Rock of Cashel Crows. Cashel, County Tipperary: photo by Tony Webster, 13 October 2013
..............................
Looking at the crow on roof
now on top the wire
wet soaked in January heavy rain,
heavy traffic at crossroad
soaked with desire
in a cottage by an Ireland lake.
Three crows together
in the thunderous rain,
a cat's wide head, swaying,
soaking in rainfall,
in a cottage by a lake in Ireland.
Two crows, one picking its feet,
the other eating something big.
One crow in the integration of cries
by a lake in Ireland in a cottage in the rain,
by a lake, in a loch
in a moment locked up,
mindless, faceless, bottomed out
without motion, speed or sound
in the bottom of the lake of
grief and dreams splintered
by the rising sun.
Looking at the crow on roof
now on top the wire
wet soaked in January heavy rain,
heavy traffic at crossroad
soaked with desire
in a cottage by an Ireland lake.
Three crows together
in the thunderous rain,
a cat's wide head, swaying,
soaking in rainfall,
in a cottage by a lake in Ireland.
Two crows, one picking its feet,
the other eating something big.
One crow in the integration of cries
by a lake in Ireland in a cottage in the rain,
by a lake, in a loch
in a moment locked up,
mindless, faceless, bottomed out
without motion, speed or sound
in the bottom of the lake of
grief and dreams splintered
by the rising sun.
Joseph Ceravolo (1934-1988): Irish Entry (February 4, 1988), from Collected Poems, 2012
Quirke's cottages, Coomasaharn, with Lake and Mountain of Coomasaharn [County Kerry]: photo by Richard Gibson, 21 January 1887 (Eblana Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland)
Quirke's cottages, Coomasaharn, with Lake and Mountain of Coomasaharn [County Kerry]: photo by Richard Gibson, 21 January 1887 (Eblana Photograph Collection, National Library of Ireland)
Hooded Crow (Corvus [corone] cornix), Fr. Corneille mantelée, Bull Island, County Dublin: photo by Eugene Archer, 12 December 2006
Hooded Crow (Corvus [corone] cornix), Fr. Corneille mantelée, Dalkey, County Dublin: photo by Eugene Archer, 12 May 2007
Crows, County Dublin: photo by Jenni, 20 November 2013
Irish Summer (Toor, County Tipperary): photo by final gather, 25 August 2011
Knocknagorravela. This track leads to a pass between Castle Rock and Knocknagorravela, south of Kenmare, on the Beara Peninsula of Ireland: photo by Tony Hall, 25 August 2011
Rainy Ladies View {County Kerry]: photo by Ornickarr Greenbarrow, 3 May 2013
Black crows {County Kilkenny]: photo by Mr. Patillas, 12 August 2009
Three generations of a family pose before their "home" at Alexander Street, Waterford. A Mrs. E. White paid A.H. Poole photographers to take this photo. Mrs. White was married to Dr. Vincent White, first Sinn Féin mayor of Waterford in 1920.: photo by A.H. Poole, 2 February 1924 (National Library of Ireland)
At Gweedore, County Donegal: photo by Robert French, c. 1880-1900 (Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland)
At Gweedore, County Donegal: photo by Robert French, c. 1880-1900 (Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland)
Gweedore natives, Gweedore, County Donegal: photo by Robert French, c. 1865-1914 (Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland)
Valtry Lake, Roundwood, County Wicklow: photo by Robert French, c. 1865-1914 (Lawrence Photographic Collection, National Library of Ireland)
POSTCARD: Heavy surf slams homes at Mondo's Beach in Ventura @AlSeibPhoto on scene #El Niño: image via Marc Martin @latpix, 7 January 2016
SYRIA - A Syrian boy holds an umbrella in Kafr Batna town on the outskirts of Damascus. By Amer Almohibany: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPPhoto, 9 January 2016
Wonderful images of rain.
ReplyDeleteCeravolo works the image through, all those frail repetitions, and you can feel it. The brokenness at the close hits hard. I'm still reeling.
Tom, have you seen Fukase's Ravens?
ReplyDeleteJoe's poem is a beauty & the photos take me away from the mountains of snow under which we are currently buried. Do you know this song? We used to do it in Celtic Thunder---https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Mqc8qHmDd8.
ReplyDeleteonce again Tom your post connects to so much that is central to the history of my soul...
ReplyDeleteTom,
ReplyDeleteWhat a crow, what "three crows together / in the thunderous rain . . . by a lake in a cottage in Ireland in the rain," what photos to make all so real . . .
Many thanks to all for all, through the ever more haunting strains of it.
ReplyDeleteAs the elements beat down everywhere upon every one of us both individually and collectively, the wind continues to howl and the mountain of garbage and blight piles up outside the cottage... are they playing our song?
Crow on the Cradle: Ian Campbell Folk Group, 1963
Crow on the Cradle: performed by Tony Papard, from CND Songs, 2012
"This was on the B side of a 45 single made to raise funds for CND by the Ian Campbell Folk Group. The A side being The Sun Is Burning. I played this side when my grandmother was present, and she said it would literally drive my mother mad it was so depressing". -- Tony Papard
The Crow on the Cradle
The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn,
Now is the time for a child to be born.
He'll laugh at the moon and he'll cry for the sun,
And if he's a boy he will carry a gun,
Sang the crow on the cradle.
And if it should be that this baby's a girl,
O never you mind if her hair doesn't curl.
With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes,
And a bomber above her wherever she goes,
Sang the crow on the cradle.
The crow on the cradle, the black and the white,
O somebody's baby is born for a fight.
The crow on the cradle, the white and the black,
O somebody's baby is not coming back,
Sang the crow on the cradle.
Your mother and father, they'll sweat and they'll save;
To build you a coffin and dig you a grave.
Hushabye, little one, never you weep,
For we've got a toy that will put you to sleep,
Sang the crow on the cradle.
Bring me a gun and I'll shoot that bird dead,
That's what your mother and father once said.
The crow on the cradle, what shall we do?
This is the thing that I leave up to you.
-- Sydney Carter (1915-2004), c. 1962
Great song Tom, that Ian Campbell Folk Group performance brought some tears (must be those voices doing those harmonies, coupled to those words), Tony Papard's version all the more to the point (CND) -- those two black crows on the fence out here likely knowing just what's going on . . .
ReplyDelete