Wednesday, July 1, 2009

''The Aran Islands and JM Synge''

"The Well of the Saints":

Wishing wells and Druids spells
and land of milk and honey,
led by Atlantic's tolling bells
and Pilgrim's way flat and stony;
tasted I Synge's literary shells
and passed the Well of Saints:
the four Saints of the swell -
Celtic runes do not taint;
paid their dues at the holy well -
windy sighs have restraint.
So my face cleansed in the well
with water pure, clear and quaint;
a riverbank of hope in the dell
servant renewed from cloud's constraint
and the prosaic tides carousel;
so prayed I at Aran's grotto
and took a stone for love's memento.....

Footnote: The Well of the Saints is a Holy Well on the largest of the Aran Islands, Inis Mor, which has great connections with Ireland's fine playwright, JM Synge (perhaps one of the 20th century's finest dramatists). It is a beautiful well, at which I felt totally renewed after visiting it!

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