A poem! I have written poetry. One poem even got accepted. By a publication which promptly ceased to exist.
I haven’t written poetry in quite a while. I would aspire to the discipline of a certain structure, rather than just arranging words all funny on the page.
The stuff about light and sound stems from another poem I wrote in college about Gorecki’s third symphony. I think i took that image and applied it to a late night taxi ride in a busy city.
A haunting
Black sound arcs and meets white sound.
By night the city sleeps through the heat.
A cathedral looms and disappears.
Try to grasp a hand, any hand, as
Pure light without colour blinds.
Sirens wail, adrenaline and alcohol
Mix. We dare bombs to fall.
Driven by the sound of piano strings we
Drive through the city like heroes,
Driven by the sound of jet planes.
Sluggish from whiskey and this year’s war.
We dared to dream of freedom
Now we dream only of survival.
Séamus Sweeney 