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Fabrice Monaci
August is a terrible month (still)
August is a memory month. It starts with my sister and brother-in-law’s wedding anniversary on 31st July; my Ma’s anniversary on 6th August; my grandson’s birthday on 8th August; our wedding anniversary on 25th and my daughter and her husband’s on 26th. The list goes on. However, the outstanding date of memory has to be the death of our daughter, Aoife on 1st August 2004, fifteen years ago.
Time has calmed the waters, grandchildren have ameliorated the loss, but healing and recovery are much less certain. The whole of July builds up to the date and on the day we have a warm remembrance at the bench with a plaque to her memory in Malahide Castle. It includes a champagne picnic. What other way is there? Every year, in a quiet space during that time, a poem like this emerges. It always does.
So read, enjoy, pass on and send me feedback.
Aoife
There is a tiny, dark room in my mind
that is hers, her things randomly stored.
Locked tight with a weave of oldness,
as a kind of worn, unworkable bolt.
The rest of me gives it a wide berth,
fearing the effects it might have on me
should any of its contents be let loose,
even after this time, as I think of her.
Peter Clarke
August 2019
Comments
Phil
09.11.2019 18:20
Captures the daily swirl well Peter. Happy upcoming birthday!
Tom McLoughlin
19.10.2019 20:00
I was there when you returned after your cycle and I must say you hid your exhaustion well. Either that or you are really fitter than you suggest !
Margaret Dromey
27.08.2019 22:46
Aoife is very often in my thoughts. As are you, Margot, Sorcha and extended family. Your tribute to Aoife is beautiful.
Clíodhna
16.08.2019 09:10
I know exactly what you mean. Thank you for this gem. Love Clíodhna
Kathryn
15.08.2019 15:43
Really nice Peter
Aidan
15.08.2019 13:47
Very beautiful. Thank you, Peter
Fíona
15.08.2019 13:29
I love it Peter...so poignant, restrained yet brimming with emotion.
X
Pearl
15.08.2019 12:38
Beautiful
Latest comments
25.11 | 22:15
Grief is experience through the mundane. Simple but powerful. The accompanying image really compliments the poem.
07.11 | 11:14
Hi Peter,
A great observation! Social media can be a scary place... I also need to reduce my time there
Hugs,
John.x
06.11 | 16:24
A great one, Peter, in the context you describe. I don't read social media myself, I doubt my equilibrium could stand it. 'The balance of his mind disturbed' yes, I think it would be.
06.11 | 15:59
Yes, gossip is a weapon of mass destruction.
In my business as well as personal life I have zero tolerance.
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And What About . . .
I have neglected this for far too long, and now it is time again. But what to write about, what poem to share? The world is packed with catastrophic possibilities. Such choices: dementia/genocide colluder or extreme narcissism in the White House; a hung parliament in the UK; the reunification of the USSR with a tyrannical megalomaniac at its head; the eradication of a race by a genocidal government in Gaza; the African continent reduced to bankruptcy and regression to male tribalism; in Ireland, even with an appalling electoral turnout the routing of the far right and Sinn Féin may offer some comfort except we face another FF/FG fiasco. Mother Nature rumbles on its rampage, raging against the human species’ abject destruction of the planet’s habitat. What the . . .
Being facetious right now is my only defence against absolute despair. So read, comment, pass it on, and send feedback.
City Walking and Cycling take 680,000
cars per day off the road
Irish Time Heading
More and more folk, cycling and walking, may
keep gases from greenhouses further at bay
This newspaper heading illustrates vividly
thousands of cyclists and walkers assiduously
stopping some cars on their journey
pushing them aside - making drivers quite surly
Mountains of metal - like scrapyards of sculpture
keep bicycle lanes quite safe - at this juncture
The new revolution is well underway
don’t get behind wheels - hear what they say:
Cars and their fumes play a very big part
the smell is quite phew don’t mention cow farts
Wear out your shoe leather walking
greet travellers with smiles while you’re talking
Force councils to make better spaces
to go out and about roaming those places
where vitamin D, and oxygen from trees
fill our lungs and our brains so we see
how to save us and this magical planet
except for some vicious old tyrants goddammit
Peter Clarke, 18th March 2024
