| Ballyferreiter by Christopher Neenan | ||
For Tomās i So light from Mount Brandon Is blown over four counties A broad sweep indeed of Ireland So it plays shapes in the scale Catches of nets fishing In Ballyferreiter in a sinking sun And so we come to tell our grief In our stranded faces Like we are accustomed to it too much ii He left his world orderly In the broken light and coral Blot of evening like his music He is back under Mount Brandon Summer after summer now year After year learning its ocean words He lived the days making a year A full year and he liked to go Down to the strand to open The door of the sea that at low Tide lay quietly ajar leaving In the cries of curlews and Guillemots. All that he has Left behind and all the things He confided each to each. Over Mount Brandon a halo of angel Landing lights came and went Along a path cut in a vaster ocean iii My lone walk in the night dark Along a road peopled with generations Who lived and caught up a rhythm That for them was comfort. These Are good neighbors regular Like the tides every hour bringing The same tender comforts day In day out. They show that dark Mornings have no fear for mortal Walkers. We too soon enough will Have no other memory like them Along this shore, the black stream Alone, this waving sinking night.
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