Will You Taste Some Irishness? III (2004)

The Roches -- My Winter Coat
Well that's a heavy one, Jjorge! It's no wonder that the Irish decided America might be a better place. Here is a lightweight paen from an Irish trio out of New York. I wanted to post it last year but I didn't know all the words. (It is best heard sung upbeat & with rhythmic pauses.) I hope you like it! Someone (thanks loads) finally posted the lyrics online.

My Winter Coat
the fit is generous and loose
the coat is filled with down of goose

should I feel guilty about that?
I wouldn't wear the fur of a cat

the coat is black so in New York City
it doesn't look dirty it stays pretty

the cuffs are purple which perfectly suits
a pair I already had of boots

can't help sharing on a personal note
a secret I have concerning the coat

one of the reasons that it got my vote
is the way it lies open around the throat

for me the collar mustn't come too high
because well all right my skin is dry

so each morning I rub my face with oil
and the fabric you see the grease could soil

can we speak a moment about the lining
after my own heart's designing

it's nylon so your skirts don't wind
up in a bunch around your behind

when the time comes for the coat to clean
you throw this thing in the washing machine

drying you doubt but the filling does fluff
I'm here to proclaim this coat is enough

the length of the coat is below the knees
so in the cold your legs don't freeze

I'm nuts about another one of its charms
there's plenty of room underneath the arms

the coat's not bulky it weighs about an ounce
and it's practically void of any frivolous flounce

I will admit it has shoulder pads
all things considered it's not so bad

it looks all right even from the side
I guess because the bottom isn't overly wide

okay so you say you'd prefer something hipper
but can I just tell you about the zipper

I searched for it for many years
last one I had I tore up in tears

it turned me into Jack the Ripper
but now I stepped in Cinderella's slipper

it runs from the gullet to just south of the crotch
and workin' it's a task you can hardly botch

it's made of a material that will not rust
it won't get stuck you don't get fussed

it undoes easily in the usual way
but you can also pull it up if you'd like to, let's say

SIT DOWN ON THE TRAIN OR CLIMB SOME STAIRS
YOUR DESIRE TO BEND THIS COAT ABOUT SHARES

there's snaps as well which I don't even use
but they beat out buttons if I had to choose

I remember the night I went to the store
fighting my way across the cloak-stuffed floor

suffocating I was it seemed
when from a rack this last hope beamed

of all my requirements I pursued the trail
to find furthermore the damn thing was on sale

it had a small chain at the back of the neck
so you could hang it on a hook but it broke what the heck

with the end of each sleeve I'm totally smitten
ample space for to emerge a thick mitten

if you wanna be warm it wins far and away
it's like walkin' around in your bed all day

I know you're not supposed to be so fond of a thing
but today this is my heartfelt inspiration to sing

I hope you don't think I'm merely trying to be clever
I wish this coat would last forever


Sung by Maggie Roche
Published by The Roche Sisters --Maggie, Terre and Suzzy Roche

LOL

My oh my, she loves that coat!

Pat: Mike, what happend to 'ya. Y'look terrible?

Mike: Ah, I just had a fight with little Lonnie Eagan.

Pat: What started it?

Mike: He said some unkind things about me da. I told 'im there'd be none of that, and he started to run.

Pat: Did you catch him?

Mike: No, but I stayed ahead of him the whole way. Then we came to blows. First I hit him in the fist with me face ....


I forget the rest.

For today, Tuesday March 16, 2004:


"Heirloom"

Among some small objects
I've taken from my mother's house
is this heavy, hand-size, cut-glass saltcellar:
its facets find her at the dining-room table
reaching for the salt or passing it to my father
at the far end, his back to the window.

The table's a timebomb: father hidden
behind the newspaper, mother filling our
plates with food; how they couldn't meet
each other's eyes. When he'd leave early
for an armchair, "Just a glance at the evening paper,"
she'd sit until -all small talk exhausted-

we kids would clear the tea-things away,
stack dirty dishes by the scullery sink,
and store the saltcellar in the press
where it would absorb small tears of air
till the next time we'd need its
necessary, bitter addition. Now it figures

on our kitchen table in Poughkeepsie,
is carried to the diningroom for meals-
its cheap cut glass outlasting flesh and blood
as heirlooms do. I take its salt
to the tip of my tongue, tasting its savour,
and spill by chance

a tiny white hieroglyph of grains
which I pinch
in my mother's superstitious fingers
and quick-scatter over my left shoulder,
keeping at bay and safe
the darker shades.
(Eamon Grennan)


For more on Eamon Grennon go to:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/grennan.html
http://www.salon.com/weekly/grennan.html

jjorge, the Grennan poem is one of my favorites. I've been so busy the past few days, I haven't had a chance to post any of my favorite Irish poems, but I've been lurking in the background and enjoying the ones you've posted. Thanks.

hi bree! How are you?
I'm pleased to hear that you've been lurking.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

As this is the last day of this thread, I will post several poems throughout the day.

Here's the first:


'Mad as the Mist and Snow'

Bolt and bar the shutter,
For the foul winds blow:
Our minds are at their best this night,
And I seem to know
That everything outside us is
Mad as the mist and snow.




Horace there by Homer stands,
Plato stands below,
And here is Tully's open page.
How many years ago
Were you and I unlettered lads
Mad as the mist and snow?




You ask what makes me sigh, old friend,
What makes me shudder so?
I shudder and I sigh to think
That even Cicero
And many-minded Homer were
Mad as the mist and snow.

-William Butler Yeats

Happy Saint Patrick's Day, Jjorge! Thanks for this thread -- I love the Irish and wish I had a claim to Irish blood. Scottish is almost the same I say to myself, but ah well, we are what we are.

Here is some poetry by Samuel Thomson (1766-1816)


I love my native land, no doubt,
Attached to her thro' thick and thin
Yet tho' I'm IRISH all WITHOUT,
I'm every item SCOTCH WITHIN


Elegy, to my Auld Coat
(YES -- Another poem about a coat!)

Now fare you weel my honest frien'!
This monie a long spun day ye h' been,
To my outside a sonsy screen
Frae weet and cauld;
An' monie a social hour I h' seen
Aneath your fauld.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ye war ance a colour fresh an' fair,
An shap'd in fashion to a hair;
But now ye're auld an' grown threadbare
Frae sleeve to skirt;
Alack! It wrings my bosom sair,
That we maun part.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wi' you exulting monie a time,
High up a stride on though sublime,
I h' trac'd the flow'ry fiel's o' rhyme,
Aneath Apollo;
An' made t' the winds my ditties chyme
O'er height an' hollow!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let the ungrateu' thoughtless loon,
Gae prostitute his coat when done,
To office vile, o' cleaning shoen,
Or what's far waur;
Hing't up some barley rig aboon,
The craws to scaur!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unlike to him, I'll lay ye by,
In some lee corner, snug an' dry,
Whaur ye may rest, while duly I
Shall turn an' air ye;
For 'till the dreary day I die
I'll ay revere ye.

Hi Piffka! Thanks for the Thompson poem.





















[size=7]EVEN THOUGH HE WAS AN ORANGEMAN![/size]

AMERGIN AND CESSAIR



Amergin:

I plant my foot on this land.
For I am Amergin
Son of Mil
Son of the People of the Sea
Peoples of ships and barks
Prince of the White Cave
Son of the builder of the Spiral Castle.
Foetus of the Womb of the Earth
Son of the Hag of Beara
Builder of the Tower of Bregon
Climber through the Needle's Eye
Namer of names
Judge between combatants.




CESSAIR:

Here I stand
Daughter of the moon
Cessair.
Poet of Arianrhod
Daughter of Dana, the Mother and Queen
Keeper of the house of Sidh
Daughter of the Northwest wind; I am
Cessair.
Navigator on water
Mistress on shore
Fair as a flower
Daughter of Darkness
Daughter of the House of Arianrhod.



AMERGIN:

Who fortells the ages of the moon?
Who brings the cattle from the sea and
segregates them?
For whom but mewill the fish of the laughing
ocean make welcome?
Who but I knows the secret of the unhewn
Dolmenes?
Who shapes weapons from hill to hill?
Who but myself knows where the sun shall
set?



CESSAIR:

I am the flash of sun on water.
I am the clash of battle swords.
I am the teeth in the sea-shark's mouth.
I am the blood of wild beasts.
I am the fire in the witch's hearth.
I am the evening sky ablaze--
The red of serpents' tongues,
The black of deepest night.
I am a mare that knows no reins.



AMERGIN:

I am the roar of the sea.
I am a bull of seven fights.
I am a hawk on a cliff.
I the hills, a ravening boar.
I am lightning that blasts the trees.
I am the point of weapons.
I am thunder on the mountains.
I am a God that fashions fire for a head.
I am a dragon that eats the sky.



CESSAIR:

I thread the stars across the sky.
I am the kiss of lovers' lips.
I am the mortar and the stone.
I am the song of my homeland.



AMERGIN: I am the wind on the sea.

CESSAIR: I am the bow of every ship.

AMERGIN: I am ocean waves.

CESSAIR: I am the foam upon the sea.

AMERGIN: I am a lake on a plain.

CESSAIR: I am the green of the farest hill.

AMERGIN: I am dewdrop, a tear of the sun.

CESSAIR: I am a lily on a still pond.

AMERGIN: I am the son of harmony.

CESSAIR: I am a word of skill.

AMERGIN: I am the silence of things secret.

Traditional
(adapted by Michael Meade and Erica Helm Meade)

note: The early inhabitants of Ireland fended off invaders through magical, poetic incantations that caused ocean waves to churn and batter invading ships before they could reach the shore. The poet Cessair attempted to defend her homeland by using poweful verse to halt the invasion of the poet-warrior Amergin. But Amergin used his own potent song to tame the sea and gain a foothold on Irish soil. Like the goddesses of old, giving way to newer religions, Cessair and her people yielded rule of the land to Amergin and his tribe.

[From: 'The Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart', Robert Bly, James Hillman, and Michael Meade, Harper Collins, 1992]

'The Wild Man comes to the Monastery'


There was a time when I thought sweeter than the quiet
converse of monks, the cooing of the ringdove flitting about the
pool.

There was a time when I thought sweeter than the sound of a
little bell beside me, the warbling of the blackbird from the gable
and the belling of the stag in the storm.

There was a time when I thought sweeter than the voice of a
lovely woman beside me, to hear at matins the cry of the heath-
hen of the moor.

There was a time when I thought sweeter the howling of wolves,
than the voice of a priest indoors, baa-ing and bleating.

Though you like your ale with ceremony in the drinking-halls, I
like better to snatch a drink of water in my palm from a spring.

Though you think sweet, yonder in your church, the gentle talk
of your students, sweeter I think the splendid talking the wolves
make in Glenn mBolcain.

Though you like the fat and meat which are eaten in the drink-
ing-halls, I like better to eat a head of clean water-cress in a place without sorrow...

Irish; author unknown; twelfth century

oooh, nice, the last one.

I'll say, Osso... a very powerful poem.

Really, both of them were. I liked the Amergin and Cessair dialog, too... especially this line:

"I am a mare that knows no reins."

(You probably know why!)

Cool stuff, Jjorge! Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and everyone who has come to this thread.











[size=7]REALLY SORRY ABOUT THOMSON... but the coat poem, you gotta admit the coat poem was cool.[/size]

The Shield of St. Patrick
(AKA 'Breastplate of St. Patrick.')


I bind unto myself today the strong name of the trinity,
by invocation of the same, the Three in One, the One in Three.
I bind this day to me forever by power of faith Christ's incarnation,
his baptism in the Jordan river, his death on the cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb, his riding up the heavenly way,
his coming at the day of doom I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself today the power of God to hold and lead,
his eye to watch, his might to stay, his ear to harken to my need,
the wisdom of my God to teach, his hand to guide, his shield to ward,
the Word of God to give me speech, his heavenly host to be my guard.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me;
Christ to comfort and restore me;
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same, the Three in One, and One in Three,
of whom all nature hath creation, eternal Father, Spirit, Word;
praise to the God of my salvation, salvation is of Christ the Lord!

Attributed to St. Patrick
Paraphrased by Cecil Frances Alexander

for more on St Patrick go to:
http://www.aoh.com/history/archive/stpatrick.htm
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintp01.htm
http://www.stpatricksday.ie/cms/stpatricksday.html
http://www.saintpatrickcentre.com/patrick/index.asp

Ok then, a powerful post that I can't read. Right now anyway. Back in the morning.
o

Hi Pif!

If YOU liked the thread that is compensation enough for my time spent.







[size=7]Yeh, ok, the coat poem was cool.[/size]

I am very appreciative and I love that you ended it with the Shield of St. Patrick. What a powerful Celtic incantation! Thanks, my friend, for all your work! Piffie

Pif,

I've just been re-reading this thread and realized that I hadn't really read 'Mary Hynes' --I like it a lot!

I think I had missed it because I worked an overnight that night in the ER then had only 8 hrs off (too sleep, update the thread etc) before being back to work for a Tuesday pm.

Anyway, I didn't want you to think that I ignored it.

I greatly appreciate it when you and others take the time to post on threads that I initiate.

BTW it looks like you're going to miss a great gathering in San Francisco 4-9 to 4-12.
http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19053&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=300

Thus far it looks like it'll be c.i., myself, Ossobuco, Blatham, Mr and Mrs Pdiddie, Lola, Georgeob, Diane and Dyslexia. A couple of others were maybes including ehBeth.

I guess your absence from that thread means that you can't make it. too bad!

We'll have to hoist a glass to you!

-jjorge