*”Mise”in Irish or ás Gaeilge translates to English as “ME“.
“Easy now” is how the 47th poem of the collection opens-but this is not a description of anything, it is more the very Irish way of telling someone, generally a loved one or a child to “Go Easy now” i.e don’t get hurt or take it easy on yourself or give it a rest.
This poem is the poet talking to himself, an audience of one.
I gave it the title of an “Epistle” as at the time,myself and a friend had a strange fascination with the letters from St. Paul to various recipients and the fact that they were always generally from a different prison and most likely looking for money from strangers,using the Jesus line as the bait on the end of the hook.
“Life is not how you imagined”- Things had not worked out at this time of the poem’s formulation-Childhood dreams had remained that and “Adulting” was an ultra-marathon rather than a “fun run”.
The poet had become “a rootless tree” not belonging anywhere in particular and looking and longing for Home.
“Ruthlessly seeking approval at any cost”- This is at the heart of anyone who has ever been lonely or left behind. They make sure that absolutely everything is perfect, that everyone has the best possible opinion of them, and they will spend any amount of a resource, spend every waking moment, or do anything possible to elicit approval and acceptance from others.
“With a foot still in the ground”-This can be seen as one foot in the grave and the passage of time, or ,more broadly, the life of an artist, one foot in earthly reality and a means to support their more other worldly work.
“Exhausting” is how it felt at the time-the expense of energy for even the smallest worthwhile facets of daily life and interactions with others. This letter to myself helped a lot. Whatever works for you to make things better for yourself-always do it.
Thank you all for reading along,
The backdrop for today’s poem is a self taken photo of a canopy of trees from the ground up.
Algo.
Algo Poetry-Behind the Lines 