Shaft of sunlight,
reflection off a million specks
of dust,
feeding his face with lines and grace
– soft light paints old faces
the friendliness of sweet Autumn apples –.
Hands held down to his grand-daughter,
she looking up into his face;
the delicacy of the moment
as Vermeer would have caught it
in the light that spills down
from a hole in the clouds.
o we’d have a coffee, maybe two, then off
into town by the side streets, looking for
red-brick houses with lilac doors and yellow
window frames. Drop into the IFI, sit over
another coffee, browsing the catalogue with half interest,
the steady drift of film-goers and idlers with more.
On down Dame Street to College Green,
enjoying our navigation of ever-shifting crowds,
the dexterous manoeuvrability of ourselves.
In Hodges Figgis we’d scan the poetry
shelves and the art books, those names and titles
settling in our heads like we were travelling the
world: Heaney, Mahon, Carver, Balthus,
Kahlo, Lorca, Basho, Holub ‒ dabs of fresh paint
and print to keep us informed for a month or two ‒
before returning to Grafton Street to knit crooked stitches
through the crowds, stop a few minutes to hear a busker
play a saw or slide guitar then around to Tower Records
to be tempted by some new ECM arrival in the jazz section.
George’s, Aungier, Wexford, Camden, Richmond Streets;
the diminishing scale of a city’s architecture, and
the backwards walk down the telescope to the landscape
of our normal lives. Crossing the border at the canal, with
its familiar vista down Rathmines Road to the mountains
beyond; we, like fish, breathing easier in our own habitat,
saw our hurdles flattened, but, perhaps, never recognized
the days of our lives?
That beautiful odyssey: Saturdays, mid-morning to mid-afternoon;
or maybe it was just one Saturday,
or, maybe, it wasn’t at all.
My new collection, The Sound of Water Searching, will be launched by poet, playwright Vincent Woods at 8.30pm, Friday, March 25th in Drop Dead Twice on Francis Street. The launching will be followed by The Upstairs Sessions, a monthly night of performances of all kinds which never fails to entertain.
I have, of course, notified Dublin Airport that there will be a spike in air traffic and Ryanair have laid on extra flights. I expect the ports will also experience difficulties, but it is generally understood that the launching is an event of exceptional importance both nationally and internationally. So, I recommend you get there early. 😉
