Remember I told you all about my trip to Sligo to relate history and read poetry at the Hawk's Rock event organised by artist Conor Gallagher in the summer. Come on who wasn't paying attention!
Well Crann magazine have included a feature on the event in their current issue. The magazine is all about trees, the event was held in a forest that's why! The artist is featured on the cover and one of my poems is inside. The magazine is very well produced and has lots of interesting, informative articles on trees and woodlands. You can't get it in shops, it's only available to subscribers, details on the site.
When Conor got in touch with me I had a series of poems written about that area of the Ox Mountains beside Coolaney where I was born. It's a fascinating area with the Hungry Rock and its famine connection, the holy well on Tullaghan and its Lughnasa, St Patrick and Yeats connections and the cairn on the mountain. In fact the only place I hadn't written a poem about was the Hawk's Rock itself because it had no remains left by human activity.
So I wrote a poem straight away based on that thought and with references to the other nearby sites:
The Hawk’s Rock
We left it alone for millennia
erratic outcrop in bog waste
looked at it over left shoulders
as we piled cairn over bones
prayed to new gods at the well
died of hunger at the gap.
Its monumental bulk leaned
complacent against futile winds
ignored the sweeps of fashion
the altered forms of worship
constant except for changing
cloud shadows and wheel
of ruthless predators eyeing
small temporary things
scuttling between ditches.
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