' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' A Wonder Told Shyly(For Res) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

He cradles it
palm to palm

like a newborn.

Talks to it
tenderly

as if his self
was talking to his soul

& the squeezebox
with a little wheeze

(that's almost
human)

talks back to him
in music

(the language
of the soul)

and we
overhear

this private
conversation

&
are still

drinking deep
of its beauty.



*******


Thank you for thinking of me and my mother. It was greatly appreciated. I was coming back through Dublin airport and I saw two LIAM CLANCY DVDs and thought of you. AT THE OLYMPIA and AT THE BITTER END - WITH FRIENDS. I got them for ya so if ya got an address...they're yours. Ya may have 'em but then...ya may not...but now...ya may will! I wrote you this poem A WONDER TOLD SHYLY about that wonderful moment in the concert when he slings the guitar to the side and recites Austin Clarke's THE PLANTER'S DAUGHTER and then asks the squeezebox about a plaintive Irish air.

As Clarke's poem puts it....' like a bell that is rung...like a wonder told shyly...and oh she was the Sunday in everyweek! '