On reading The Candlelight Master by Michael Longley
Your inkwell poems called to mind our dúcháin,
the nestled porcelain egg-cups of our school desks,
the speckled ink-blue of a house-finch’s egg,
and us dipping our nib-beaks
intently in. Such flowing, flourishing characters,
the past connecting with the future
in the cursive now. How many
from that lost world
are still with us - how many?
II
The inkwells of your Japanese poems
turn now into sake cups, o-choko.
And here I am pouring you nihonshu, then fill
Edna’s, and, as is customary, you serve mine
and we nod to one another – keep ceremony
to a protestant decorum — raise our inkwells
full to the brim with the good stuff, Junma, and
talking poetry poetry and kanpie and ah come on
let’s top up those inkwells once more. Once more.
Greg Delanty's latest collection is Selected Delanty: poems and translations by Greg Delanty chosen and introduced by Archie Burnett was published by Un-Gyve Press, 2017
Your inkwell poems called to mind our dúcháin,
the nestled porcelain egg-cups of our school desks,
the speckled ink-blue of a house-finch’s egg,
and us dipping our nib-beaks
intently in. Such flowing, flourishing characters,
the past connecting with the future
in the cursive now. How many
from that lost world
are still with us - how many?
II
The inkwells of your Japanese poems
turn now into sake cups, o-choko.
And here I am pouring you nihonshu, then fill
Edna’s, and, as is customary, you serve mine
and we nod to one another – keep ceremony
to a protestant decorum — raise our inkwells
full to the brim with the good stuff, Junma, and
talking poetry poetry and kanpie and ah come on
let’s top up those inkwells once more. Once more.
Greg Delanty's latest collection is Selected Delanty: poems and translations by Greg Delanty chosen and introduced by Archie Burnett was published by Un-Gyve Press, 2017
