NORTHERN IRISH FEARS

The awful spectre of killing on the streets of Northern Ireland returned last week, when two soldiers were gunned down and in a separate incident a policeman was shot dead. These events sent a shudder throughout the Province and the wider community on the island of Ireland, as the unthinkable prospect of a return to the ‘Troubles’ became a possibility. Hopefully the huge outcry against these atrocities, especially from the members of Sinn Fein (formerly aligned with the Provisional I.R.A), may yet prove a positive outcome from such tragic events. This poem was written by a lady from N.I. and has a powerful if subtle message of hope for the future. ~GOSh.~

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WE CHANGE THE MAPS

This new map, unrolled, smoothed,
seems innocent as the one we have discarded,
impersonal as the clocks in rows
along the upper border, showing time-zones.

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The colours are pale and clear, the contours
crisp, decisive, keeping order.
The new names, lettered firmly, lie quite still
within the boundaries that the wars spill over.

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It is the times.

I have been always one for paths myself.
The mole’s view. Paths and small roads and the next bend.
Arched trees tunnelling into a coin of light.
No overview, no sense of what lies where.

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Pinning up maps now, pinning my attention,
I cannot hold whole countries in my mind,
nor recognise their borders.

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These days I want to trace
the shape of every townland in this valley;
name families; count trees, walls, cattle, gable-ends,
smoke-soft and tender in the near blue distance.


Kerry Hardie