Ireland, (b. 1942)
Swineherd
- When all this is over, said the swineherd,
- I mean to retire, where
- Nobody will have heard about my special skills
- And conversation is mainly about the weather.
- I intend to learn how to make coffee, as least as well
- As the Portuguese lay-sister in the kitchen
- And polish the brass fenders every day.
- I want to lie awake at night
- Listening to cream crawling to the top of the jug
- And the water lying soft in the cistern.
- I want to see an orchard where the trees grow in straight lines
- And the yellow fox finds shelter between the navy-blue trunks,
- Where it gets dark early in summer
- And the apple-blossom is allowed to wither on the bough.
© Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin
Acts and Monuments. Dublin, The Gallery Press, 1972.
Acts and Monuments. Dublin, The Gallery Press, 1972.
About the Poet
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (b. 1942), is an Irish poet, a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and was founder and editor, with Leland Bardwell and Pearse Hutchinson, of Cyphers, one of Ireland’s longest established literary magazines.
Educated in Cork and Oxford, she has published six collections of poetry and is a member of Aosdána, an affiliation of creative artists in Ireland. [DES-6/03]
