and courtly chiefs in their prime
The glory of the Tain's epic cast
and Cooley’s bull, remnants of time,
kindled I to climb hard and fast
slopes o' Knocknarea's trail,
moulded legends in their cast:
where myths are ne'er frail;
dreams bristled where flowers wave
Connacht’s Queen of Cruachan’s dale –
the warrior Queen Maeve –
laid under the moon's silver brail,
a giant cairn atop her grave?
A mound luted in mystery
entombs the heroine of history!
What pride of place for Ierne
in majesty of height, noble bearing,
with stone steep such stacking cairn -
Connacht’s Gaels, loyal and daring.
A monument built by clans and septs
defies like the horses' bit;
cloudbursts of pride dancing their sets
in the steps of stones are lit;
so great a mound this pilgrim found
such strength, toil and sage-like wit,
some noble lying on hallowed ground
to the immortal moons suffuse
atop Queen Maeve’s cairn my tears take muse……
20/7/2002
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| The Bardic Searcher standing on top of Queen Maeve's Cairn with Coney Island in the background. |
Further footnote: Cruachan is in County Roscommon, a neighbouring county to County Sligo, where Knocknarea is. Cruachan was Queen Maeve's seat and also the seat of the Connacht royals, notably the O'Connor's.
www.stonepages.com
www.megalithomania.com
www.carrowkeel.com
Now, when you put footnotes in like this, I think this is an excellent idea. You should do it more often. It would help those of us who are not familiar with Irish history and folklore,mythology and legends.
ReplyDeleteI hope you do not find this offensive to you poetry. There are people who have an interest in learning about Irish History, folklore and mythology, and though they take an interest in your poetry, it is not always easy for them who want to learn, to understand everything you have written straight off. They may have to do some research on the Internet to help them understand. Is there no way to have a link where you may break down your poems in stanzas and explain the meaning, or perhaps have references to help those people who aren’t experts in Irish History, folklore and mythology? I gave a friend this link, and while she did say your poetry is very nice, she did find herself having to do research over the Internet to help her understand some events or things in your poetry.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteThere are only a few poems on this blog (it's not a poetry blog, as 90% of the stuff is prose and referencing places of interest in Ireland) so it's important to realise that; but I agree poems that are history, sacred places or mythology related as the ones here are, will not get people's attention if the people don't know the background or the events and might turn people away from my writing generally. Perhaps I need another blog or somewhere specifically for these kind of poems which need a bit of fore knowledge.
PS I never understand why people want to remain anonymous but I have to respect your wish. Perhaps we know each other and you don't want that to be known. Thanks for the input anyway!
Well.....now young man, why would I not want anyone to know, that I know the best Tour Guide in all of Ireland!!!!!? I was actually afraid to identify who I was, for fear you already have somewhere on this web site, the suggestions I mentioned. I've done that before, I'm a bit slow, so I tend to miss those things.It would have sounded rather foolish for me to ask for what you already possible may have had,...Robert! Yes, It's me Lily. I do look forward to when you do have the link I had suggested, but it is a very big undertaking for someone as busy as you already are. Let me know when you do have that link. I'll come back then, and be able to give a better opnion on your poetry. Cheers!.............Lily
ReplyDeleteThe link would be for legends, mythology etc but as I say this is not a poetry blog. It's a general prose/reflections blog on places and sights I've visted or like!!
ReplyDelete