this could be the beginning of a poetic epic a la Angela's Ashes.
Is Seamus going to be some archetypal hero or is the choice of surname
ironic?
Terri )O(
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bunny Goodjohn" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 4:18 AM
Subject: sub: On route to Ellis Island
> Hi all,
>
> Am I replying to the right address for subs and crits? I hope so. If I'm
> not, someone put me right off list. To crit, do you just take a subbed
poem
> and then crit on the same list, ie the same email address?
>
> Anyway:
>
> On route to Ellis Island
>
> >From the deck of the Irish Mist
> Seamus Cuchulain squints through
> the November sun at the stevedores
> on Manhattan's dock and weighs
> the air, littered with broken
> dialects--German, Italian and shards
> of sweet Irish--music to his frozen ears.
> He is stunned by the towering skyline
> and strokes the plastic cover of his
> communion bible, a present from
> Mrs. Riordan. He thinks of home;
> Ma's 'two-up-two down'
> on Court Street.
>
> He watches a tug boat ferry the wealthy
> to the quay, creaking through ice-riven
> water, whose fissures are obscured by fresh
> falling snow; the water's surface gleams
> like boiling milk in a pan. Two towering
> Percherons strain harnessed, impatient to haul
> leather luggage to rich patrons
> in Manhattan. Blue-capped porters rub
> frozen hands in anticipation
> of bright dollar gifts.
>
> He fingers the quarters in his pocket-
> a going away gift from the altar boys
> at Our Lady in Ascentia-as the steamer
> bound for Ellis Island approaches the Mist.
> Seamus turns slow three-sixty and breathes
> the Statue of Liberty, white and firm on Bedloe's Island,
> the quiet shores of Brooklyn,
> the brooding ballast of Ellis Island.
> Closing his eyes, he pictures Donegal:
> heavy with winter, churches and priests,
> and his brother on a kerb, chewing hungry
> bread and jam, thin knees jutting
> through threadbare trousers.
>
> 1st Draft 18th September 2001
>
>
> Bunny
> "Sometimes a poem about a fish is just that - a poem about a fish."
>
>
>
> Bunny
> "Sometimes a poem about a fish is just that - a poem about a fish."
>
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