EILÉAN NÍ CHUILLEANÁIN

Studying the Language

On Sundays I watch the hermits coming out of their holes
Into the light. Their cliff is as full as a hive.
They crowd together onto warm shoulders of rock
Where the sun has been shining, their joints crackle.
They begin to talk after a while.
I listen to their accents, they are not all
From this island, not all old,
Not even, I think, all masculine.

They are so wise, they do not pretend to see me.
They drink from the scattered pools of melted snow:
I walk right by them and drink when they have done.
I can see the marks of chains around their feet.

I call this my work, these decades and stations —
Because, without these, I would be a stranger here.

 

From The Brazen Serpent (Wake Forest University Press, 1995)

Also available from Amazon.co.uk:

The Girl Who Married the Reindeer (The Gallery Press, 2001)
The Magdalene Sermon and Earlier Poems (Wake Forest University Press, 1991)
The Second Voyage (Bloodaxe Books, 1986)
Rose Geranium (The Gallery Press, 1981)
Site of Ambush (The Gallery Press, 1975)
Acts and Monuments (The Gallery Press, 1973)

Gallery Press | Bloodaxe | Wake Forest University Press