Christine Murray
(Ireland)
Glendalough, at Iseult Gonne’s Grave
subside the rocks
archback
silica of bird leans into
a granite stylus
a grave bed
green sea-bed of flowering heads.
shatter of tree hacked-through/
windmills beside an sruthán geal
gold coins in-stream-glitter out to me.
a small a cloud there
her gulfstream ruffles my feathering (toll the …)
blood-thickener sloughs blood against.
let her eat the disease
a gelid-thaw
clysters the bloom
all that glisters is not white /and
not laden with griefs
Euterpe
whistle-in
sing the hollow-pipes
of bird-bone or leg-tube
jointed to.
leech into soil’s black trauma
a double-reed will always carry down
its muffled tune
from contort of leaf to nub of root
there is bone substance to
the fallen bough as
there is to the winged-bird
both perfume.
a maerl of
barey encloses both
the feathered and
the not.
shells maybe –
Westwardly
The beam pools and splits
Mapping the summit of
The not-circling mountains
Ranging white-grey-black
Bird looses the branch
Mapping a departing swirl as
Black glass eddies
-vibrates his departure.
Park
Her jewel is not precious though it has a fabulous-setting
Purples grow in the promenade-ring, a ring made for the
Swishing of silks
There is the presence of the dead nearby at their way-station
In soul-cocoons that need caressing
That plinth appears broken,
The others await its slow metamorphosis
I have walked this circle oftener in dreams
It is here that I played,
A child then.
My girl has unearthed a golden chain from deep in the trees’
Lattice shedding
It makes the ground a constant forest
Why it is autumnal year round –
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Christine Murray is a City and Guilds Stone-cutter. Her poetry is published in Ropes Magazine, Crannóg Magazine, The Burning Bush Online Revival Meeting (Issue 1), Carty’s Poetry Journal, Caper Literary Journal, CanCan ,The Southword Journal, A New Ulster, And Other Poems, the Diversity Blog (PIWWC: PEN International Women Writer’s Committee) and Books by Women.org
Her poem for three voices, Lament, was performed at the Béal Festival in 2012. She has reviewed poetry for Post (Mater dei Institute), Poetry Ireland and Writing.ie. Chris writes a poetry blog called Poethead which is dedicated to the writing, editing and translation of women writers. She is a member of the International PEN Women Writer’s Committee, and she is the web-developer for Irish PEN.
Upcoming publications in Recours au Poème, Skylight #47, and The Burning Bush. She writes the Poethead Blog.