W.B. Yeats has alot to answer for if you are an Irish poet!- including the title of the 31st piece in BE.aGaIN . I had a grá (Irish for love) for His incredibly descriptive long titles to some of his works-“(An Irish Airman foresees his death”, “A Drunken Man’s praise of Sobriety” or the incredibly elucidatory “Mongan Laments The Change That Has Come Upon Him and His Beloved”were just some)-that seemed to say more than most poets did in the entirety of their output.
That sense of “divilment” and audacity is attempted in the title of this work.
To set the scene,Dun Laoghaire or DunLeary -or Kingstown as it was called after a visit by King George IV-is a natural harbour in Dublin Bay.It was also the site of the world’s first commuter railway,and also the world’s first atmospheric railway as an extravagant extension to it,which ran to Dalkey.
Today it’s main pier is enjoyed by tourists,dog walkers, hungry seagulls,day trippers and happy -or as in this poem-unhappy couples.
This poem is a poem of departure,of separation,and full of the hidden forces that keep people together and pull people apart.
This was the first stream of consciousness poem that I was happy to put in print.I liked that it starts with a dog barking and ends with a man realizing that no matter what he says,it will not be enough to stop this particular ship existing his harbour.There is a quotidian,quaint but helpless sense of resignation as the world moves on around him while the storm has formed in his head and in his heart on a warm summer’s evening.
“My breath never enough to keep you here”
Algo
Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines 