Awake
Fearful the moaning
of the wind,
far worse when it begins
to speak
however low and
indistinct
of what you suspect
but dare not think,
rising and falling
like a conversation
in another room,
soft then loud
like bad news arriving.
Julian O’Dea
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
9 Aug
bra
putting her hands
behind her back
to unhook her bra
a gentle struggle
a hint of bondage
supplicant hands
with red nails
turned to heaven
Julian O’Dea
4 Jul
Irish Referendum 2018
“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned”: Yeats
IRISH REFERENDUM 2018
I saw Ireland hanging naked in the rain
dead to her faith
a miscarriage of justice
scrawled upon her skin,
death by referendum.
Why use long-fought freedom
to ape the English sin?
When “the centre
cannot hold” what is to be done?
A woman with an empty womb
hangs in a muddy sky.
The old country is not a home.
Julian O’Dea
6 Jun
“Cats and Boxes”; “Playground”
Cats and Boxes
Muezza, favoured cat
of the Prophet,
ended her tale thus
on the one thousand
and second night:
“O cats who came from
the Libyan Desert
and conquered Egypt
and the known
world with fur and claw,
heed then this tale
of the flying box
which like the carpet
is carried by djinn
directly to Mecca;
I enjoin you to try all boxes
and sit within.”
Julian O’Dea
——————————————-
Playground
The children go inside
vacate the playground
and leave the light
to play alone
glancing and beaming
as a truant wind scrapes
a dry leaf along the ground
like a small boy grazing
his knee.
Julian O’Dea
24 May
Love and Dogs
TIME WAS
we could conjure
a hearth and
you let your hair
down like a pour
of molten gold
from a jeweller’s
trembling hand
Julian O’Dea
DOG
Flopping on the bed
our friendly white Samoyed
happily blows phlegm
into the air
like a tiny Moby Dick
disgorging precious
ambergris.
Julian O’Dea
14 Jan
Garden Whites
Garden Whites
pallid Pierid butterflies
like shards of light
alight on
the bush heaving with scent
wings singed fringed
like scraps of a burned
book carried in warm air
moving fretfully to
settle and crack the code
of pollination
to turn scattered matter
into seed
Julian O’Dea
22 Sep
Spring
Spring comes out again
like a painting
from the attic
that we eagerly scan
– here is a patch of pink
– how lifelike the leaves
– hold it out in the light
– more light please.
Julian O’Dea
18 Aug
FOR THE FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION
FOR THE FEAST OF
THE ASSUMPTION
In Irish not simply Máire
but Muire for the Virgin Mary
like murine for a mouse
in Bethlehem the “house
of bread” bred Christ
to feed the ages then
snug as a dormouse
in a Roman glirarium
fell asleep to rise
from her Dormition.
Julian O’Dea
Julian O'Dea 
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