Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Found myself back in my old home town Inchicore recently. Once I got back home I dug out “Inchicore Haiku” written in 1985 by Limerick poet Michael Hartnett. “Inchicore Haiku” is a collection of 87 haiku written in 1985. The haiku deal with the breakup of the poets marriage, his exile from Limerick, social injustice and finally acceptance of his lot. In 1975 Michael Hartnett’s collection “A Farewell to English” was published, after which he claimed he would no longer write in the English language. From then on Irish would be the language in which he would compose verse. “Inchicore Haiku” was his first work in ten years written in English. Below is a selection from “Inchicore Haiku”.
1
Now, in Inchicore
My cigarette-smoke rises –
Like lonesome pub talk
16
In the sad canal
My face and a broken wheel –
Debris of dead tribes
25
From St. Michael’s Church
The electric Angelus –
Another job gone.
38
I learnt the hard way
Acts of love can break a heart.
Seven white seagulls
64
Blackbird, robin, thrush?
I cannot place the singer.
Exile blunts the ear.
82
Dying in exile.
To die without a people
Is the real death.
1
Now, in Inchicore
My cigarette-smoke rises –
Like lonesome pub talk
16
In the sad canal
My face and a broken wheel –
Debris of dead tribes
25
From St. Michael’s Church
The electric Angelus –
Another job gone.
38
I learnt the hard way
Acts of love can break a heart.
Seven white seagulls
64
Blackbird, robin, thrush?
I cannot place the singer.
Exile blunts the ear.
82
Dying in exile.
To die without a people
Is the real death.
Comments:
Post a Comment
