RETURN The day started with a flurry of gulls and a single cry, as if I had spoken and out of the deep cave where my tongue lies, birds were scattering in an open sky. I went to the rail and watched them rise over the grey clouds as if the sky were a sea and the sea was cold now, full of shapes and the horse-tails of winter. And I spoke, involuntary, out of a delighted mouth, the old, strange word, Ireland; joy when uttered, grief when heard. from River Flow: New & Selected Poems: Revised Edition
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A simple poem on the appearance of Ireland on the dawn horizon as you approach again by sea. But the gulls seem to fly out of the cave of your mouth as you open it in delight on seeing land and saying the word "Ireland". The poem is small but powerful and I feel it is because it engages the reader as it did the poet on the level of sight, sound, imagination, memory, connection. And like the photo with it, it speaks of beauty, ocean, drama.......very atmospheric. Love the phrase "delighted mouth" as if it speaks of its own volition. The poems works so well.
My brother has been doing some family history and finding our way back to our roots in Ireland. My great-great grandfather having made his way from Ireland to Australia and all the threads lost along the way. I read this poem this week with a new ear. The grief and joy holding hands in the pages of his diary, a re-membering of the generations.