A Poem for Saturday

Grow Up Slowly
(For Cian)

What alarms me is anticipation
of your arrival at the age when
I will be asked to light the brass
lamp and in its snug shadows
tell you stories of Knocknashee.
It was a dark and stormy night …

I yearn for open-eyed attention
from you as from your mother
years ago, while I, intruding
from a previous millennium,
weave untidy yarns of children,
fairies and (of course) a donkey.

So grow up slowly and allow me
time to re-learn the craft of story
in the hope that I may tell one
flawless tale, tempting you to travel
with me to this imagined world
I concoct and occupy.

Michael Farry


Written for my grandchild Cian. I always enjoyed making up stories for my children sometimes told by the light of an old oil lamp from Sligo. Knocknashee (the hill of the fairies) is a hill in south Sligo.