Concerning the Atoms of the Soul
Someone explained once how the pieces of what we are
fall downwards at the same rate
as the Universe.
The atoms of us, falling towards the centre
of whatever everything is. And we don't see it.
We only sense their slight drag in the lifting hand.
That's what weight is, that communal process of falling.
Furthermore, these atoms carry hooks, like burrs,
hooks catching like hooks, like clinging to like,
that's what keeps us from becoming something else,
and why in early love, we sometimes
feel the tug of the heart snagging on another's heart.
Only the atoms of the soul are perfect spheres
with no means of holding on to the world
or perhaps no need for holding on,
and so they fall through our lives catching
against nothing, like perfect rain,
and in the end, he wrote, mix in that common well of light
at the centre of whatever the suspected
centre is, or might have been.
~ John Glenday ~
(Soul Food: Nourishing Poems for Starved Minds, ed. by Neil Astley and Pamela Robertson-Pearce)
Maidir le hAdaimh an Anama
Mhínigh duine éigin uair éigin go dtiteann
na codanna dínn go léir ar an luas céanna
is a thiteann an Chruinne.
Na hadaimh dínn, ag titim i dtreo lár
Gach aon ní. Agus ní fheicimid é.
Ní bhraithimid ach tarraingt éigin sa lámh ardaithe.
Sin is meáchan ann, próiseas titime comónta.
Ar a bharr sin, iompraíonn na hadaimh sin crúcaí, nó leadáin,
Crúcaí ag breith ar a gcomhchrúcaí, aithníonn ciaróg,
agus murach iad a mhalairt a bheadh ionainn,
agus uaireanta i ngrá ár n-óige, braithimid
tarraingt an chroí is é i bhfostú i gcroí eile.
Sféir gan cháim amháin iad adaimh an anama
gan slí ar bith acu chun greim a choinneáil ar an domhan
nó b’fhéidir nach gá dóibh é,
mar sin titeann siad trínar saol gan greamú
De rud ar bith, mar bháisteach íon,
agus sa deireadh, scríobh sé, meascann le tobar comónta
an tsolais i lár an ruda ar a dtugtar an lár
nó an lár sin a samhlaíodh a bheith ann.
