whose stories sing

in the lilt of your pen.

Through your epics

Cú Chulainn stalks

in rhyme upon rhyme

a hero alive in the Táin.

Maude Gonne at Howth station

you knelt at her feet

but her heart only listened

to a marching beat.
Maureen Perkins