A little bit of Culture...  Poetry from soc.culture.irish

Poetry Worldwide  (all else....)

Posted by K E Dennis
on:    19 April 1999

My own mother looks nothing like George Barker's, but she too is "a procession no one can follow after/ But be like a little dog following a brass band."

So, more or less half way btwn Mother's Days in Ireland & the U.S...

To My Mother  [From: Personal Sonnets, 1944]
George Barker

George Barker: Collected Poems
ed., Robert Fraser
London: Faber & Faber Ltd., 1987

Most near, most dear, most loved and most far,
Under the window where I often found her
Sitting as huge as Asia, seismic with laughter,
Gin and chicken helpless in her Irish hand,
Irresistible as Rabelais, but most tender for
The lame dogs and hurt birds that surround her, -
She is a procession no one can follow after
But be like a little dog following a brass band.
She will not glance up at the bomber, or condescend
To drop her gin and scuttle to a cellar,
But lean on the mahogany table like a mountain
Whom only faith can move, and so I send her
O all my faith, and all my love to tell her
That she will move from mourning into morning.


--- The End ---

Questions? Comments? -K. E. Dennis

Poetry Worldwide  (all else....)

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