The Backward Look (For D.B.) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

***

I was reading Frank O'Connor's series of lectures on early Irish poetry
(THE BACKWARD LOOK) and listening to both Bowie's newest and an old favourite of mine LODGER. I was at the start of FANTASTIC VOYAGE when the seemingly impossible news of his death trickled through and I went to BBC to confirm that...it was not so. It was so.

A moment ago he had been singing(as he had been singing for me all these years) :

'In the event
that this fantastic voyage
Should turn to erosion
and we never get old
Remember it's true, dignity is valuable
But our lives are valuable too'

I was also reading this 4 line fragment from the 9th century:

'There is one
I would wish to see again,
And give the golden world to win -
All, all, though all were vain.'

'Fil duine
Frismbad buide lemm díuterc
Ara tabrainn in mbith mbuide
Uile, uile, cid díupert.'

And so I wrote him this little poem....THE BACKWARD LOOK.