Poem of the week: From Arias of Consolation by John Liddy

Night’s Candles are Burnt Out by Seán Keating (1928-1929)
Night’s Candles are Burnt Out by Seán Keating (1928-1929)

XLVI.

One day I will go to Ardnacrusha to appraise
Seán Keating's paintings in the flesh, admire
again the swans by the falls in Dún an Eas

the details in Lilburn's and O'Neill's maps
Thorcor Town House from the 1450s,
the Ilen Launchilen from Windy Gaps

go back to Sarsfield's Rock near Saint
Bridget's Church in Templebraden and walk
with Tom O'Grady without constraint

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through gaps in the hawthorns and talk of old
beliefs discarded by science, the role of Gods
in the bought and sold of the modern world

back for some more of the wherewithal
from Mary Hanley and Nora McNamara,
who helped me scale a boundary wall.

John Liddy’s poem is from his long sequence Arias of Consolation (Revival Press)