Beyond the West

Poem for Michael Longley RIP 22/01/2025

Och Michael! You’ve slipped away gentle
just before Éowyn topsy-turvied your land
from Belfast Lough through County Down
and on to Connemara, already budded early
with a rosary of fuchsia lacing the shoreline.
Waiting for the warm.

Carrigskeewaun where curlew has abandoned
the sky, left it to its own aloneness when Spring
is too early yet to flag a yellow-gold goodbye.
Beannacht Dé leat from the marshy dips and hollows
where lapwing, meadow pipit, wren bide their time
ruffled terrified, buffeted askew in this tumult.

You would have checked the neighbours, cooried in
with those you loved, turfed up the fire, mulled
the wine and the craic, thought of shrew and stoat
and all the small things sheltering from this uncanny
storm that scours this little swathe of heaven.

Carraig scith bhán, your restful place on the Atlantic rim.
The taste of salt raw on your lips, frosting your beard.
And children’s voices echoing as they skite and count
the skips of stones that ripple the still lake water.

Beannacht Dé leat – God be with you (Gaeilge)
Coorie – to snuggle/cosy in (Scots)
Carraig scith bhán – A pale resting rock