A poem about the old and lonely, who are all about us. The video features Ross Errilly Friary. This national monument is a medieval Franciscan friary located about a mile from Headford, County Galway, Ireland.
Cormac’s first collection of poetry, The Boy with the Radio, was published in May 2022 by Beir Bua Press. You can order your copy here : https://beirbuapress.com/2022/05/03/the-boy-with-the-radio-by-cormac-culkeen/
Listen to the poem recited by Cormac Culkeen in the video link below:
Hermit Inquiring knocks still him Like a mouse in open grass Beneath a hawk’s shadow Shifting on thermals, Where cold lamps light Gathers night damp rooms Growing dust into His daily path, Curtains latch lying windows, Folds of drawing fabric swing Watching aged moments Pass into never Floormap layers of newspaper Accretions marking past’s mould Where brief conceit Did immerse worlds. Slowly, another knock moves him Through his curt, ancient trail, His listening chair, His mumbling radio, Where infinity becomes a stifle Of small gestures glimpsed unseen, A stained mug, A kettle’s hiss, Rheumy squints through glasses Bring him a sleeved arm, Some tuneless whistling Stills his pulse, Movement muted to breath Seeing quieter figures shrink, Rain strums upon Fading steps, Shadows melt in the panes Shuffle from its rivet gaze. Recognising a stasis, Spokes of sunlight Drop through curtain depths Seeds of light’s silence Angling for pause, Touch his hands. Cormac Culkeen 2021
Recent posts by Cormac Culkeen:
For the Rockin’ Bus Driver, by Cormac Culkeen.
A prose poem in tribute to one of the fighters no one sees. A film of this poem is short listed for the Cork Winter Warmer Festival 2022.
A Shop’s Glimpses, a poem by Cormac Culkeen
This is about shopping in Galway at Christmas time with images of Eyre Square and the Christmas Market. I hope you enjoy.
No Time to Lose, a poem by Cormac Culkeen
A rhyming poem about the various forms of loss that afflict human life.
Cormac Culkeen 