Thursday, September 11, 2014

Donal Mahoney- Three Poems

 
So Many Hummingbirds

This August evening
so many hummingbirds
helicopters of the garden

hover and dart
iridescent in the dusk 
flower to flower

sipping perhaps
a last supper 
then flying South

before the leaves  
before the snow 
us at the window

praying they'll stay
knowing they can't
praying for spring



This Dark Morning

If I were a possum
with a tail that long
I too would hang
from a tree limb 
this dark morning
and hiss to frighten
the cats off the deck
away from the food 
and water, and then 

I'd drop from the limb  
and eat as soon as 
that fat raccoon 
climbing the steps
with the lurching sway
of a hungry Grizzly 
washes his food
gobbles his fill
and rumbles away.



Seamus and the Rest of Us

After Reading 'Blackberry-Picking' Again

For many years 
Seamus Heaney wrote 
while the rest of us typed

none of us striking
keys as grand as those 
in "Blackberry-Picking."

Not a sour syllable
nor bruised word 
in any verse.

"Blackberry-Picking" tells 
the rest of us to keep typing.  
Excellence never dies

although it may not be ours. 
We will hear poems
Seamus is writing now

when we sneak into heaven
and Seamus gives them to 
the Seraphim to sing. 


http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/181384?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+PoetryFoundation/PoemOfTheDayText+(Poem+of+the+Day)


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Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

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