Giants Causeway Walk - A poem
Wouldn’t we learn more from rocks and rivers
From invisible pathways
From the crest of the wave
And the rise of the bird on the wind?
Wouldn’t we heal more
With moss and lichen
From placing our hearts
In fire and earth
In the stories of our ancestors
In the light of the stars?
Wouldn’t we live better
Among the beasts
In the breath of the sea
In the questions of the young
In the refuge of each other’s embrace
In the call of our souls to the wild
Singing « Mo Ghra Thu »?
Wouldn’t we be more beautiful
Wrapped in mist or cloud
Perfumed by dawn dew
The cold kissing our cheeks
The light of dusk illumining our eye
And radiating our joy?
As an Irish immigrant living in Toronto, my trips back to the homeland are like pilgrimage to a holy place. I often discover places I had never seen in my childhood growing up there. And I most especially discover the magic of those places. I am often looking to awaken in myself some ancestral wisdom that colonization cut off. As I walked along the sea at the Giants Causeway last winter, I heard a call in me for the wild. And I wanted to shout back « i love you » (mo ghra thu) into the waves. I imagined a life lived right there on the shore. The way the elements touched me brought me such joy, the words of this poem just spilled out.
- Mary D
