As we all consider unboxing the future and returning to work after life in lock down, how were the past few weeks for you? Challenging I bet.
Here are some thoughts from a very good friend of ours who spends more time in Kerry now than in Dublin. Apart from his gifts as a renowned Irish poet, we always enjoy his sense of humour and fun.
Brendan described himself to us once, “As a fat poet who writes thin poems.” Recently on radio, broadcaster Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh chose this poem to recite and capture the mood of a nation experiencing COVID19 and the tragic fall out.
In a sense, it might capture where we have been, what we have gone through and what we are about to expect.
We hope you enjoy this poem. Brendan Kennelly, you’re a genius.
“Begin”
Begin again to the summoning birds
to the sight of the light at the window,
begin to the roar of morning traffic
all along Pembroke Road.
Every beginning is a promise
born in light and dying in dark
determination and exaltation of springtime
flowering the way to work.
Begin to the pageant of queuing girls
the arrogant loneliness of swans in the canal
bridges linking the past and future
old friends passing though with us still.
Begin to the loneliness that cannot end
since it perhaps is what makes us begin,
begin to wonder at unknown faces
at crying birds in the sudden rain
at branches stark in the willing sunlight
at seagulls foraging for bread
at couples sharing a sunny secret
alone together while making good.
Though we live in a world that dreams of ending
that always seems about to give in
something that will not acknowledge conclusion
insists that we forever begin.
— From The Essential Brendan Kennelly
