extracted from W.B. Yeats for John Sharkey

I read this at the event, after the funeral, at Canolfan Byd Bychan, Aberteifi


dedicated to John Sharkey: poet, writer, artist 1936 - 2014


Mindplay: an anthology of concrete poetry editor (Lorimer 1971)
Celtic Mysteries. The Ancient Religion (Thames & Hudson, 1975)
The Road Through the Isles (Ashgate Publishing, 1986)
Ogham Monuments in Wales (Llanerch Press, 1992)
Pilgrim Ways: Grand Pilgrimage to St.Davids (Ancient Landscapes, 1994)
Celtic High Crosses of Wales (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 1998)
The Meeting of the Tracks: Rock Art in Ancient Wales (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2004)
The Medicine Tree: Traditional Healing in Wales from Prehistory to the Present (Llanerch, 2009)

from the inside of the follow on piece to the previous post

My unexpected alone only suffers being I.

I’m keep writing and...

Feels, saw, looked, could rock face stare back;

its it open the a sky;

the children sat seeing there from worldless the cries here,

not red fire in voices: a the from inside everywhere.

Clock the in numbers, my been world if me part the these distant visible don’t spent simple.

Loss, mostly astonishing, says matter heart.

A I my these betrayed nothing now the see vacant light years.


link to previous post

They Said

They said if I ever betrayed them
they’d climb up through the floor boards
and tie the dog’s ears to
a tea towel
I said apron strings would be more useful
they said it was not possible to climb through apron strings
I disputed that
but thought the debate would last all night
and there wasn’t time
as the dogs flapping ears testified.
The red carpet wrapped around the green shoes
and slowly but surely
the tea towel was pulled from under our feet with incredible discretion
they politely said
enough was enough
I also disputed that
because red is just too
much
even the dog knows that
but because of the angels
we thought it best to keep quiet on that one
generally speaking it never quite works
I’m sure it’s the whiskers
I never betray even the longest Apron Strings
they are usually flowery and I don’t see that it matters anyway.
Pink has always been important to me
thick to the back teeth pink
the sound of a silent room sort of pink
so pale it’s not white
dense fog
cat curling pink