TIGHT AIR

Patter of Spring rain
turning into live music
on the Galway streets

__sitting at roof level – grey sky
__on wet grey slates

seals cavorting
a girl chuckles at their antics –
angry fishermen

__one swan stands by the river
__blinking in the summer sun

scattered light glitters
on the mountain torrent –
the wary dipper sits on a rock

__town crunches with energy
__drama whispered in tight air

stone faces by the harbour
a tall mound of scrap metal
glints in brief sun

__the old man stirs
__remembering

how it wavered
and then it bloomed
absorbing the life of time

__petal drop –
__dead heads on the compost heap

Lughnasa – turf’s in –
gallivanting to the fair
milking the last sun

__two women on a dark beach
__listening to the tide's mood

sea whispers
in the glistening quiet –
black dog at water's edge

__tips fade & glow & spin
__spththhhhthth!

smell of last night's bar –
huddled under cardboard
the shattered city crumbles

__the addict’s syringe
__is stuck – completely frozen

and the town strolls by
lifted by the rush
of sporting victories

__the rain now drips
__from more than bare twigs

across the bay
gentian blues dance
surprising Burren limestone

__a butterfly colours the air –
__the wind shifts.

a nijuuin renga in Spring
Cuirt, Galway Arts Centre
25 April, 2003

Participants

Gabriel Rosenstock (master)
Alec Finlay (host)
Ruth Christie
Anne Marie Deacy
Kate Kavanagh
Cecilia McGovern
Ita Kilgarriff
Maxine Backus
Sven Werner
Christodoulos A. Makris
Siobhan NÌ Shibhann
Brian Harrington
Peada de Bira
Glenda Cimino
Karen Feeney
Peter Berrill
Elaine Chimilair
Breid Sibley
Kathleen Thorne
Deirdre Murphy
Aaron Coyne
Abbey Pleviak
Sandra Bunting
Andrew Patrick
Catherine Allen
Ray Mac Manais
Michael de Bona