When are we leaving, who’ll come
with us, how’ll we get to the ship?
My scrawl of a girl has me mithered
with questions. Whisht, I tell her,
we must gather nettles and dock,
then search for blackbirds’ eggs.
She’s quiet awhile ‘til she whispers,
Ye were crying last night.
Please God she hasn’t heard talk
of the fever that haunts the ships.
She’s seen mothers cradle babies
to the graveyard, men bent double
with corpses tied to their backs.
I’ll lull her to sleep with tales
of soft feather beds in Quebec
and loaves of fresh-baked bread.
Her father will cross the ocean
to find us and he’ll see her blossom
like the whitethorn
that brightens our byroad today.
© Jane Clarke, commissioned by the Strokestown International Poetry Festival 2021 for Bealach an Fhéir Gortaigh, Hunger’s Way, a film by Vincent Woods & Edwina Guckian
Picture 11068798, painting by James Glen Wilson, 1852, image copyright Mary Evans / National Museums Northern Ireland
Jane Clarke is the acclaimed author of two poetry collections, The River and When the Tree Falls (Bloodaxe Books, 2015 and 2019), and an illustrated chapbook, All the Way Home (Smith|Doorstop, 2019). She grew up on a farm in Co. Roscommon and now lives with her wife in Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow. Her work explores enduring connections to people, place and nature. Jane’s awards include the 2016 Hennessy Literary Award for Poetry and the 2016 Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year. She is working on her third collection and combines writing with teaching and mentoring creative writing. www.janeclarkepoetry.ie
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