Evening. Red sky. Standing at the door.
I sense a shadow presence here:
the one who loved this land before.
Those harmless hills bear scars of war.
Someone stood here, full of fear.
This is not a metaphor.
Above me, turkey vultures soar;
below the garden, seven deer.
Someone loved this land before.
loved it as I do, maybe more.
She did not simply disappear
and she is not a metaphor.
This was some woman's home before
pale soldiers came to clear
a land that someone loved before.
What to do with facts like this? I ignore
them? Hope they disappear?
Someone loved this land before.
None of this is metaphor.
~ Patricia Monaghan
U.S.A./ Ireland
~ Beannaichte'
11 May, 2017
@beannaichte.twitter.com
~ PATRICIA MONAGHAN was Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at De Paul University, Chicago. Her several Irish related works include "Irish Spirit: Pagan, Celtic, Christian,Global", an international collection of essays which she compiled and edited for Wolfhound Press in 2001. Her poetry collection includes " Dancing with Chaos",(Salmon Poetry, 2002). Patricia was honoured with a Pushcart Prise, The Paul Gruchow Nature Writing award, and The Friends of Literature award for poetry. She and her husband, Michael McDermott, founded The Black Earth Institute, a writer and artist think-tank whose current Fellows come from various places in North America and Ireland. She was Vice-President of the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology, and a lecturer for the Women's Theological Institute. The above writing is from "Sanctuary", a collection of her poetry contributed by her husband, Michael McDermott, and published in 2013, (Salmon Poetry). Patricia died on 11 November, 2012. She lives on through her beautiful Spirit and her many works, by which she gifted us. ~ With a grateful heart; we say" Thank You", to both Patricia and her husband, Michael McDermott.
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