Brendan Kennelly

Begin

Begin again to the summoning birds

to the sight of light at the window,

begin to the roar of morning traffic

all along Pembroke Road.

Every beginning is a promise

born in light and dying in dark

determination and exaltation of springtime

flowering the way to work.

Begin to the pageant of queuing girls

the arrogant loneliness of swans in the canal

bridges linking the past and future

old friends passing though with us still.

Begin to the loneliness that cannot end

since it perhaps is what makes us begin,

begin to wonder at unknown faces

at crying birds in the sudden rain

at branches stark in the willing sunlight

at seagulls foraging for bread

at couples sharing a sunny secret

alone together while making good.

Though we live in a world that dreams of ending

that always seems about to give in

something that will not acknowledge conclusion

insists that we forever begin.

*

I See You Dancing, Father

No sooner downstairs after the night’s rest

And in the door

Than you started to dance a step

In the middle of the kitchen floor.

And as you danced

You whistled.

You made your own music

Always in tune with yourself.

Well, nearly always, anyway.

You’re buried now

In Lislaughtin Abbey

And whenever I think of you

I go back beyond the old man

Mind and body broken

To find the unbroken man.

It is the moment before the dance begins,

Your lips are enjoying themselves

Whistling an air.

Whatever happens or cannot happen

In the time I have to spare

I see you dancing, father.

*

Poem from a Three Year Old

And will the flowers die?

And will the people die?

And every day do you grow old, do I

grow old, no I’m not old, do

flowers grow old?

Old things – do you throw them out?

Do you throw old people out?

And how you know a flower that’s old?

The petals fall, the petals fall from flowers,

and do the petals fall from people too,

every day more petals fall until the

floor where I would like to play I

want to play is covered with old

flowers and people all the same

together lying there with petals fallen

on the dirty floor I want to play

the floor you come and sweep

with the huge broom.

The dirt you sweep, what happens that,

what happens all the dirt you sweep

from flowers and people, what

happens all the dirt? Is all the

dirt what’s left of flowers and

people, all the dirt there in a

heap under the huge broom that

sweeps everything away?

Why you work so hard, why brush

and sweep to make a heap of dirt?

And who will bring new flowers?

And who will bring new people? Who will

bring new flowers to put in water

where no petals fall on to the

floor where I would like to

play? Who will bring new flowers

that will not hang their heads

like tired old people wanting sleep?

Who will bring new flowers that

do not split and shrivel every

day? And if we have new flowers,

will we have new people too to

keep the flowers alive and give

them water?

And will the new young flowers die?

And will the new young people die?

And why?

*

The Visitor

He strutted into the house.

Laughing

He walked over to the woman

Stuck a kiss in her face.

He wore gloves.

He had fur on his coat.

He was the most confident man in the world.

He liked his own wit.

Turning his attention to the children

He patted each one on the head.

They are healthy but a bit shy, he said.

They’ll make fine men and women, he said.

The children looked up at him.

He was still laughing.

He was so confident

They could not find the word for it.

He was so elegant

He was more terrifying than the giants of night.

The world

Could only go on its knees before him.

The kissed woman

Was expected to adore him.

It seemed she did.

I’ll eat now, he said,

Nothing elaborate, just something simple and quick –

Rashers, eggs, sausages, tomatoes

And a few nice lightly-buttered slices

Of your very own

Home-made brown

Bread.

O you dear woman, can’t you see

My tongue is hanging out

For a pot of your delicious tea.

No other woman in this world

Can cook so well for me.

I’m always touched by your modest mastery!

He sat at table like a king.

He ate between bursts of laughter.

He was a great philosopher,

Wise, able to advise,

Solving the world between mouthfuls.

The woman hovered about him.

The children stared at his vital head.

He had robbed them of every word they had.

Please have some more food, the woman said.

He ate, he laughed, he joked,

He knew the world, his plate was clean

As Jack Spratt’s in the funny poem,

He was a handsome wolfman,

More gifted than anyone

The woman and children of that house

Had ever seen or known.

He was the storm they listened to at night

Huddled together in bed

He was what laid the woman low

With the killing pain in her head

He was the threat in the high tide

At the back of the house

He was a huge knock on the door

In a moment of peace

He was a hound’s neck leaning

Into the kill

He was a hawk of heaven stooping

To fulfil its will

He was the sentence tired writers of gospel

Prayed God to write

He was a black explosion of starlings

Out of a November tree

He was a plan that worked

In a climate of self-delight

He was all the voices

Of the sea.

My time is up, he said,

I must go now.

Taking his coat, gloves, philosophy, laughter, wit,

He prepared to leave.

He kissed the woman again.

He smiled down on the children.

He walked out of the house.

The children looked at each other.

The woman looked at the chair.

The chair was a throne

Bereft of its king, its visitor.

*

My Dark Fathers

My dark fathers lived the intolerable day

Committed always to the night of wrong,

Stiffened at the hearthstone, the woman lay,

Perished feet nailed to her man’s breastbone.

Grim houses beckoned in the swelling gloom

Of Munster fields where the Atlantic night

Fettered the child within the pit of doom,

And everywhere a going down of light.

And yet upon the sandy Kerry shore

The woman once had danced at ebbing tide

Because she loved flute music – and still more

Because a lady wondered at the pride

Of one so humble. That was long before

The green plant withered by an evil chance;

When winds of hunger howled at every door

She heard the music dwindle and forgot the dance.

Such mercy as the wolf receives was hers

Whose dance became a rhythm in a grave,

Achieved beneath the thorny savage furze

That yellowed fiercely in a mountain cave.

Immune to pity, she, whose crime was love,

Crouched, shivered, searched the threatening sky,

Discovered ready signs, compelled to move

Her to her innocent appalling cry.

Skeletoned in darkness, my dark fathers lay

Unknown, and could not understand

The giant grief that trampled night and day,

The awful absence moping through the land.

Upon the headland, the encroaching sea

Left sand that hardened after tides of Spring,

No dancing feet disturbed its symmetry

And those who loved good music ceased to sing.

Since every moment of the clock

Accumulates to form a final name,

Since I am come of Kerry clay and rock,

I celebrate the darkness and the shame

That could compel a man to turn his face

Against the wall, withdrawn from light so strong

And undeceiving, spancelled in a place

Of unapplauding hands and broken song.

1  LIFTING THE MOON
23    A Giving
24    Yes
25    The year
25    The True Thing
26    Measures
27    Let It Go
28    Conference
31    A Host of Ghosts
31    Whatever
32    A Language
32    Someone, Somewhere
33    Proof
33    Leaving
34    The Prodigal Son

2  QUESTIONING ANSWERS
37    To Learn
37    The Stick
38    ozzie
38    prades
39    flushed
39    skool
40    Small Black Stars
40    Catechism
41    My Mind of Questions
44    After School
44    A Return
45    The Brightest of All
46    The Smell
47    Thorn
48    Horsechestnuts
48    Lost
49    The Horse’s Head
51    The Hill of Fire
52    The Fall
52    The Stones
54    Nails
54    Innocent
55    The Visitor
57    Tasty
57    The Big Words
59    Poem from a Three Year Old
60    Nineteen forty-two
60    Children’s Hospital
61    The Learning of Pity
61    Girl on a Tightrope
64    Rebuke
64    Play
65    The Kiss
66    A Leather Apron
66    Ten Bob
67    The Stammer
69    The Learning
70    John Keane’s Field
71    God’s Eye

3  BODIES OF SPIRITS
75    Ella Cantillon
75    Litter
76    A Mad Woman
76    Union
77    A Kerry Christmas
77    A Cry for Art O’Leary
83    I Met a Woman
83    Acteon
84    The Hope of Wings
85    Girl in a Rope
85    At the Party
86    A Great Day
87    Moloney Discovers the Winter
90    The Dose
91    Fragments
91    Steps
92    It Was Indeed Love
92    Santorini
93    The Exhibition
94    Love Cry
95    Lightness
95    Love-child
96    Sister
96    Miss Anne
97    Smell
97    Eyes
98    A Girl
108    Eily Kilbride
108    Rebecca Hill
109    Feed the Children
109    Citizens of the Night
110    Baby
111    A Drowned Girl
112    Clean
112    The Gift Returned
114    There Are Women (after Mandelstam)
114    We Are Living
115    Muses
116    May the Silence Break
117    A Kind of Trust
118    A Passionate and Gentle Voice
119    Separation
120    Willow
122    Too Near
123    A Viable Odyssey
124    bridge
124    To You
125    Tonight You Cry
127    The Furies
127    Warning
128    The Moment of Letlive
129    Beyond Knowledge
131    Mary Magdalene (after Pasternak)
133    She
133    Wish
134    Knives
134    Assassin
135    Phone Call
136    Her Spirit
136    Keep in Touch
137    Birth
138    The Burning of Her Hair
140    A Holy War
140    Sacrifice
141    The Fire Is Crying
142    A Half-finished Garden
142    Her Face
143    The Hag of Beare
145    She Sees Her Own Distance
145    A Restoration
146    More Dust
146    Wings
146    The Habit of Redemption
148    Gestures
148    Westland Row
149    The Celtic Twilight
149    The Girl Next Door
150    Maggie Hannifin’s way for women
150    Irish proverb
150    Woman in a Doorway
151    Padraig Ó Conaire’s Daughter Visits Galway on Her Honeymoon
151    The Scarf
152    Speculations
152    Portrait
153    Nora O’Donnell
153    The Work Was Coming Out Right
154    Last Kicks
155    Her Laugh
155    The Good
156    Thérèse
157    Saint Brigid’s Prayer
157    To Marina Tsvetaeva (after Mandelstam)
158    Is It Possible I Shall See You? (after Mandelstam)

5  THE MAN MADE OF RAIN
159    The Man Made of Rain

6  GUFF AND MUSCLE
228    No Image Fits
229    The Third Force
230    Correspondence
230    Consequences
231    A Teeny Bit
231    Saint Augustine on God
233    The Sin
236    Adam
236    I Saw a Beautiful Man
237    Saint Augustine’s Toe
237    A Man of Faith
238    Who Killed the Man
239    Baile Bocht
240    Shy
240    Needles
242    The Grip
242    Cock
242    The Pig-killer
243    The Pig
246    Time for the Knife
247    The Tippler
247    Work
248    Man Making Fire
249    The King
249    The Thatcher
250    The Swimmer
251    A Man Undeceived
251    The Runner
252    All the time in the world
253    That Look
253    A Man in Smoke Remembered
254    A Man, But Rarely Mentioned
255    Night Drive
257    Oliver to His Brother
257    I Wonder Now What Distance
258    Always
259    The Love of God
261    Missing
261    A Glimpse of Starlings
262    Blood
263    A Winter Rose
264    The Names of the Dead Are Lightning
264    I See You Dancing, Father
265    Oliver to His Son
266    Where Women Pray and Judge
266    Oliver to His Daughter
266    Blood
270    James Joyce’s Death-mask
271    The Dinner
273    The Blind Man
274    I See
275    Moloney Sees Through a Blind Eye
277    Kind Eyes
278    An OK Guy
278    According to The Moderate Intelligencer
279    The House I Built
279    Courage
281    The Loud Men
282    Time for Breaking
283    The Second Tree
284    A Black and Tan
286    The Grudge
288    What Use?
288    Old Soldier
289    Service
289    Ask the Children
290    Tail-end Charlie
291    The Story
292    The cries repeat themselves
292    Roger Boyle
294    But it did (a drama)
294    A Bottle
295    Columkille the Writer
295    What Else?
296    Sebastian
296    Light Dying
298    Oliver to a Friend
298    A Man I Knew
299    Raglan Lane
300    A Real Presence
301    Late Yeats
302    Penny
303    Not a word
303    Death of a Strong Man
303    A Tale for Tourists
305    Mastery
306    The Wake
308    Between Sky and Stone
308    A Peering Boy
309    If You Were Bold Enough
309    To Rembrandt (after Mandelstam)
310    Milk
313    Prodigal (after Mandelstam)
313    Treasure
314    The Hurt
315    Immediate Man
316    Six of One
319    A Short Story
319    Heigh Ho
320    The Ovens
321    The Kill
321    John Bradburne
322    Failure
323    Islandman
344    He Left Us
344    The Bell
345    Fool
346    Killing the Winter
346    Spring
347    Heat
347    Loss
348    Design

6  SAVAGE CIVILITIES
351    Moments When the Light
352    Pram
352    The Hole
354    Our Place
355    Johnny Gobless
355    The Fool’s Rod
358    A Parable of Pimlico
358    In Dublin
359    Crossing the bridge
359    Bewley’s coarse brown bread (unsliced)
361    Hunchback
362    Eating a star
362    Ambulance
363    A Visit
364    Dream of a Black Fox
365    The Black Fox, Again
366    Clearing a Space
368    Herself and himself
369    Lost place
370    Good Souls, to Survive

7  HISTORY
373    The Lislaughtin Cross
374    Lislaughtin Abbey
375    A Friend of the People
376    My Dark Fathers
377    The Limerick Train
380    A Small Light
388    Shelley in Dublin
394    The Saddest News
395    The Big House
396    Wall
397    Beatings
398    The Curse
398    Local History
399    Three Tides
399    Freedom Fighter
400    My Indifference
400    The Prisoner
402    Traffic Lights, Merrion Road, Dublin 4
405    Killybegs
407    A Running Battle
408    De Valéra at Ninety-two
410    Oliver Speaks to His Countrymen
414    Points of View
414    Calling the Shots
415    The House That Jack Didn’t Build
417    Statement of the Former Occupant
419    The Joke
422    The Ship of Flame

8  VOICES
425    Connection
425    Shell
426    Sea
427    The Island
428    The Sandwoman
429    Bread
430    Lightning
431    Book
432    House
432    Crow
433    The Singing Tree
434    The Tree’s Voice
434    The Cherry Trees
437    The Speech of Trees
437    Latin
439    Word
440    Loneliness
442    Tide
442    Bullet
442    Peace
443    Skin
445    Scar
445    Bomb
447    Freckle
448    Time
449    Worm
450    Money
450    Rumour
452    Silence
453    Raindrop
453    Key
455    Heart
456    Poetry
457    Game

9  THAT MUSIC MAY SURVIVE
461    The Gift
461    Blackbird
462    God’s Laughter
463    Living Ghosts
463    The Singers
465    Published at Last!
466    The Singing Girl Is Easy in Her Skill
467    Sing and Be Damned to It
467    The Wren-boy
468    Sounds
469    The Voice-of-Us-All
469    Star
470    The Whiteness
471    Entering
472    I can’t find you anywhere
473    Mud
474    Prayer to Venus (after Lucretius)
475    A Soft Amen
476    At home
476    The Adventure of Learning
477    There Will Be Dreams
477    Like the Swallow
478    Begin

481    Index of titles & first lines
 

These recordings of five poems by Brendan Kennelly are from The Essential Brendan Kennelly (Bloodaxe Books, 2011), published both in paperback with an accompanying audio CD and as an enhanced ebook with audio, both editions including 36 audio files of Brendan reading his poetry. These five poems are also included in his large retrospective, Familiar Strangers: New & Selected Poems 1960-2004.