ON THE MOUNTAIN OF FORTH
You could lose yourself up here
or just as easily find yourself.
You could see yourself
traverse five counties all at once,
repeat the same phrase five different ways,
its meaning caught between lilt and lull.
Play Chinese Whispers with the west wind
hear the quareness of a phrase return just as fair.
You could again win over a lost lover; Mother Nature,
comb hands through her hair of winter heather –
listen as she inveigles you to gestate
inside her pine womb, to marvel how,
even in darkness, all will find a way.
You could easily find yourself up here
or lose yourself, if that so be your wish.
-Ronán P. Berry
*Quare – strange or unusual. From a colloquial dialect called
‘Yola’ that was spoken in south County Wexford, Ireland,
where Forth Mountain is located.
Photo Credit: View from Forth Mountain, by John Holden.
~~~~~~~~~~~
WITNESS
Sometimes the mountain
is hidden from me in veils
of cloud, sometimes
I am hidden from the mountain
in veils of inattention, apathy, fatigue,
when I forget or refuse to go
down to the shore or a few yards
up the road, on a clear day,
to reconfirm
that witnessing presence.
-Denise Levertov
~~~~~~~~~~~
