Hi Terri,
I think this is great!
It satisfies me all the way through.
The two phrases - "so they will" and "so it is" fit neatly in - but I can't 
find a soft end-line half-rhyme in that stanza, like I can in the other 
stanzas. I guess the words "tar" and "anymore" are the two words that beckon 
to me as rhymable. It might be possible to make this stanza work as the rest 
of the poem works - but the second  speech phrase might have to go. It might 
be worth playing with to see if it can flow with the same mouth-music as the 
rest of the poem.
And I don't mind that the rhyme words in the first stanza are 1st and 3rd 
lines and the rest of the poem is 2nd and 4th lines!
Bob
(Who's got a T-shirt with the Ogham alphabet on it!)


>From: Terri <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: New sub; Lines on an Ogham stone
>Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:41:26 +0100
>
>Enjoying the holiday while it lasts.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Lines on an Ogham stone
>
>
>
>Could I translate I'd have cut you a song
>
>from your slant-wise words in the ring-rugged field,
>
>where you stood by the hedge in the hiding-lane
>
>behind the school at Bellanagar.
>
>
>
>Keep three cack-handed fingers straight
>
>to cool your milk in an alder-pail,
>
>or add a fourth, let your moss-marked bones
>
>be water-wove, said wicked Sal.
>
>
>
>Tomorrow the Dublin men will cage
>
>the battle-witch in iron and tar,
>
>stand tourist signs in time, so they will.
>
>It's not your land anymore, so it is.
>
>
>
>The Connaght queen reclaims her land,
>
>so, wed to her will, the Douglas' men
>
>mark with a dot and a ring and name
>
>the hard-cut words at the root of the stone.
>
>
>
>And no-one will limp with you lame through the yard
>
>to skirt the bull in the stumbling field,
>
>print their hands, three fingers straight
>
>on the edge of a stone at the edge of a world.
>
>
>
>
>
>Terri )O(
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>